What would you advise,,,,

[Guest guest]

My wife has CP. Her Endo seems to know very little about the

disease, he's mainly concerned with diabetes !! The question is,

should the Endo and the GI physician both be colloborating in her

treatment ? Is the Endo a key player in cases of CP ? Should he be

very knowlegable with CP, a disease of an Endocrine Gland?

What would you do ? Thanks, Fred.

[Guest guest]

Fred wrote:

Her Endo seems to know very little about the disease, he's mainly concerned

with diabetes

!! The question is, should the Endo and the GI physician both be colloborating

in her

treatment ? Is the Endo a key player in cases of CP ?

Fred,

The ideal situation would be to have BOTH an Endocrinologist and a

Gastroenterologist

who were collaberating with each other. Whether or not you can find that is

another

question. The endo is usually only concerned with the endocrine functions;

production of

insulin and glucose. The gastro, naturally, should be looking at the exocrine

functions;

enzyme production or lack of enzyme production, the status of the pancreas and

ducts,

whether or not there is any blockage, the condition of the pancreas and what

kind of

damage there is, what surgeries may be necessary, etc.

Endo's are familiar with the pancreas, but usually their involvement is only

with the

diabetic aspects of the organ. IMO, the key player should be the

Gastroenterologist, with

the Endo being there to jump on board the medical team should diabetes come into

the

picture.

Good luck with the appointment with the Gastroenterologist tomorrow. He should

be the

one that can solve all the pain issues. If there is that much concern about

diabetes, you

should insist that an HBA1c test be done immediately - well, the next day, since

it does

have to be done while fasting. It's a simple bloodtest that will show what your

wife's blood

glucose levels have been running for the past three months. It's an amazing

test, actually,

to be able to show what's already happened that far back. A score of 4-6 means

that her

blood glucose has been in the non-diabetic range. Anything higher than that

indicates

that she has been having blood sugar levels over the standard, non-diabetic

range. If

there is so much concern about this, I don't know why a test hasn't been ordered

prior to

this time.

With love, hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

www.pancassociation.org/anthology.htm#heidi

Bluffton, SC

SC State & SE Regional Representative

Pancreatitis Association, International

Note: All comments or advice are personal opinion only, and should not be

substituted for professional medical consultation.

P.S. As a personal note, if my Gastroenterologist had ordered one done when I

first

complained to him of my symptoms, I may not have been a brittle diabetic today.

But I'd

only had CP for a year and he foolishly said that " it was too soon to worry

about that " .

Don't let your doctor's make the same mistake.