Sjogrens and pancreas discomfort

I too am learning about Sjogren's and I can't answer your question but I wanted to share with you a little experience I recently had. I've developed an annoying cough in the last couple of month and when I went in to see my pulmonologist for my yearly checkup I told her about it. She had me take a chest x-ray and she found just a tiny little bit of something not necessarily anything to be concerned about. But then she said she wants to do a CT of my lungs to rule out ild. She said that apparently lung conditions are also a symptom of Sjogren's. Who knew?

Has your dr completed blood work to see if you need to take digestive enzymes to help break down your food? Possibly you could request your dr to order a CT scan with contrast. Like you amkoffee I developed a cough, from time to time feels as if some mucus is in the middle of my chest. asked my doctor for an xray, my doctor just listened to me and said no xray is necessary. Where are the good doctors that listen to the patient?

 

Hello, yes, sadly there’s a connection.  I had Interstitial Cystitis for over 30 years, then suddenly it switched to Hemorrhagic Interstitial Cystitis, which took me from healthy to CKD stage 3 in 5 days, Stage 4 2 months later.  A year later I was diagnosed with Sjögren’s and I limped along for another year when I went from ‘my new healthy with a flare’ to multiple organ failure, including pancreatitis.

The Dr said the undiagnosed Sjögren’s was a ‘parasite’ that came along with the IC.  Furthermore, it caused my system to weaken enough that I was unable to keep from catching UTIs, which brought about the change from IC to HIC, and consequently *killed* my kidney function.  The resulting strain to my already weakened body made the 42 dissimilar symptoms of Sjögren’s to finally show themselves to the point where I was able to finally get a diagnosis for the autoimmune disease I kept swearing I had that the Drs were unable to identify.

All of the previous maladies hit me at once with a ‘super flare’ and caused my body to shut down.  The Drs said that my pancreas was inflamed from the Sjögren’s, and was already giving me trouble, but I had attributed the vague gastrointestinal issues to my meds, my weakened system, my irritability from my excessive fatigue.  

Essentially my IC, Sjogrens, CKD and pancreatitis were to be my new groupies, constantly with me wherever I went in life.  They are jealous little knuckleheads, and if I don’t give each the ‘proper amount of attention’ while providing self care for myself, they will again collectively throw a snit and cause me to shut down again.  ....and again....

My advice is to research for yourself how to properly feed and care for your pancreas, in hopes that you can stop or at least prolong the time it will take your pancreas to stop playing nice and start bullying your digestive system around.

Good luck!