Pancreatitis happens when the digestive enzymes that are produced in your pancreas to digest food are some how activated while they are still inside the pancreas. This can cause a huge amount of damage to your pancreas.
During normal digestion, these enzymes will move through the ducts in your pancreas and into the small intestine, where they become activated and aid with digesting your food. What happens in pancreatitis is the enzymes become activated while still in the pancreas. When the enzymes activate inside your pancreas in can irritate the cells inside the organ. This causes inflammation and the other signs and symptoms that are associated with pancreatitis. Pancreatitis causes a lot of pain.
After you have repeated bouts of acute pancreatitis enough damage to the pancreas can happen and lead to chronic pancreatitis. Also, scar tissue can be formed in the pancreas, causing it to lose some of its ability to function. Once damaged, a pancrea that is poorly functioning can cause digestion problems, intense pain, and diabetes.
Pancreatitis has many Causes
There have been a number of causes identified that can cause acute pancreatitis and chronic pancreatitis, including:
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I ended up back at the doctor's offcie Monday afternoon after the urging of my husband. I dislike going to doctor's offcie and will put it off for as long as I can. This time, I am glad I did go back in. My lipase levels are elevated meaning my pancreas is having a terrible party in my stomach. This has been going on for a year and a half now.
Pancreatitis is a pretty sucky disease. Part of the problem is that not all Doctors know what to do about it even when they identify it. The other issue is that they will often look at you as causing it whether this is true or not.
The first question that I always get asked is "are you a drinker". I've gotten so tired of the whole process that I have a spiel that I go through with the doctor as soon as I see them. I tell them about my history, and then that I am not a drinker, have not had surgury or injury to the abdomen, and have not been bitten by a scorpion.
This last about the scorpion always guarantees that we can get on with the pain management because a lot of Doctors don't know that a scorpion bite can cause pancreatitis.
This saves time and frustration and makes sure that they get on the right track ASAP.