Pancreatitis comes in two basic flavors. First is the chronic pancreatitis that can simmer and boil in your gut for years causing damage before you even notice it. The second, Acute Pancreatitis is more serious and much more painful.
In the three years since I started having problems with pancreatitis I’ve ended up in the hospital 14 times because of acute attacks. The pain was so intense that nothing I could do at home helped and I was forced to the hospital looking for relief.
I’ve always tried to avoid the hospital as much as possible. I mean, that’s where the sick people are right?
But even I realize that when the pain reaches a certain point the best thing to do is to seek medical attention. In the hospital they can closely monitor you, give you better pain meds, and IV’s that will give you nourishment and let your pancreas have a chance to cool down.
For me acute pancreatitis will happen out of the blue. I’ll twist too hard or work too hard on some project that upsets my pancreas and boom, it just starts hurting. With the pain from the ongoing Chronic Pancreatitis I’ll take my pain pills, slow my pace, even stay in bed for a few days to let it calm down. I’ll slow, stop, or more carefully monitor what I am eating and the problem goes away.
But with the acute flare up, once it starts, its going to be with me for a bit. So off to the hospital I go. People always want to know what the pain is like. Its like someone took a big sword, heated it over a fire, then stuck it through my stomach just below my rib cage and out my back then stands there wiggling it around. It hurts that much.
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I concur with Dennis and Scott that adocitidn is a chronic condition. Assuming I worked at a public treatment center there are several things I would do to further the work of aligning this belief to what is actually practiced in our profession. Direct work with clients and families would include the education piece about how adocitidn is like having cancer, not like having a really bad case of the measles. Framing the issue of chronic vs. acute this way is crucial to helping all involved take the long view of success. Group work with a mixed-stage set of clients over an extended number of sessions as in Weegmann and English, skyped or cell phone based assertive continuing care, in-person quarterly RMC’s, would all be woven into my practice (assuming my agency was supportive). Much systemic work is needed to spread this vital reframing of adocitidn as a chronic condition. From an education standpoint, this concept and practice is not a hard shift to sell, but many of these shifts will cost money. When it comes down to dollars that is a different story. From all levels within the agency, to community, state and federal funding sources both education and advocacy is necessary. I am ready to sign up for the sustained push that is required for progress to be made. Taking these sytemic changes even further into the very critical need for overall change in our nation’s adocitidn treatment and aftercare structure. Toward that end I agree with McClellan and Meyers and say increases in funding support are needed to implement best practices in treating adults, adolescents, those who are dually diagnosed and incarcerated.
This is such a novel thought where docs are concerned. I wonder who told them? “Determining the cause of acute pancreatitis and treating it quickly may help prevent chronic pancreatitis. Not drinking a lot of alcohol reduces the risk of developing this condition.” MedLine Plus
True – if only you could stop chronic pancreatitis just by not drinking though. Alcohol is only a small part of what causes CP and recent studies have proven that some people are more susceptible to CP no matter how much they drink.
Diagnosed with acute Pancreatitis a year ago after 4 days in bed with severe pain & nausea. Trip to the ER was where diagnosis was made after a CT scan. Haven’t had a gallbladder since the early 90’s so the 1st thing the doctor asked after seeing results of scan, was “how much alcohol do you drink??” I drink socially – perhaps twice a month & only a drink or 2 then. Yet thanks to the over-assumed “pancreatitis is an alcoholic’s disease” even the gastrointestinal doctor I was referred to was little help. The procedure he wanted to do (a scope of some kind) wasn’t covered by my insurance, so I’m left to handle this disease alone & attempting to control the symptoms through my diet is difficult & depressing!!! The pain described above (a sword at an angle from front to back) is EXACTLY how I’ve described it to others. I’m hungry ALL THE TIME & the food I am allowed to eat is either 1) costly & my budget is super tight ($30 a week for groceries to feed a family of 3, one of which is a teenage boy & we all know how much they eat!!) or 2) stuff I do not like!!! I’m starving & constantly in pain. Unable to take much time off work & still get the “oh you drink too much” reaction from people – including doctors!!! I blame my poor diet (greasy fried foods, fast foods, too many sweets) that I’ve indulged in most of my adult lice & my age (50 when 1st attack happened) plus often wonder if digestive issues in the past were my pancreas & not other things (such as IBS which I was told I had several years ago) I’ve had pain behind my sternum for many many tears & often wondered what it was, but no one ever seemed to think it was anything serious. Blood work always returns “normal” (thankfully, except occasional low iron or potassium- which was most recent (last week) results) My quality of life has been weakened since the onset of my journey with pancreatitis & it does indeed suck!!!!!!
Dealing with this disease is a tough road. Thanks for sharing your experiences.