Adam-SOD

[Guest guest]

Hi Adam:

Your story brought back memories...once they took my gall bladder out, they

thought they had taken care of my problem. And unfortunately, my surgeon

passed me off to a doctor at University Of land, who performed an MRCP,

which didn't show SOD, or anything else. He told me to get off the pain

medication and take nortriptyn (sp?). That was impossible...the pain was

much too bad.

So, I was basically left to my own devices. I wish I had known about PAI

then! I finally made an appointment myself to see a doctor at s Hopkins,

and he performed my first ERCP and then did a spincterotomy and placed a

stent. He said that my pressure was high in the pancreatic duct and it was

also full of sludge (which is why they couldn't see anything on the MRCP).

The pain that I had associated with this would come out of nowhere, be

excruciating and then would pass after a couple of hours. One time after

going to the ER right after this " attack " my liver enzymes and amylase and

lipase were all elevated. The second time only my liver enzymes were

elevated. One time they told me the pain was from constipation. Anyway, Dr.

Kalloo said to take enzymes for about a year, and I should then be fine!

That was in June, 2002. Almost exactly a year later, the pain was worse

than ever, another ERCP and stent. This time the duct was closed due to

scarring. During this procedure he also inadvertently perforated my

duodenum, which caused even worse pain. I got to have a tube through my nose

down in to my stomach to create enough of a vacuum to close the perforation.

I was in the hospital for about a week.

After leaving the hospital, my pain did not resolve at all, like it had

after the first ERCP. To this day, I still have pain. However, I was lucky

enough to go to a new pain doctor at this time, and he took some x-rays, and

found that somewhere along the line, I had incurred nerve damage to a rib

(which coincidently is right in the same area as my pancreas pain). He

performed a intercostal nerve block a couple of weeks ago, and my pain was

almost completely gone! So, he's following up with another block to " kill "

the nerve soon. I think that will give us a much better idea as to how much

pain I am still having from my pancreas, if any.

So, hope this has helped a little. You're very lucky that your surgeon is

willing to continue testing to determine what your pain is telling you!

Here's to as painless a day as possible to ALL!

Robin R.

(Phone)

(Fax)