Re: Re: Pancreatitus

I have suffered on and off with chronic pancreatitus for 4, years now. During this time I have spent well over 100 days in the hospital. The pain is hard to describe to anyone since the intensity is beyond description. During my worst bout, I was in the hospital for 41 days and was fed through an IV that went into my heart. They shut my stomach down completely. Due to the heavy non stop pain medication along with the pain, I have no memory of approximately 2 weeks of this time but when I became somewhat coherent I noted I had been tied down in the bed. My Doctor (Gastrointerologist) disscussed my situation with one of his asssociates at Duke University and from this discussion he then installed a stent in the pancreas to help it drain properly. Only after this procedure did I start to recover. I used to drink beer but have not had any alcohol in 4 years. I have had several bouts that have landed me in the hospital since then. I try to stay away from real fatty foods and have found that steaks give me a bad time. I have had a porttion of my small intestine and colon removed along with my gall bladder. In November of last year I had a heart attack. Although I don’t contribute this to the pancreatitus. I strongly suggest you get a good gastrointerologist. If you have one now and he/she does not believe you, go to someone else! There is a Doctor Echeveria in Tampa that is actually a surgeon but has some excellent contacts. Dr. Echeveria is excellent, not only is he very knowledgable hee really cares. I also suggest that you try to stay away from fatty foods. Although I believe that beer was the major contributor to my problem, I believe that stress was and is a factor. I was the GM for a sales organization of approximaately 1200 full time and 1000 part time people. I had several layers of management below me who were terrific hard working and dedicated people. Unfortuneatly, 2 people above me were not of this caliber and only cared about themselves. When I Became ill their true colors came out. This caused many problems and due to this I retired. Watch out for stress! I apologise for rambling on, however, I can truly relate to the pain you are having and you have my total sympathy. I have a very simple philosophy — if what you are doing is not working, change what you are doing! Best of luck to you.