I was reading some very poignant posts in the Pancreatitis groups that I follow the other day and I noticed something.
Everyone was telling their stories and asking for advice but no one was asking – Will Pancreatitis Kill Me?
I think that part of the reason is that we really don’t want to know.
I mean, we all know that everyone dies some day – that’s just a fact of life.
But I don’t think that the majority of us want to rush it along faster than it is naturally coming. And we certainly don’t want to know if we are dying sooner rather than later.
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Will Pancreatitis Kill Me
When Pancreatitis puts us in the hospital, racks our bodies with pain to the point where it forces us to take powerful pain meds, and causes many to seek surgical options, shouldn’t we be asking that question?
So I did some research on the subject and came up with some information for those of you that want an answer.
Facts About Pancreatitis
Pancreatitis is not something that should be taken lightly. Doctors tell us that even a single Acute Pancreatitis attack could kill us.
It’s difficult to find any hard data but it seems that around 8.8% of people die from their first acute attack.
Or alternatively a person could have a single attack and go on for the rest of their lives with no further problems.
Causes Of Pancreatitis
Doctors tell us that the most common causes of Pancreatitis are alcohol, abdominal surgery, a blow to the stomach, certain medicines, or even a scorpion bite.
There are also a certain number of “idiopathic” or unknown causes of Pancreatitis where the cause of the attack can’t be determined.
According to my research you can start with either Chronic Pancreatitis or Acute Pancreatitis. Acute Pancreatitis can often turn into Chronic or just simply go away.
You could also have Chronic Pancreatitis with occasional Acute flare ups – which is what I have.
Alcohol and Pancreatitis
Alcohol is the cause of a lot of Pancreatic flare ups. But recent studies showed that it doesn’t even have to be excessive alcohol use.
There is a gene in many of our bodies that make us susceptible to alcohol induced Pancreatitis – no matter how much we drink.
But the bottom line is that alcohol is not good for us when we suffer from Pancreatitis.
Failing to stop alcohol when you have Pancreatitis will likely speed anyone down the road to more severe symptoms and problems, possibly even to death.
What Happens With Pancreatitis
The majority of people who have Pancreatitis will suffer from a mild acute attack.
The disease will not attack other organs and most people recover within a week or so if they are properly treated.
Most of the time patients will be taken off food and water until the Pancreas cools. Treatments include pain meds and IV fluids.
After the inflammation goes away the Pancreas can often times return to normal.
In some case though the Pancreatic tissue is permanently damaged or even dies(necrosis).
These complications can lead to other risks such as infection or organ failure.
Chronic Pancreatitis
Chronic Pancreatitis can happen after one or more episodes of Acute Pancreatitis.
What happens after Pancreatitis becomes Chronic will vary from person to person and case by case.
Ongoing pain and complications can occur. These complications can include more symptoms including fluid build up, blood vessel or bile duct blockages, or problems with the small intestine.
After many flare ups pancreatic tissue could die and you could become malnourished. This could happen because the Pancreas can no longer produce the enzymes that are needed to digest fat and protein.
Fat the gets released into the stool. This condition is called steatorrhea and causes stool that is loose, pale, usually foul smelling. The stool might even float in the toilet.
If the Pancreas becomes damaged enough it could stop making enough insulin so it may even develop diabetes.
Worst of all – Chronic Pancreatitis increases the risk of pancreatic cancer. About 4 out of 100 people could develop Pancreatic Cancer.
Will Pancreatitis Kill Me
This question isn’t something that anyone wants to ask. But in fact I’ve wondered about it many times.
When I am in the hospital from an Acute Pancreatic flare up I wonder about it a lot.
There is a lot of time on your hands when you are in the hospital.
Doctors and Nurses come and go, blood is drawn, vitals are taken.
Above it all the tests are done including X=Rays, MRI’s, etc. You can’t help but wonder how things are going to turn out.
But there really isn’t a good answer because there are so many things that could go wrong, or could go right.
All we can do is keep fighting and try to make sure that we are getting the best help that we can from our Doctors.
This means that we need to be experts on our disease, keep our eyes open and our ears at the ready.
Doctors, even GI specialists, just aren’t going to always know about the latest meds and procedures so we have to make sure that we understand what is going on and what might help us.
We can do this by reading about new procedures and sharing our experiences and hopes with others that are in our same position.
I know that by following groups and listening to people I have learned a lot about this disease, the problems that can arise, and how it is being treated in different areas.
So, will Pancreatitis kill me? I don’t know. But I do know that I’m not going easy!
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I remember when I was first sick and read somewhere that the risk of dying from this disease was higher during the 5 years after your first acute attack. This is mainly due to people continuing unhealthy lifestyle habits. My feeling is I am sure that I had pancreatitis attacks before I was diagnosed which may lead to the likelihood of dying from attacks. What bothers me about this disease is that for some reason in the auto correct feature of Firefox and other browsers it always shows that pancreatitis is misspelled. One of the things that worries me the most is that after 8 years of having this disease I have had well over 40 hospitalizations and I lost count after my 50th CTScan and I am sure I glow in the dark now. This page is great. I have found many sites with info and this one is one of the most acurate. You may also want to add that if you have Chronic Pancreatitis it is very likely that after some time your amylase and lipase number will not be elevated and many doctors especially in ER’s do not know that and it can really make it tough to get proper pain relief as they will think you are just looking for meds. I had one place send me to my specialist’s hospital because they refused to give me any more pain meds after my symptoms got worse in the ER. He thought I was camping it up for a family member that came it. Once he talked to my GI he treated me very different.
I have genetic or hereditary pancreatitis and now the doctors at Duke University Hospital, which is where I go for my ercps and pancreatic stent placements, are telling me I’ve also developed gastropernesis from it!! I am always in pain and I’ve lost 100 pounds in the last year!! I am getting to the point where I’d rather starve bec. Trying to eat hurts so so bad. I have lost my uncle, grandma, and oldest brother to pancreatic cancer and I have to have screenings for the cancer every 6 months bec. At 35 my odds are thru the roof. I hate having to live like this…hungry and constantly in pain…seems like I’m forever going to suffer until it kills me, which the docs have pretty much told me that I need to come to terms with my disease bec. Eventually it’s going to happen… 🙁 idk what to do for myself, all of this trauma they say is simply the result of bad genetics!!! I am scared for my 2 daughters as well since it’s hereditary….just wanted to vent a bit, I have no one to talk to that understands any of this…
I’m so sorry about that. I pray everything will be OK for you and your daughters.
Sorry to read your history, I don’t have a history and continue to drink?
Trying to stop, think it’s probably to late. I should have stopped after first acute experience. Hope you live a long pain free life.
It’s never too late to stop. And the amount that you drink is more important than whether you drink or not. A recent study found that some of us are extra sensitive to alcohol and that can cause us to have Pancreatitis easier than the normal person. While I would encourage you to stop drinking so you don’t damage your Pancreas more – that might not be the only reason that you got Pancreatitis.
my 17yr old son was fit and healthy untill june 2014, he woke with pain in abdomen, so bad he actually ask to go doctors, by next morning he was in intensive care. pancreatitis, 2 days later he almost died, servere acute necrotosing pancreatisis, they operated said he may not make it, his splenic aertery had ruputured because of the necrotising pancreas, , he lost 6 liters of blood . he had a further 2 bleeds in the following weeks, his kidneys failed, he lost 3 stone, had a feeding tube. they peicered an aertery in his arm as well, so could have lost his arm, has had 4 operations on that too .also had foot drop , had to learn to walk again the following october. he was in intensive care for 3 months, hospital for 6 months. he was sick evvery day and in pain every day he is home now off the feeding tube, putting weight on, and waiting for a kidney transplant, we were told his kidneys would recover, but they havent, he still has pain all the time. his life is on hold, dialysis 3 days a week and many hospital appointment, but still no reason or answers to why this has happened to my boy. he was all set to join the army. its so unfair xxxxx
It is unfair, especially for it to happen to someone so young with their full life still ahead of them. I hope that he recovers fully! My thoughts are with you. Bob
he has had a kidney transplant 16 weeks ago from his older brother. he is still geting pain and takes oxycodone at least 2 x a day due to the panky pain, he is still not able to do much. i was told by an adviser(i called to ask about benifits) she has read a bit about my sons condition,and” acute “is just an attack now and then, so shouldnt affect him working. i tried to explain, but she want listening. people see ‘acute’ and ‘ cronic’ . on 1 of his notes it says permenant pancreatitis.
Hi I have pancreatitis and its the worst pain I have ever experienced . I am on a large amount of fentanyl the strongest pain killer around. a hundred times stronger than morphine.Even this doesnt relieve the pain sometimes I wake up in so much pain that I cant believe I am still alive..As for the conversation about longevity personally I wouldnt want to live for years in this pain.. There i and a half months.s no cure for it just a long lingering death. Ive lost 40 lbs since Christmas and gone from a 45 in waist to 35 ins in 8 months. If I go on losing weight at this rate I will just expire anyway. So live every minute as it unfolds dont worry about tomorrow it may never come for us. I remember an old proverb . Live each day as if its your last and some morning you just wont wake up and then people will say he finally got it right. There is just today
I’m so sorry that you are in such pain. But there is hope. I recently read about an artificial pancreas that is being tested that would help people like us. You can also have your Pancreas removed and live without one though you’d be a type 1 diabetic. And I agree – There is just today. Love the proverb. Stay strong and I hope that things improve for you!
Due to a problem that occurred during a routine endoscopy when a doctor removed a polyp too close to a pancreatic duct, I developed immediate necrotizing pancreatitis and spent several months in the hospital this past summer. I asked this same question and after much hemming and hawing I was told that life expectancy for post-operative necrotizing pancreatitis patients was around 9-15 years. Needless to say, I’m not to happy about that. However, I can’t find many folks that have suffered from necrotizing pancreatitis. The woman who mentioned her son in a previous post is the first I’ve seen mention of it. I’m curious if mortality is caused by other affected organs failing or other issues and who is suffering from necrotizing pancreatitis (and the lovely bouts of alternating acute to chronic pancreatitis afterwards).
I’m not sure that you received a good answer to your question. On my facebook page there has been several people that survived the disease for more than 17 years. Plus, you can actually live without a Pancreas if you need to – and there are current tests on an artificial Pancreas – so don’t give up!
YOU CAN NOT LIVE WITHOUT YOUR PANCREAS!!!!! I don’t know what doctor your listening to but he sure didn’t go to med school.!
I am not getting honest results from my GI doctor. It seems he likes my medicare payments more than me. So I kind of got little by little information out of him and my primary doctor. It is chronic pancreatitis (k86.1)(577.8) I so far had blood drawn,ct scan,2-mri’s,ultrasound)fitness stool test)also prescribed enzymes, creo. I do know one thin for a fact I started out 172 pounds to noe 154 pounds 6months from my first hospital stay, 7 months from now. I was in a seond time admitted 2 weeks ago to the hospital, but mild paid in the abdomen. Blood test was high for pancreatitis again it seems my pancreaus is changing everytime time I have an mri. I THINK I will die from this disease. So if you can help me with information for a better doctor, please let me know. it feels good to write this even though I usually know a means to knoe end in sight. Thankyou.
Many times the Doctors seem to think that they know a lot more about this than they actually know. That leaves it up to us to try and find out as much as we can.
I just tried to join the group and it said my post was already up. I just was diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis and never had symptoms. I am not an alcohol abuser either(1 or 2 drinks a week). I am a senior citizen, but I thought I was a pretty healthy individual. I am totally blindsided by this diagnosis!
Doctors are finding that some of us are just more susceptible to Pancreatitis than others due to a gene anomaly. Keep your head up and keep working on staying as healthy as you can. This disease can be a tough thing to fight.
I often wish it would already
More than 50% of us that suffer from Pancreatitis also suffer from severe depression and it’s really no surprise. This disease beats on us, sometimes making even everyday ordinary tasks a pain. Make sure that you get help if you think that you are suffering from depression. Here is a link on what to look for: https://pancreatitisfacts.com/signs-of-depression/
I’m not an alcoholic I already have diabetes .I’ve recently been diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis no one in my families have had it .After reading different web sites this is really scaring me . I have 5 kids I’m worried sick about them
Pancreatitis will certainly change your life but there are a lot of people who live full ordinary lives despite it. Make sure that you check out my facebook page for stories about how people deal with this disease. The address is https://www.facebook.com/pancreatitisfacts/
Thank you for reply and I will check out your Facebook page .
I was just in the hospital for the 3rd time this year because of this.
My 1st attack was last year in August 2015 I spent 2 weeks in the hospital, my next attack was in March of this year 2016. Then was in June 2016 and again last week I just got out of the hospital.
The thing is after my 1st attack last August 2015 I have not drank any alcohol at all but I keep getting these attacks it scares me.
I have had chronic pancreatitis from 12 and trust me horrible but the best for me was having my pancreas out I don’t miss it they say the survival rate without a pancreas is 7 years it’s 14 years for me and trust me the best years without that horrible pain and I’m not going anywhere
I have chronic pancreatitis, I was diagnosed in October 2015,I had been treated for IBS,I was an heavy drinker,I was told to stop drinking otherwise I wouldn’t live to see Christmas 2016.The pain was and still constant my body weght dropped from 13st 5lb to 8st 10lb,I was so weak I was falling over and my body was slowing shutting down,as a last through of the dice my GP put me on zomorph in july 2016.This action saved my life because 1 of the side affects are that your weight increases my has and I’m now 11st 2lb the zomorh doe take the edge off the pain,but I’m certain that my condition is worsening I’m 66 yrs old and my quality of life is’nt very good.I stopped drinking 23rd November 2015 and I know if I hadn’t I wouldn’t be alive today Thursday this week I’m seeing my consultant.