Need help with SOD meds

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

Just want to let you know that I saw Dr Lehman last week. It was

a nice drive down and an interesting stay - I got to see the dome

(from the outside) where Payton Manning broke the record, but

thank goodness I got lost going down there otherwise I would

have gotten caught in the mob coming out of the stadium! I had

no idea that they had a football stadium in the middle of the city!

Oh well, I digress......

The visit was a good news / bad news thing. The good news is

that my pancreas hasn't been damaged from the

sphincterotomies and stents that I did last year! Which is a huge

relief because of the guilt baggage that I carried with me that

was planted by my last GI (he told me that my rash decision to

stent and cut most likely resulted in destroying a healthy

pancreas). The bad news is, that there is nothing that can be

done for my pain because there isn't any obvious things to fix.

While I do understand the logic behind it, and support it whole

heartedly in my case.....it is disappointing that there is nothing

that can be done to lessen the pain, nausea, the ups and

downs, and slow progression to disease.

My biggest concern now is dealing with the unexpected return of

my biliary colic. I remember reading some time back that there

are some people on this board with SOD that can take medicine

to help stop an attack once it starts. I think beta blockers or

nitrates or something in that nature were mentioned. I was

hoping that someone can give me an exact name or other

specific information about the medicine that they take when they

feel an attack coming on. I figure that my current coping

mechanism is adequate for covering the daily pancreas pain

problem but I have no coping strategies for the colic attacks and I

would love to be able to try to interrupt the attacks at the first

signs of trouble. Because this is a very unique set of symptoms

and signs, I feel confident that I know when this is occuring and

will be able to react quickly. Cutting the bile duct is out of the

question as far as I am concerned (there are no competent

doctors around here who can do this) so I want to convince my

pain doc or PCP to let me try the " emergency kit " idea of using

medicines to head off an attack.

So the bottom line question is: can you tell me what medicine

you have been prescribed to use when an attack of biliary colic is

occuring? and can you advise on how you use it?

Thanks!!!

Laurie

[Guest guest]

Laurie,

Just wanted to add that I totally agree with Sandy. I NEVER lay

down during an attack. Once I did, and I couldn't move for hours

because of the pain. And YES YES YES I also feel like I'd been hit

by a truck. It usually takes me a full week to recover from them!!

I have found that sometimes I will sit on the floor and lean my head

on the couch, sort of hunched over (like when my pancreas hurts real

bad too), and I also do the breathing (like lamaze). The onlt thing

I can do is get pain meds in to me REAL fast, and focus on my

breathing. If I loose track of the breathing and focus on the

pain , then I start crying and make things worse. Thank GOD for

pain meds !!!

Kris in TN