What were your early symptoms of pancreatic problems?

Hi I started with pain under my right rib radiating through to my back Was sent for a ultrasound and they found an enlarged pancreatic duct, everything else is still normal but I still have this chronic ache pain in my back even though I take stomach tablets. Sent me to the hospital for further tests  CT,MRCP all within normal range, The consultant says wait and see. What does that mean wait until it turns to cancer. That was 6 months ago and I still have pain some days worse than others . Problems with gallstone in the family, but that has been ruled out

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I have not had any pain, but my lipase serum elevated more than 100% above normal, and it affect my blood sugar.

Mine was acute necrotizing pancreatitis.  Absolutely no warning or symptoms what so ever.   Sure wish there would have been.  

I started to lose weight for no reason at all. After losing 50 pounds my Dr’s finally took me serious but I still wasn’t diagnosed with Pancreatitis. It took an US and a good GI Dr. to diagnose me and read my CT scan right. Some things were overlooked. I had an 8mm stone ocvluding the main pancreatic duct. Had ESWL and ERCP and All has been fine. Except for occasional bouts of pain at times. I’ll always have Pancreatitis cause I have four stones embedded in the head of my pancreas that they can’t get to. Other signs and symptoms were fatty stools, fouls and loose. I felt tired all the time. If you’re thinking you might have Pancreatitis and have had a ct scan and US along with blood work/enzymes and they were all normal then I can say with much likelihood that you probably don’t. People on here are often quick to assume they have it even after they’ve had tests and imaging that would have detected it. Some just keep on and on about it. They need to think about other abdominal anomalies and not be fixated on Pancreatitis. Many have symptoms that mimic this when in fact often it’s nothing but IBS or anxiety doing a number on them. If you’ve been to the Dr. And have had tests, both your Dr’s and yourself would know by now if it was your pancreas giving you problems. Pancreatic problems is not something that’s hard to diagnose. I hope all is well with you. Take care. Btw, I was fortunate that I didn’t have other symptoms that many others had with theirs. Everything I ate went straight through me because none of my enzymes were able to get past my blockage into the small intestines to break down fats, protein, sugars, carbohydrates and starches. 

DJ~RN

My pancreatitis started 13 years ago.. I was 34 and pregnant for the first time. I woke up in the middle of the night with a stabbing pain near my diaphragm. I was 4 or 5 months pregnant and thought I was miscarrying. I had 5 more attacks while pregnant. My daughter is 13, straight A's , funny and beautiful. I was diagnosed with divisum of the pancreas. I suffered on and off until 2016 and had the Whipple. I live in the LA area. If you are in the area Dr. Ramos is the surgeon, he is the man. My pain is 80% less, but I was in the hospital for 5 weeks with various complications. I'm 5'1" and now weigh 85 pounds due to absorption problems. Pancreatitis sucks and my two sisters (older) are used to telling me what to do think I'm a drug seeker. Yeah, at 34 I developed pancreatitis while pregnant and decided Demoral, Fentynel and Morphine was my goal.in life. I already had earned my Ph.D. and am a psychologist. If you don't have pancreatitis, you don't get it. Good luck, stick to your guns. Only you know how you feel and you have to be your own advocate. Luckily my Father (not my sisters' 1/2 sisters same Mom) and spouse of 18 years gets it. God bless you.

There are many different signs and symptoms with any pancreatic anomalies. For acute and chronic Pancreatitis pain would usually be the very first symptom they experience. One would seek medical attention because of it. It’s not something that Dr’s routinely look for even with annual checkups. Mainly because it and pancreatic cancer is very low on the spectrum. One would usually present with a particular symptom in order for Dr’s to look deeper. And they can vary from person to person. Other things that one may experience or the Dr. to see that there might be something going on would be one’s glucose level. If they saw one’s sugar going up or their A1C spiking, they would want to know why. That’s when they would start to look deeper. Unexplained weight loss and fatty stools that are very foul would be something else. One may present with loose fatty stools,  as something may be preventing their pancreatic enzymes to reach the small intestines. Such as amylase and lipase. Pancreatic cancer is very rare. I think like 1 to 1.5% people get it. Usually by the time one seeks medical attention associated with pancreatic cancer, it is often too late. As for the most, pancreatic cancer is fairly rapid onset and has made the degree of it pretty bad before they are diagnosed with it. I pray that one Day there will be even more markers available to detect pancreatic cancer in its earliest form. My father died from it at age 59. As an RN, I was at his office one day and noticed just a slight case of jaundice in his eyes. I was alarmed but at the time simply thought he may have had hepatitis A because he ate a lot of shell fish. Within a few days he was diagnosed with cancer. He was one of the lucky ones back then. He lived with it for almost two years and in the 80’s that was quiet long. Today there are many other treatment options available than Back then. So, I would say that pain, unexplained weight loss, steatorreaha and at times hyperglycemia would be a few seen at first. 

DJRN