This was the weekend of my 20 year high school reunion. That was a little bizarre when I stopped to think about the fact that 20 years just sailed by. I actually was not sure whether or not I would attend, but decided to go shortly before it. We met at a local bar in my hometown on Friday night (18th). That sounds like the perfect place for a little pancreatitis to get started. HOWEVER, I did NOT drink anything that night (as usual). I did notice that there were a few other people who should probably be having some pancreatic issues, though. I was glad that I had decided to go. It was fun to see old friends and even the people I didn't hang out with as much in high school were friendly. It was nice to see that everyone was pretty much contented with their lives at this point, but did not feel the need to try to "impress" anyone.
Anyway...the only thing that I did that was bad was ate a piece of pizza; which I did after taking my enzymes. Maybe that was what set me off this time, but the actual pain didn't start until 4-5 hours after I ate the pizza. I left the bar around 10:00 p.m. because I just wasn't feeling very well. My pancreas was hurting noticeably more than usual, so I decided to go back to the hotel. By the time I was back at the hotel about 10 minutes later, I knew this was going to be one of those especially unpleasant attacks. I took some lortab and ran a tub full of hot water to soak in. I did not have a heating pad with me, so I thought maybe soaking might help. The kids and I went to bed after that, but there was not going to be sleep for me that night. I curled up with a pillow and tried some of this junk where you massage pressure points, but that didn't help either. (I guess I'm not a very good witch doctor.) By 2:00, I couldn't stand it anymore and took 1 percocet pill. That didn't really help at first. After about 45 minutes, I felt slightly better, but the pain was still pretty bad. By this time the nausea and vomiting were kicking in rather strong as well. I took some zofran and actually stopped vomiting, but was still hurting and very nauseated. I took another percocet pill at 5:00 a.m., but it just wasn't helping. At about six, I had Erica call an ambulance while I gathered up my junk to take to the hospital. (insurance cards, medications, note from my pcp). I was in no condition to attempt to drive. I went outside to wait and told Erica to just go back to sleep and to let the boys sleep in. Soon two fire trucks drove up. I was a little grouchy about this and told them, "I'm NOT on fire! I just need a ride to the hospital." They called the ambulance on their radio and off we went. The paramedic went through the whole questioning me about my drinking habit routine and then asked about my gall bladder. (big surprise) He gave me some morphine in my IV, but that did not do anything. Sometime after that, they gave me more morphine and that time it worked almost immediately. I also started itching like crazy, but who cares? It made the pain stop. They took a blood sample and sent it off. My amylase was 889 and my lipase was 1254. I asked for a copy of my lab results to take with me to Mayo. They let me go a while later. Actually, they called a police officer to take me back to the motel because I had no way of getting there. I guess I had criminal pancreatitis. I did learn something I didn't know before, though. The normal range for amylase is 28-100 and for lipase is 13-60. I had been told my levels before, but I didn't really know what was considered normal to have something to compare it to. Two days later at Mayo, my levels were almost normal. I was amazed that they dropped so quickly. I guess that I now have a smaller window of time in which to decide whether or not to seek medical treatment before my levels go back to normal.
More about this junk later. I found out that something crappy happened while I was incapacitated this time. See the next entry for more info.
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