New and in need of advice

[Guest guest]

Hello,

I have been reading your messages since last year when my husband

got Acute Pancreatitis. So far they have no known cause. I found

him on the floor one night last April, in the fetal position. He

was in the ICU for four days, in the hospital for one week.

Initial testing had his amalyse and lipase levels extremely high

(one was over 2700) and a cat scan confirmed the diagnosis. He was

released and was at home from work for an additional 3 weeks before

he was strong enough to return.

He has since stuck to a low fat diet (under 30 grams a day) and is

on Actos, they have diagnosed him diabetic as they say he has only

30% of his pancreas left.

They did a HIDA scan which showed his gallbladder function at 23%,

which I understand is low, but not so low to warrant surgery,

according to the surgeon we saw. They also said this would not have

caused the initial attack.

Since April, my husband has been fine. He takes the Actos, he takes

Nexium to reduce stomach acid, and he takes enzymes with his meals

to help with digestion and not to irritate the pancreas. He hasn't

been in pain and his diabetes is to the point that he maintains it

with diet and exercise, so they are thinking of discontinuing the

Actos.

So, several weeks ago, my husband began experiencing abdominal pain

on the left side, below the waist. He also had diarrhea, gas,

general digestion problems. His amalyse and lipase levels are

normal, the only abnormality was that his bilirubin level

was " elevated " . They scheduled a cat scan to look to see if they

could see anything.

He saw the doctor today and they say that:

His spleen is enlarged. They say they thought this would have gone

down if it was related to the initial pancreatitis attack. They

would like to monitor this. They said it could rupture with

a " significant " blow.

He has a pancreatic cyst. They say this has probably been there

since the initial attack; however, since the cat scans they were

getting at that time had alot of necrosis, the pictures were " foggy "

looking at they couldn't see that at that time. Now the area is

clearing up--it is clearly visible. They say it has matured and it

is not dangerous at this point because the membranes around it have

thickened, thus it is not in much danger of rupturing unless my

husband suffered a " signficant " blow.

They also believe his discomfort and elevated bilirubin MAY be his

gallbladder, and after further monitoring, they may remove it.

Our doctor said he wanted to do another cat scan in 3 months and

left it at that.

I know some on this board may understand what is occurring here. I

feel like my husband is a walking time bomb--this is scaring me

considerably. I did research online and I believe most cysts would

go down in time, but does anyone have any information on the spleen,

or if this is actually the pancreas causing his discomfort? I know

we are lucky that he has gone this long without problems, I really

wish I had gone to the appt today but I didn't believe the doctor

would leave us hanging this way. Any advice would be appreciated,

we have a call in the doctor, but we are at their mercy as to when

it is returned. Cheers,