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It does get better! Acute Pancreatitis

Posted , 58 users are following.

Burneye
Burneye

Hi there,

Almost 4 weeks ago I had my first (and hopefully last) acute pancreatic attack. I was hospitalized and put on nil by mouth for 36 hours. My hospital stay was for three nights and then I came home.

The first few weeks at home were very average. I was in quite a bit of discomfort (especially during and after doing a wee). It was very depressing as I am an active person.

But, today, I am feeling heaps better! Finally.

I must say that taking great heed of diet and rest was instrumental to my recovery. Small meals of the following was what I ate: jelly, fruit, mashed potato with veg and salmon, chicken and veg soup (which was put in the fridge and the fat scraped off the top before I ate it), English muffins with jam, corn thins, plain cooked pasta etc. I stayed away from oil, butter, dairy as well as checked labels on everything I purchased - the advice I was given was 70g fat in total per day...this is not much.

I was also unable to stand upright until today and was hunched over like Gollum in LOTR.

Hopefully my recovery will continue, but I just wanted to write this so any future people with an attack the same level as mine can take comfort that it will get better.

Oh, drink pear juice regularly as pancreatitis is synonymous with constipation. ;-)

1 like, 68 replies

68 Replies

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  • chriswb
    chriswb Burneye

    Posted

    Hey all,

    I had my first bout of pancreatitis April 28, 2016 and was in the hospital for 9 days. I'm not a drinker at all and they didnt find gall stones in me but I was eating a very high amount of fat in my daily diet. And that's what triggered my attack. It took me about two weeks after getting out of the hospital to get my appitite back, and frankly I wish I didn't get it back because now I am always hungry again and find myself inching ever closer to my previous diet even though I know the consequences. So if any of you are curious pancreatitis related to triglycerides is a possible cause. And if you are experiencing prolonged mild attack like feelings try cutting way back on your fat intake and you'll likely feel loads better. Thanks for posting this guy's it's really encouraging to me!

    • Tahoeliving
      Tahoeliving chriswb

      Posted

      Hey there

      On June 3, 2016, a Friday, I went to the ER for abdominal pain. They said it was pancreatitis and gave me the option to go home with pain meds or stay and be admitted. Well after the dilauded the gave me for the pain, I wasn't mentally there and went home. I was back in the ER 4 hours later. Every person I came into contact with at the hospital assumed it was caused by alcohol and treated me like an alcoholic. Well I rarely drink! I had an ultrasound and a CT scan when I was in the ER. I was admitted to the hospital and ended up there for 8 days with acute pancreatitis. For the first couple of days they couldn't figure out what caused it. By Monday, the doctor said he went back to my original blood work and saw that my triglycerides were 7000!!!! My lipase only reached 1922 and slowly went down. I didn't eat or drink anything for 5 days. I don't think I could even if it was offered to me.

      It's been 3 weeks since I was released and I still have pain. Last blood work said my pancreas was still inflamed and my triglycerides were still high. I'm on Gemfibrozil for the triglycerides and tramadol for the pain. I don't return to work for another couple weeks. My appt with the GI Doctor is two weeks from now.

      I do eat small meals, but with high triglycerides I also have to cut out all simple carbs, along with a low fat diet. I eat a lot of fruit and veggies.

      Do you still have pain? Is this normal?

  • blubird
    blubird Burneye

    Posted

    Hi , just got home from a 6 day hospital stay for acute pancreatitis

    I had been on a low fat diet for about 8 weeks so it hit me out of the blue for no apparent reason

    Is there a link with the 5:2 fasting diet ?

    I have come home armed with lots of pain relief and no answers also the hospital encouraged eating which made me nauseous and caused pain

    now that I'm home am I best to start fasting

    I'm confused in pain and need advice

    Please help

  • katzchens
    katzchens Burneye

    Posted

    Thank you the encouraging post!

    ? I'm 28 and was just released from the hospital diagnosed with acute pancretitis and gastritis. I didn't have gallstones, hardly drink and am fairly thin, so the doctors were hinting that it may be some kind of bacteria. Kind of frustrated since I don't know what to expect yet - will I have to change my whole diet? Nice to read non doom and gloom posts!

    ?Trying to eat foods that won't inflamme my stomach, but I'm still experiencing some pain after meals. Wondering if this is normal or am I not eating right?  

  • miguel39189
    miguel39189 Burneye

    Posted

    Burneye:

    My wife sufer a hearth attack, high blood pressure, and have pancreatitis. She have this problems since September 2016, and today is November 13, 2016. She don't have big problems with her blod pressure and the type of hearth attack that she had is the one that the Cardiologist called "Tekesubo". I don't know if I pronounce it correctly. Is the type of hearth attack that is easy to recover. The bigest problem is the acute pain from pancreatitis. The only time that I know that she don't feel the pain is when she sleep. She stay under the hot shower to feel some kind of relieve of the intense pain. Why is take so long for the doctors to take the pancreas out, if that is the problem believe me she will rather be a diabetic than to sufer that intense pain day in and day out. The other question that I have is what is the solution for my wife problem, is got to be something; a surgery, a medication that can take the pain away. Please I hope my grammar in English is not bad I come from the island of Puerto Rico, my wife is an American.

  • clareyscarey
    clareyscarey Burneye

    Posted

    Hello Burneye,  I was looking for something like this too.  I had an attack of pancreatitis after a very fatty indulgent meal and quite a lot of champagne followed by a nice single malt whisky before bed.  This is more than I would usually consume I can assure you and I hadn't had alcohol every day.  I'd been too ill anyway for most of last year.  I have had major abdoinal surgery so I realise I can't do that sort of thing any more.  Lots of me was taken out.  A week after the attack my bloods were back to normal and now all I have is mild acid, but it's only been a few days.  I have been eating small amounts so this confirms that I am doing the right thing. No more champagne, or any alcohol for me.  Not risking my poor embattled body ever again.

  • lori2513
    lori2513 Burneye

    Posted

    I have a question.. maybe you can help.  My daughter had severe abdominal pain and we went to the ER.  Only her Lipase levels were elevated to 115, almost 3x what it should be.  She was not admitted to the hospital, we went home after 5 hours.  No medications sent either.  My daughter has been having a hard time eating in general due to no appetite over the last 4-6 months.  She is 5'7" and weights 102 lbs. now.  She used to weight between 118 and 128 lbs.  Not a drinker either, only occasionaly.  Question is.. she has looked over so many sites online, and is convinced that she can NEVER eat anything with fat, or dairy EVER again, as it will cause sever pain, etc.  Any advice I might give her, she can't keep wasting away to nothing!!  Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.  She is 18.

    • john8309
      john8309 lori2513

      Posted

      I had an acute attack 3 weeks ago.  Due to a high fat diet I think, though the doctors all accused me of being an alcoholic since i have 3 drinks a week.  Since getting out of a 6 day hospital stay 4 of which were npo which is no eating or drinking,  i did have ice chips which were heaven as i was severly dehydrated.  The 5th day i had liquid diet which was chicken boullion, and jello, and waterice.  The sixth day was a low fat plate which was cereal with lactaid for breakfast, fruit and grilled chicken and rice for lunch.  after leaving the hospital i have been on a low fat diet consisting of chicken and turkey as protein sources I did manage to have fried cod one day with no problem.  I have a small glass of lactaid nightly with no issue.  I do take probiotics daily and if i suspect a meal may cause discomfort i take a omeprazole capsule prior to the meal for example last night I had spaghetti and meatballs, the meatballs were a  mixture of pork, turkey, and veil.  No reaction at all.  I remain dry since leaving the hospital though after i have my gallbladder out we will see.  I have stones in the gallbladder as well but they chose not to take it out while I was in the hospital.  Have your daughter experiment with things like i said probiotic is great for getting the good bacteria in your body and omeprazole is good for heartburn, indigestion.  I still don't have the appetite i once had and am losing weight because of my healthier diet.  now i have 3 scrambled eggs with turkey and cheese for breakfast/lunch and a normal sized dinner, with banana's and oranges and veggies added in.

  • stacy71967
    stacy71967 Burneye

    Posted

    1/5/2017 i woke up with severe stomach pain and i went to an urgent care clinic. Within minutes they rush me to the ER. After quick tests they discover acute pancreatitis and admit me to MICU because my blood pressure was sky high, my pulse like 150 and and my oxygen level was sketchy. I had realised with all the fluids i shouldve been peeing and i wasnt. I get up to MICU and i thought i chickened out and went home and next thing i know i woke up on an island tied down to a hospital bed.... YES you read that right. What really happened was my kidneys shut down and i was put on 24 hr dyalisys for 1 week straight along with 3 weeks of sedation while on a ventilator with some more complications. Im 29 years old by the way. I came across this forum because this morning i was admitted back to the hospital and i wanted to see if i would be fine to sneak a small jello even though the dr says no food or drink. Im starving. Lol i wish this never existed. The pain is sooo horrible and so non stop and nauseating! I hope everyone gets and stays well i just wanted to share my story. Thanks for reading.
    • Calendula
      Calendula stacy71967

      Posted

      Hi, I hope you’re feeling better. My husband is in ICU at the moment and I just needed to talk to someone who had had a long hospital stay due to this terrible condition and also had been sedated and ventilated. His pancreas has some necrosis but they haven’t found any evidence of infection yet. Today he is having a tracheotomy to be ventilated through his neck and they have had to remove some fluid from around his lungs to give his lungs room as it was restricting his lungs. What really is restricting his breathing though is the inflammation in his abdomen, his tummy is huge and is pushing up on his lungs. He has been in ICU for 12 days now and I am at my wits end. None of the doctors can say when the inflammation will subside. The only positive things are that his heart, kidneys and blood pressure aren’t needing support. I was just wondering if you had this amount of inflammation and when it started to subside? 
    • michelle84169
      michelle84169 Calendula

      Posted

      Halo to u. My heart goes out to u rite now. It's so hard watching a loved one go thru this. When my son was in a coma..he had 8 procedures in eight days..each one was to remove the puss from the burst cyst over pancreas..he had infection after infection.one procedure they removed over 600mls of puss. His body was swolen from his neck to his feet. I prayed hard out...i do not go to church...his lungs collapsed because the fluid pushing against the outside of them. .He had extreme necrosis...he has made it thru...we had a scare and sum ups n downs since leaving hospital...but now just recently his pegj is out and it's been psychologically uplifting for him. His energy and stamina are slow work ..but all is good rite now. ... fingers crossed for the future ..as we know it's unpredictable.

    • Calendula
      Calendula michelle84169

      Posted

      Thank you for your comments. It’s good to know that there can be a positive outcome to the worst cases of this terrible condition. I hope your son continues to get better and better. 
    • michelle84169
      michelle84169 Calendula

      Posted

      Thanku so much. I wish ur husband a miraculous recovery also. I hav found this site so helpful on our journey. Big HugZ to You.
  • cg2547
    cg2547 Burneye

    Posted

    I have been home 2 days from a 3 night hospital stay. I was diagnosed with pancreatitis. Serve pains in my abdomin which radiated down my stomach and around to my back. I am home but have a hard time sleeping because my sides are very sore.

    Thank you for your optomism, cause crying is all I have been able to do. At least now I have hope that these pains will slowly subside. Thanks again.

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