More about the last bad attack (written 10/26)

After the attack described below, I went in to have my blood drawn the day after I posted. My lipase and amylase levels were perfectly fine. I can't explain why, because that was one of my more painful attacks. I continued to go to work for the rest of the week and slept on the floor during lunch all week. I must have looked awful because everyone commented on how terrible I looked; even the men. They usually don't notice such things. My friend told me the following week that I looked like I was going to drop over dead at any moment. The pain was pretty much under control by Wednesday evening, but I was still very nauseated and did not eat much until the weekend. I had a little yogurt and sips of water. I sucked on hard candy in between. Most of the time I was very nauseated, dizzy, and shaky. Then there was their weird, black poop. That went on for a while after I felt better. It finally stopped a couple of days ago. I am better now. I still have dizzy spells and have to sit down for a little bit; even today I did.

Now, I don't want to sound like everything is all gloom and doom. I have had some periods of time since my little surgery in which I have not felt nauseated. That has been amazing! I am hoping that things will continue to get better. Maybe I just did too much too soon. Perhaps I needed to wait a while for any internal swelling that may have occurred to subside. I am hoping that this may be one of my last entries in the pancreatitis blog. I really need to write some in my other blog so people do not think I have vanished from the face of the earth. Let's hope that I am finally "cured".

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

So, I had my ERCP/surgery on Friday at the Mayo Hospital and they let me go home on Saturday (my birthday). It seemed like a miracle cure! For the first time in 4 1/2 years, I was not nauseated! I even ate some cheesecake for my birthday that day and had no ill effects. I was thrilled! I was finally cured!

You'll notice the term "was". On Monday, I slept in and then took my son to pick out his birthday present. (It was a bike.) In the early afternoon, I took three kids to get fillings and two to get their braces tightened. I was extremely tired; weary in my bones. I went home and slept soundly for three hours. I picked up some pizza for the kids, but didn't feel like eating anything myself. I still felt very exhausted and achy. I took a hot bath and just soaked. Almost immediately after getting out, I was seized by gut-wrenching pains that were so severe I literally fell to the floor. They were so severe, that I could not remember them being so bad before. My daughter called the ambulance and I was vaguely aware that some of my other children were awake and witnessed this attack. I guess my one son started to hyperventilate and my daughter had to treat him for shock. (They told me this later.) As soon as I got on the ambulance, they drew blood and this was the blood sent to the lab. Needless to say, my levels were fine at the time. They had not had the usual wait time it takes for them to skyrocket. After a CT scan and being there all night, I was sent home a little after 7:00 a.m. I went to work. That was one of the stupidest things I have ever done. I had to take percocet several times just to make it through the day. I dropped on my classroom floor (which is very cold, I discovered) and slept through lunch. Even with the percocet, I was still hurting. The nausea came back with a vengence as well. I came home early and crashed for a couple of hours. My son woke me up because it's his birthday and I took them to Taco Bell. I ate a tortilla with cheese. That was all I could handle. Then the pain got worse. We came home and I took yet MORE percocet and we (well the kids) had cake and he opened his presents. Then I soaked in a hot tub with my friend/enemy percocet kicking in to dull the pain. Now I'm here. The pain is still pretty bad, even with the percocet. I am going to bed with a heating pad and try to make it through another long, painful night. I don't know how much more of this I can take before I do something bad.

Oct. 5, 2008

I feel like crap. I am so sick of this all the time. I am SOOOOO glad I am having this surgery on Friday. If it does not make things better, I am going to wig out.

Just curious....

Does anyone else besides me even read this blog? Feel free to leave a comment at the end of these posts if you would like. You don't have to leave your name or anything. If you know anything about pancreatitis, I would be interested to hear about it.

Business as usual (10-1-08)

I have had a couple of pretty painful episodes of pancreatitis since I last wrote. In a little over a week I will have that surgery and I am hoping that things will be great after that. I am so darn tired!

I seem to be something of a klutz. I keep getting these ugly, blue bruises on my legs. I don't remember how they get there, but they are ugly enough that it seems like I would remember.

Last week, I had strep throat. I missed work for a couple of days and felt kind of yucky. It wasn't that bad, though. I guess everything is relative. I used to think strep was terrible. Now that I have given birth a bunch of times and have pancreatitis all the time, it doesn't seem so bad.

My new pancreas thing is this weird pain. I have been having it since Sunday. It feels like my ribs are bruised and that my upper abdominal area all along my ribs is bruised as well, but it looks normal there. It hurts when I move around or bend and is kind of crampy the rest of the time. It is just weird because this is sort of new. Usually it doesn't hurt this much when I touch that area. My friend has been telling me to call the doctor and tell her about it. Maybe I will tomorrow, but I'm not sure. I think she may be sick of hearing about my pancreas. I don't know if there's anything she could do, anyway. I'll see how things are tomorrow.