Pancreatitis

There's a sac of nerves right behind the pancreas it'll cause horrific spasms and bring you to tears. There's the Celiec Plexus block but if you have nerve issues I don't recommend it. Other than that, I found eating six small meals and substituting certain foods helped me when I had my pancreas. I would eat applesauce instead of apples, frozen instead of raw veggies and oranges have a natural anti-inflammatory in them which helped me.

Thanks for your input - I'll try that. I know I should eat more often tho I usually manage 3 reasonable meals a day.

yes back ach is normal

Also heat packs help a ton. Eating for me was hard, it still is! I keep Ensure in my house when I cannot eat.

I'm beginning to feel scared to eat as it causes problems

I seem to be able to eat sweet stuff I do have a sweet tooth , I know i shouldn't but I think eating something is better than nothing !

I craved nothing but carbs! I totally understand what you're going through. I was on a pasta/rice diet for months lol. Eat whatever you can handle but if you feel pain then rest your pancreas. Resting the pancreas gives it time for the inflammation to go down, you do that by not eating for a couple days. Drink broth/clear liquids. After a couple days try bland foods, if there's any pain then go back to liquids, if not then continue with foods.

Thanks for your input - to know that it is ''normal '' is extremely comforting. I do wonder why out consultants don't give us more info on this - or don't they know?

Duh! I have had more information on this site and the Face book site than any I have been given by my ''specialist consultants''.

Ensure - (8-fl oz) bottle of Ensure Original contains 220 calories, six grams of fat, 15 grams of sugar, and nine grams of protein. The top six ingredients are water, corn maltodextrin, sugar, milk protein concentrate, canola oil, and soy protein isolate.[1]

From my reading the pancreas doesn't respond well to most of these ingredients so I wouldn't use it. What it does respond to well are leafy greens and most greens and other veg anyway. As long as I keep to these plus a little of what I fancy I progress. My plates of food tend to be 2 thirds greens to a third of something else. I have found the digestive system has it's own brain - it usually tells me pretty quickly what it likes and equally what it doesn't like. If I don't listen it will soon let me know in no uncertain terms - painful!

There's a plant based Ensure and/or other products like Ensure but when you cannot eat anything my specialist tell me to drink these. It will be different for each individual as to what they can handle. However, if you're lactose intolerant these are okay for me. I have many days where I cannot eat especially since they removed part of my intestines, so liquid diet it is lol.

I think it's a grey era, on this fourum I have seen people have the problem we have different doctors or surgeons do different operations I'm confused about it all, I will carry on with the tablets, for an operation will be the last resort for me as I don't like any of them.

take care

can I ask why removing your gallbladder caused more issues ,as i was going to ask them to do this to stop any more stones getting into my pancreas !

I think it depends on the person and for me because I had two pancreatic ducts instead of one, my ducts kept getting clogged up more and more. I didn't have issues until after they removed my gallbladder. Then the bowel issues that they don't warn you about. If you do remove your gallbladder, don't eat anything fried!! You will literally be running to the bathroom within five minutes lol.

Removing the gallbladder can cause Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction, which results in terrible esophageal spasms. It often results in an intolerance to many opioids (especially Morphine) as well as causing random spasm attacks. That means that if you are in the ER trying to get pain relief, you may wind up in even more pain!! The best way to stop spasms are with sublingual nitroglycerin or Levsin.

I am allergic to Morphine, Tramadol and Fentanyl. I had to have part of my pancreas removed recently and had it done with Ketamine because I couldn't take anything else. It was INCREDIBLY painful.

I even had an awful SOD attack last night -- all because I switched coffee creamers!! It can make your life miserable.

Just make sure that there is clear evidence that your gallbladder needs to be removed.

Also, there are pancreatitic stones as well as gallstones. So, removing the gallbladder may provide zero relief.

I don't know why doctors prescribe Morphine for pancreatic patients, one of the side effects is GI problems and I think pancreas problems. Maybe the doctors aren't aware but it definately makes the pain worse and can even cause bladder spasms. I too am allergic to Fentanyl which contributed to my pancreas symptoms. I hated being on Ketamine in the hospital, I couldn't talk correctly or anything. I don't like to be out of control where I feel drugged up or loopy. Usually my pain medication makes me energized, I always get the opposite effects. I completely agree with you, don't remove the gallbladder unless it's necessary, I wish they kept mine in!

Yeah, Morphine is the devil. I thought for a while that I was also allergic to Dilaudid, but it seems that I was having problems with how quickly they dosed me. And I hope to never need Ketamine again. I was trying to explain how much pain I was in after surgery, but couldn't form the words. UGH.

Regarding gallbladder scans, someone told me recently that the HIDA scan is not the best diagnostic tool for gallbladder. I don't know if there is a preferred imaging tool?

They did an ultrasound on me for my gallbladder but I had flu like symptoms and thought I had an ear infection because the pain was radiating up my neck and to my ear. They pressed on my belly and I screamed, I didn't even know my belly hurt lol. They told me I needed emergency surgery the next morning. I started having issues a week later and they performed exploratory surgery after that. They took out my appendix and said I had adhesions. I was never the same in/out of the hospital ever since! They never told me back then I had Pancreas Divisium and you can't tell me you're going to take out a gallbladder and not know there's two pancreatic ducts instead of one. It's too hard to find pancreas specialists nowadays. I believe nowadays they can treat a gallbladder through an ERCP and diagnose through EUS but I don't remember since my focus was on the pancreas.

Weird, I was just reading about gallbladder pain manifesting in the shoulder and jaw. First time I had heard that.

I had left shoulder pain (bursitis from sleeping on it), and when I tried to massage it, it zinged into my ear and nearly deafened me. The body is do weird...

I wonder if they even knew what divisum was when they operated on you...

oh see I feel so ignorant! the truth being I've just been left ! I don't know what's going on . I know I'm at the last stage and he said it is bad ! but I really don't understand what the hell is happening or what is going to be done! 2to 3 week in hospital to make me feel like a new women ! Yeah right ! am I going to die ? is this going to kill me ? I asked about reg cancer testing He told me that because I don't drink that won't be necessary ?

They found a nodule on my lung Im suppose to have reg XRay to keep a check on this ... have they NO !

You're not ignorant, you just don't have a specialist explaining anything to you. Trust me when I say we have been there. If you're having gallbladder issues and it needs to be removed then get it removed but if it's your pancreas, see a pancreas specialist not a GI. A regular GI doesn't have enough knowledge of the pancreas. You can live without both organs, I'm living proof of it. My pancreas was removed this past October.