My Story : Update

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd give you an update. The original posting " My story " is noted

underneath.

Surgery was planned for Wednesday 1st December. The cyst drain to allow the

release of pancreatic fluid from the spleen area had been in for 6 weeks and

still gave off around 100/150mls per day. The operation comprised of keyhole

surgery removing the tail area of the pancreas as well as the spleen and

gall-bladder.

However, on the Sunday prior to surgery a very strange thing happened to me.

Sudden pain came on in the morning which was severe enough to make me go to bed.

However mid-afternoon all the pain just simply lifted and by evening I felt

great. I also noticed later that the fluid discharge from the inplanted

speenatic drain had stopped. Without hoping too much I spoke to my surgeon on

the Monday by telephone and he suggested that we do an urgent CT scan when I

arrived at hospital pre-surgery on the Tuesday. This happened as planned and my

smiling doctor told me shorty afterwards that the scan showed everything to be

as good as normal with my pancreas etc. He believes that a small duct that had

been blocked in my pancreas had inexplicably cleared on the Sunday, and

everything was now operating as normal. This was always the hope by putting the

drain in, but he expected the fluid to dry up more on a phased basis.

Either way he recommended that I did not go ahead with the major operation

planned for the following day and it did not take me long to agree!

Since then I have felt great, and my apetite has came roaring back, although I

have been warned to avoid alchohol, dairy products and chocolate at all costs.

(These things put the system into overdrive and increase the risks of renewed

attacks). I will return to work on 5th January after the New Year break. Yes, my

problem may come back again, next week, next month, next year or whenever, but

escaping from the operation and feeling 110% again is well worth it. Devine

Intervention? Who knows...

I have been lucky and Bless God for that.

Colin

Scotland

ORIGINAL POSTING

13th November 2004

Hi all,

My name is Colin and I live in Perthshire, Scotland, UK.

Here is my story so far, and I will try to be brief.

Since January I have had intermittent abdominal pain. I was hospitalised for 1

night in January, but as I felt better in the morning I was released without

tests. After that pain came and went, what triggered it off I don't know but a

few beers now and again did not help matters with hindsight. Having said that

I've never been a hardened drinker.

2 very severe attacks came whilst we were touring California and I spent 5 days

in the Henry Mayo Clinic north of LA, with a diagnosis of Acute Pancreatitis.

Once back in the UK I went through a raft of tests to try to get to the bottom

of things. It took until early October, from a CT scan, to show that the tail of

my Pancreas was swollen (I was in pain at the time of the scan) and pancreatic

fluid had been leaking out in the wrong direction which caused a cyst to form in

my spleen.

3 weeks ago I was back in hospital to get a spleen drain inserted to allow the

cyst to dry up. 3 weeks on I still have the drain giving out on average 100mls

of juice daily.

My consultant hospital doctor tried a pancreas ECRP and stent last Monday but

this failed as the entry point for them was too narrow. I now get the feeling

that on my weekly visit to him on Tuesday he will want to schedule surgery, as

we have previously touched on. This will involve removing the damaged tail of

the pancreas, removal of the spleen and probably the gallbladder as well.

I suppose my main question is (which I will talk at length with my doc) is how

dangerous is this procedure, what are the ramifications of theses 3 things being

removed, what size of scars will I have, and roughly how long will the off work

convalescent period be post-surgery.

I am also scared about wound infections as I have had big problems in the 2

operations I have had in my life. The 1st was my appendix when I was 6, when the

scar burst open again a few weeks after surgery to remove it. The 2nd was triple

heart bypass 2.5 years ago, when my chest wound again burst open and took months

to finally heal back up again. I seem to be allergic to slicing! My local GP

(doctor) is against taking my spleen out for these reasons but the consultant

feels things have been damaged there from the initial cyst.

Hope someone has experience or views on my comments, which turned out not to be

very brief...

Colin

40 years old

Scotland