Pancreatitis and pancreas divisum

[Char08guzman]

I live with constant pain. I live with chronic pancreatitis, as well as pancreas divisum. With in the last year I have gone to the ER 6 times with sever pain to where I cant even stand. They did nothing because I have no insurance. I can barley eat now and get sick everyday. My pain doesnt go away and increases after I eat or drink any fluids now. I don't know what to do and Im sick of living with this constant pain and being sick. I feel like my body is failing slowly and there is nothing I can do. What can I do?

[Whitney2385]

My husband (29) is experiencing the same thing! He had his gallbladder out 2 years ago because of a cyst in one of the ducts. He had an ERCP and sphincterotomy (sp?) last year to help alleviate the pain and they noticed he has a pancreas divisum. In October he woke up from a dead sleep with severe pain in his upper abdomen (he says it's mostly in the middle and maybe slightly to his left). We went to the ER and even though the blood test results came back inconclusive they said it was probably pancreatitis. They gave him 2 injections of pain meds and hooked him up to an IV. He was feeling better so they gave him a Gatorade to drink and that made his pain come back almost immediately. They gave him pain meds and sent him home. Since then he's had an endoscopic ultrasound to take a better look at the pancreas and, of course, it looked normal. He had that done about 3 weeks ago and can't see the gastroentrologist until Jan 7th!! He eats a very healthy diet, exercises, doesn't smoke or drink and isn't overweight. He has been eating less because it hurts to eat. It hurts to move even. He stopped taking his pain meds because he doesn't like the way they don't help and he has to work. The only thing that did help the pain was Oxycodon but he obviously doesn't want to take that and end up getting addicted to it. I don't feel his doctor is taking his case seriously because of his age. I'm probably wrong and he's probably just busy because he's the only one in town but if he can't do anything else he needs to send us to someone who knows more about the pancreas. The pancreas is a touchy organ and I can see why doctors don't want to mess with it unless they have to but they seem to dismiss cases where people have pancreas divisum because it normally doesn't cause pain. I hope you start feeling better soon. I'll try to remember to update you on our progress and maybe it'll help you out as well. Since you don't have insurance, try to find a free clinic nearby and see if they can help you out or talk to the doctors and see if they are willing to do something.

[Char08guzman]

Thanks and yeah my diet is pretty much veggie now, but I still get really sick even eating small portions. And cuase of no insurance all I've been told is to take tylenol. With the pain Im taking like 1500-2000 mg a day and i try not to take so much but I do when I have too. No enzymes because the last time I took them I got really sick and was told not to take them.

[CalGal]

Char, this is a link to Up-To-Date which is the a medical database for docs - sometimes you can read some of the information for patients, which you can in this case. It lists all of the conservative measures and the more advanced measures that can be taken when it's warranted. In most cases, pancreatitis will be treated with conservative measures - mostly diet and enzyme supplementation, and sometimes pain injections/nerve blocks. The problem with taking many of the pain meds by mouth is that it can make the pancratitis worse. so most docs typically stick to the 'lesser is better' school of thought.

Are you eating correctly - when you can - and are you taking enzymes that are designed to help you disgest the food you take in?

http://www.uptodate.com/patients/content/topic.do?topicKey=~.HfUEmA4ZyDAiM