Chronic pancreatitis Bookmark & Share Printer-friendly version
Chronic
pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas that does not heal or
improve, gets worse over time, and leads to permanent damage.
Causes
The pancreas is an organ located behind the stomach that produces chemicals (called enzymes) needed to digest food. It also produces the hormones insulin and glucagon.
When inflammation and scarring of the pancreas occur, the organ is no longer able to make the right amount of these enzymes. As a result, your body may be unable to digest fat and key elements of food.
Damage to the parts of the pancreas that make insulin may lead to diabetes.
The condition is most often caused by alcohol abuse (or sugar and bread abuse) over many years. Repeated episodes of acute pancreatitis can lead to chronic pancreatitis. Genetics may be a factor in some cases. Sometimes, the cause is not known.
Symptoms
Abdominal pain
Greatest in the upper abdomen
May last from hours to days
Eventually may be continuous
May get worse from eating or drinking
May get worse from drinking alcohol (or eating refined bread and sugar)
May also be felt in the back
Digestive problems:
Chronic weight loss, even when eating habits and amounts are normal
Diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting
Fatty or oily stools
Treatment
People with severe pain or who are losing weight may need to stay in the hospital for:
Avoid smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages and (eating sugar and refined bread), even if your pancreatitis is mild.
Other treatments may involve:
Outlook
This is a serious disease that may lead to disability and death. You can reduce the risk by avoiding alcohol (and sugar and refined bread!).
Complications may include:
MY RECENT EXPERIENCE
While we were having a wonderful anniversary trip in Israel, I decided to try my luck at tasting some of the native food there. They eat a lot of pita bread and flat bread and wheat based pasta there, all of which foods are on my NO list, but I thought maybe I could handle it for a few days, maybe I'd get a little bloated or have diarrhea, I would tough it out. After three days of eating sesame hyssop flat bread, pasta, and even a pizza, I had the Mother of ALL painful acute pancreatitis episodes I have ever experienced. It feels like a blockage in your small intestines, like a golf ball sized kidney stone or something, and your organs start to burn and seize (and in Jerusalem they were actually contracting like a uterus in labor), your back and sides feel knife sharp pain all over, and you feel like your are going to explode with air build up, but all movement in the bowels has ceased so you have to just lay there with air caught and nothing moving.
I have had 4 others like it in my life, all so memorable because of the level 10 pain you experience, so painful you faint, sweat, turn pale, shake, and can't move. I had my first in college, in a class room, I ran to the bathroom and fainted and had to waddle to my next class to tell my teacher I couldn't make it, and I was so pale he told me to go right home. I remember even then, 18 years ago when I had no idea why it happened, thinking it had something to do with eating refined flour and swearing it off for a few days. It happened at my in law's in 2004 or 2005, I had to hide in the back room for a while and sweat it out, trying to breathe, and I thought of the desserts I had indulged in and swore I'd never eat another dessert again. Once it happened a couple years ago in my home, and for two days I felt the effects of it, I was laying down writhing in agony saying "I shouldn't have eaten that pizza yesterday!" and my cute son Weston drew a picture that had a mean pizza man on it yelling "Don't eat pizza!"
In May 2014 Dr. Curtis took my blood labs and told me I have elevated pancreatic enzymes indicative of pancreatitis, and it is the only diagnosis I've been given that rings true for me in every particular. October 19th 2014 in the middle of the night in the middle of a foreign country as I thought I was going to die, shaking and sweating because of the trauma of pain, the little picture of a pizza haunted me, because I had eaten the pizza served to me a the Armenian Guesthouse restaurant. The next day I tried to go on the excursions anyway, and everyone noticed I was in pain and could barely walk and was pale, and a doctor there with us tried to tell me I was probably just constipated. I was very irritated by this ignorant diagnosis, which further discouraged me from seeking medical help. I have prayed and prayed for direction on what to do for my health and what doctor I should see, and I always feel like doctors can't help me any more than the information from a medical encyclopedia written above and the inspiration from the Holy Ghost have already helped me. Pancreatits is genetic, my grandfather had it, it isn't just caused by alcohol abuse...sugar and refined carbohydrates are a close second to alcohol in the effects on the pancreas and liver, if your are genetically predisposed, the Standard American diet alone can cause pancreatitis. All my diet issues are pancreas related. I feel like I have chronic pancreatitis, and if I don't stick to my diet I suffer an acute pancreatitis flare up, and possibly death. I knew this before my trip, I didn't obey, and I subsequently suffered to the point I thought I had done enough damage I was going to die. I will never eat refined wheat-based bread or pasta again. Nothing is worth that pain.
Two weeks after the acute flare up my gut is healed again. I take pancreatic enzymes twice a day now to help me digest my carbs, beta plus to help digest fats, and I carefully eat only slow complex, carbs with lots of fiber, vitamin supplements, and protein. And its not just what I eat that causes problems, its quantity as well, so like the treatment above suggests, I need to be careful to eat little amounts at a time. I'm thankful to my Heavenly Father for helping my find a way to keep my body going, He has taught me so much.
Causes
The pancreas is an organ located behind the stomach that produces chemicals (called enzymes) needed to digest food. It also produces the hormones insulin and glucagon.
When inflammation and scarring of the pancreas occur, the organ is no longer able to make the right amount of these enzymes. As a result, your body may be unable to digest fat and key elements of food.
Damage to the parts of the pancreas that make insulin may lead to diabetes.
The condition is most often caused by alcohol abuse (or sugar and bread abuse) over many years. Repeated episodes of acute pancreatitis can lead to chronic pancreatitis. Genetics may be a factor in some cases. Sometimes, the cause is not known.
Symptoms
Abdominal pain
Greatest in the upper abdomen
May last from hours to days
Eventually may be continuous
May get worse from eating or drinking
May get worse from drinking alcohol (or eating refined bread and sugar)
May also be felt in the back
Digestive problems:
Chronic weight loss, even when eating habits and amounts are normal
Diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting
Fatty or oily stools
Treatment
People with severe pain or who are losing weight may need to stay in the hospital for:
- Pain medicines
- Fluids given through a vein (IV)
- Stopping food or fluid by mouth to limit the activity of the pancreas, and then slowly starting an oral diet
- Inserting a tube through the nose or mouth to remove the contents of the stomach (nasogastric suctioning) may sometimes be done. The tube may stay in for 1 - 2 days, or sometimes for 1 - 2 weeks.
- Drinking plenty of liquids
- Limiting fats (and refined carbs)
- Eating small, frequent meals (this helps reduce digestive symptoms)
- Getting enough vitamins and calcium in the diet, or as extra supplements
- Limiting caffeine
Avoid smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages and (eating sugar and refined bread), even if your pancreatitis is mild.
Other treatments may involve:
- Pain medicines or a surgical nerve block to relieve pain
- Taking insulin to control blood sugar (glucose) levels
Outlook
This is a serious disease that may lead to disability and death. You can reduce the risk by avoiding alcohol (and sugar and refined bread!).
Complications may include:
- Ascites
- Blockage (obstruction) of the small intestine or bile ducts
- Blood clot in the vein of the spleen
- Fluid collections in the pancreas (pancreatic pseudocysts) that may become infected
- Poor function of the pancreas, including diabetes, fat or other nutrient malabsorption, and vitamin malabsorption (most often the fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E, or K)
MY RECENT EXPERIENCE
While we were having a wonderful anniversary trip in Israel, I decided to try my luck at tasting some of the native food there. They eat a lot of pita bread and flat bread and wheat based pasta there, all of which foods are on my NO list, but I thought maybe I could handle it for a few days, maybe I'd get a little bloated or have diarrhea, I would tough it out. After three days of eating sesame hyssop flat bread, pasta, and even a pizza, I had the Mother of ALL painful acute pancreatitis episodes I have ever experienced. It feels like a blockage in your small intestines, like a golf ball sized kidney stone or something, and your organs start to burn and seize (and in Jerusalem they were actually contracting like a uterus in labor), your back and sides feel knife sharp pain all over, and you feel like your are going to explode with air build up, but all movement in the bowels has ceased so you have to just lay there with air caught and nothing moving.
I have had 4 others like it in my life, all so memorable because of the level 10 pain you experience, so painful you faint, sweat, turn pale, shake, and can't move. I had my first in college, in a class room, I ran to the bathroom and fainted and had to waddle to my next class to tell my teacher I couldn't make it, and I was so pale he told me to go right home. I remember even then, 18 years ago when I had no idea why it happened, thinking it had something to do with eating refined flour and swearing it off for a few days. It happened at my in law's in 2004 or 2005, I had to hide in the back room for a while and sweat it out, trying to breathe, and I thought of the desserts I had indulged in and swore I'd never eat another dessert again. Once it happened a couple years ago in my home, and for two days I felt the effects of it, I was laying down writhing in agony saying "I shouldn't have eaten that pizza yesterday!" and my cute son Weston drew a picture that had a mean pizza man on it yelling "Don't eat pizza!"
In May 2014 Dr. Curtis took my blood labs and told me I have elevated pancreatic enzymes indicative of pancreatitis, and it is the only diagnosis I've been given that rings true for me in every particular. October 19th 2014 in the middle of the night in the middle of a foreign country as I thought I was going to die, shaking and sweating because of the trauma of pain, the little picture of a pizza haunted me, because I had eaten the pizza served to me a the Armenian Guesthouse restaurant. The next day I tried to go on the excursions anyway, and everyone noticed I was in pain and could barely walk and was pale, and a doctor there with us tried to tell me I was probably just constipated. I was very irritated by this ignorant diagnosis, which further discouraged me from seeking medical help. I have prayed and prayed for direction on what to do for my health and what doctor I should see, and I always feel like doctors can't help me any more than the information from a medical encyclopedia written above and the inspiration from the Holy Ghost have already helped me. Pancreatits is genetic, my grandfather had it, it isn't just caused by alcohol abuse...sugar and refined carbohydrates are a close second to alcohol in the effects on the pancreas and liver, if your are genetically predisposed, the Standard American diet alone can cause pancreatitis. All my diet issues are pancreas related. I feel like I have chronic pancreatitis, and if I don't stick to my diet I suffer an acute pancreatitis flare up, and possibly death. I knew this before my trip, I didn't obey, and I subsequently suffered to the point I thought I had done enough damage I was going to die. I will never eat refined wheat-based bread or pasta again. Nothing is worth that pain.
Two weeks after the acute flare up my gut is healed again. I take pancreatic enzymes twice a day now to help me digest my carbs, beta plus to help digest fats, and I carefully eat only slow complex, carbs with lots of fiber, vitamin supplements, and protein. And its not just what I eat that causes problems, its quantity as well, so like the treatment above suggests, I need to be careful to eat little amounts at a time. I'm thankful to my Heavenly Father for helping my find a way to keep my body going, He has taught me so much.
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