Pancreatitis is a painful, debilitating disease that affects hundreds of thousand of people every year.
There are two forms of Pancreatitis – Acute and Chronic.
If you think that you might have Pancreatitis you should make sure that you see a Doctor as soon as possible. Proper diagnosis always requires lab tests and imaging.
Part of the problem with dealing with Pancreatitis is that you may have to deal with Doctors that don’t understand the disease and simply think that you are drug seeking.
Here are 10 symptoms of Pancreatitis.
Contents
- 1 1. Stomach Pain
- 2 2. Nausea
- 3 3. Vomiting
- 4 4. Fever
- 5 5. Increase In Blood Pressure
- 6 6. Rapid Heart Rate
- 7 7. Increased Pain After Meals
- 8 8. Swollen Abdominal Area
- 9 9. Feelings Of Fatigue or Even Fainting
- 10 10. The Psychological Toll Of Pancreatitis
- 11 The Best Way to Deal With The Symptoms Of Pancreatitis
- 12 Bottom Line On The Symptoms Of Pancreatitis
1. Stomach Pain
The pain that you may feel from Pancreatitis is usually just under your rib-cage in your upper abdominal area. In a case of Acute Pancreatitis – the pain can feel like it is radiating to your back and be so intense that you will need pain meds and immediate medical attention along with possible hospitalization.
At first you might be able to tolerate the pain but during an Acute Pancreatitis flare up the pain could build to a point where you will require help.
Even if you feel just a constant low level pain it could be Chronic Pancreatitis that still needs attention.
2. Nausea
Nausea can be one awful feeling. The thought that you might loose control and vomit is almost as bad as the feeling itself.
My experiences with Pancreatitis seems to show that the feeling of nausea comes with the pain. As the pain worsens so does the feeling of nausea.
3. Vomiting
The pain that you feel may lead to nausea which could in turn lead to vomiting. This is another reason that you should seek medical help.
If you do vomit the stomach and abdominal muscles spasm as your body tries to eject the contents of your stomach.
While getting food out of your stomach that the pancreas isn’t then forced to try to digest might be good, the violent contractions of vomiting could cause an already inflamed Pancreas to become more painful.
A Doctor can give you meds to ease the nausea so that this doesn;t happen.
4. Fever
When you experience the pain and inflammation of Pancreatitis your temperature will generally rise as the body tries to fight the inflammation. Any fever that you have will usually subside as a flare up passes.
5. Increase In Blood Pressure
High blood pressure is also a normal reaction when our bodies experience significant pain. This should pass as a flare up cools off. It is another sign that your body is fighting the inflammation caused by Pancreatitis.
6. Rapid Heart Rate
During a Pancreatic flare up you may feel that your heart is pounding out of your chest. The pain of the flare up is going to alarm your body and your heart rate will rise.
7. Increased Pain After Meals
The Pancreas is an important part of your bodies digestive process. So eating anything will cause more pain if your pancreas is already inflamed.
If you are already having a Pancreatitis Attack – you will feel increased pain as soon as you eat.
In fact, one of the first things that will happen at a Hospital during a Pancreatic flare up is that they will stop any food and drink to allow the Pancreas time to cool off and heal.
Even if you have Chronic Pancreatitis minimizing the work that your Pancreas has to do to digest food can relieve the pain.
This can be especially true if you drink alcohol. If you suffer from Chronic Pancreatitis already, drinking could easily cause an extremely painful attack of Acute Pancreatitis.
8. Swollen Abdominal Area
Pancreatitis can also cause a swollen abdominal area. Pancreatitis can slow your digestion which could cause gas and bloating in your stomach.
9. Feelings Of Fatigue or Even Fainting
Dealing with the pain of Pancreatitis can be very tiring. Some people even pass out from the pain or feel tired as their body reacts to the pain.
10. The Psychological Toll Of Pancreatitis
No less a symptoms of Pancreatitis than the others listed above is the psychological pain that an attack can cause. You might feel panic or dread as the pain increases.
It’s never nice to feel that your body is failing you or that it could be attacking your health.
The Best Way to Deal With The Symptoms Of Pancreatitis
So what should you do if you think you have some or all of the symptoms of pancreatitis? Get to a medical professional immediately!
This is important not just to get help with the pain but to make sure that your Doctor sees you while you are still having the flare up.
There is little that your Doctor can do after a flare up has subsided so to ensure that there is a proper diagnosis go to your Doctor or an emergency room.
To diagnose Pancreatitis you have to have blood tests and some typr of imaging so they can determine how severe the attack is and what steps they need to take to help you.
After an attack the Doctor can prescribe meds that will help you deal with the symptoms of pancreatitis if you have another attack or to help deal with the problems of living with Chronic Pancreatitis.
When you see the Doctor it’s not unusual for the pain to make you foggy and make it harder to communicate. You should make sure to be prepared.
If you take meds make sure that you have a list that you can grab.
Bottom Line On The Symptoms Of Pancreatitis
A bout of Pancreatitis is not something that you should try tough out or just wait to see what happens.
You need to seek the help of a professional and not let this get worse than it already is.
In some cases Pancreatitis can be life threatening and is not something to fool around with.
These symptoms of Pancreatitis are meant to help you and educate you to what the problem that you are experiencing could be and you should never try to self diagnose.
Go see a Doctor and if you need to go to an emergency room. Remember that these symptoms of Pancreatitis are not something that you should ignore!
I have chronic pancreatitis. …I find your info very good and informative! Thankyou and keep up the good work!
I have chronic pancreatitis and this information is absolutely the way pancreatitis does. And if you have any of the symptoms get to the doctor as soon as you can. This is nothing to play with. Make sure you tell the doctor every symptom you are having. Thanks for posting this everyone needs this information.
This is a very accurate description of what we with CP have to live with. I’m sharing this with my parents because they don’t understand so much of this. I rarely mention when I’m nauseous or in pain to them any more so now they just think I’m all better.
It’s tough to deal with this disease, worse when the people around us don’t understand what we are fighting.
I was just diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis. I went to the ER recently thinking I was in the throws of a heart attack. It wasn’t my heart so they decided to do other tests as my blood work from my yearly physicals are perfectly normal. My signs of what I thought was a heart attack were pain in my neck and shoulder area, my left arm and jaw pain. I have had issues with my parotid glands in my facein the past. I only have felt bloated many times over the years, but not any extreme pain. I am not an abuser of alcohol either as I have one or two drinks a week. I will be seeing a pancreatic specialist on June 20 for tests, but I feel totally blindsided by this diagnosis. Very nervous.
The pancreas releases digestive enzymes as well as as insulin. The advise my gastroenterologist has given me is a low fat diet. He has prescribed synthetic enzymes to aid my pancreas in digestion.
No Red meat or Pork!
Lean Turkey meat is best.
No eggs!
No high fat dairy. Skim milk may be %1. Cheese seems to be the worst offender . 😫 Deep fried food or any fast food is a big no no as well. A CT scan was necessary to diagnose me be sure to push this scan on your Dr as there are a few things that may mimic the symptoms. Such as the gal blater witch is also upper right abdomen and causes similar symptoms
Oil in your stool as well as frequent bowl movements are symptoms of pancreatitis. The low fat diet with the aid if the synthetic enzymes with greatly improve chronic pancreatitis
I hate when the doctors blow you off. I have chronic pancreatitis and my enzyme levels stay the same. My WBC elevates and some doctors don’t want to listen. They have even told me “we can’t give you pain meds”. I don’t want pain meds. Fix the problem! Good luck to all dealing with this.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – most Doctors just don’t understand Pancreatitis. I am lucky in that I have a very compassionate and understanding GP. But of all the times that I’ve had to go into the ER for help with a flare up, there is only one time that I can remember that the Doctor actually understood and treated me.