CP, pregnancy, foods, enzymes

[Guest guest]

Hi!

Hope the food tips were a bit useful. There are heaps of things you

can eat that are both low-fat and delicious but I do sympathise over

eating out. I'm actually going out this evening with a group of

colleagues to celebrate a birthday. I happen to know that the

particular restaurant we're going to is not brilliant on low fat in

terms of choice but I'll still find things! At 19 I appreciate it's

hard.

Well now!! I'm 58 and have had CP all my life. There have been a few

mistaken diagnoses in my life but I was only 5 when I had my first

vicious attack of severe, abdominal pancreatic pain. I have two

grown-up sons and I remember having a pretty nasty CP attack very

early in the pregnancy with the second one. (At that time I didn't

know what it was.) Both pregnacies were perfectly normal (though the

same can't always be said of the sons!!!!)

Although, overall, my condition has definitely progressed so that I

now have extensive calcifications throughout the pancreas, and

experience daily discomfort, at the very least, I am still working

full-time as the depeuty head of a large secondary school. I don't

know how much longer I'll be able to do that (I'm near retirement

anyway) but I've had a normal career pattern despite some very bad

patches in my life.

I think it's important to remember that every case is different and

individual. By the way, my particular type of hereditary

pancreatitis does happen to carry a very high cancer risk. I live

with that risk all the time although I could opt to have my pancreas

removed. At the moment I have decided not to do that. But even with

my high-risk type, the risk doesn't really begin to kick in until

after the age of forty and becomes significant much later than that.

They are currently doing a lot of research into screening for cancer

(I'm participating in that research here in Liverpool, UK, and

there's a lot going on in the US, of course.) The results of that

research will certainly affect the way people are screened in the

future. In any case, your cancer risk may not be particularly high

anyway! By the time you're forty, things will have moved on

enormously. My consultant, Professor Neoptolemos, who is heavily

involved in this research, told me that it had moved on considerably

even in the last 12 months. They will get good at screening for

cancer before too long, I think.

So take heart!! All of us are at risks of one kind or another all

our lives but I think you should be able to control things and

manage the situation reasonably well.

Another point!! (Sorry for going on!) When I first started taking

Creon (enzymes) I had DREADFUL cramps. Nobody had warned me about

this. After a few weeks they went away and I couldn't possibly

manage without enzymes now. I take a high dose because this is what

my pancreatologist advises. Of course, the need for enzymes, amounts

etc, does depend on the state of your pancreas. You could discuss

this again with your specialist. A low dose may not be sufficient to

do the trick; it just depends.

Hope you feel a bit better now! I know it's hard as a young person

not being able to eat and drink as others, but real friends will

well understand and support you.

Good luck and take care!

Fliss (UK)