Pancreatitis, didn't even know what a Pancreas was... (pain, blood, diabetic)
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I am a 24 year old guy finishing college. I probably would have finished sooner had I not spent so much time drinking and having fun. I did not see a physician for anything since I was in high school until July '08. I went in to just get a check-up and make sure everything was alright. I, in actuality, had known that my drinking was affecting something in my abdominal area due to "weird", several day vomiting binges and severe pain. My doctor was very concerned once he pried all of the details out of me and told me to stop drinking. That lasted for a week or so, but it had been so long since I hadn't drank for that long that I felt great! I went back for a check-up and he said the same thing, no drinking. Again, no drinking for a week or so, then back to normal. I continued this until the first week of Oct. '08 when I had the worst pain ever and thought I was going to, well, maybe pass out. I drove to the ER expecting for them to give me some meds and send me home. Not the case. They took blood and urine and pumped me full of fluids and pain killers. Once the blood came back about an hour later they told me I was to be transported to the hospital by ambulance. I was overly surprised and asked what the problem was. They said that my pancreas was producing lipase levels of almost 1,000 and I was unbelievably dehydrated. I then went to the hospital where they told me I needed to stay for at least a week. I was on an IV with no food for 3 days and it was so awful going through alcohol withdrawls and not sleeping at all. Finally on day 4 I decided I had to go and get back to school, work, and everything I unexpectedly missed for those days.
After all of the information and the doctor scaring the hell out of me, I didn't drink for a month. Then I slowly drank a glass of wine here and there with dinner. I decided absolutely no hard alcohol. Wine became my way of "not drinking". Then I had an attack and didn't go to the hospital. It was, without a doubt, the most horrible night of my life. I, now for the fourth time, was not going to drinking. I felt great and didn't drink for several weeks loving the fact that I could get up early, not be fatigued, and could drive anywhere any time. And then, the holidays rolled around and I went to the beach for a week. I stuck to my wine theory and was fine for the whole time. Came back and drank lightly, occasional beer. Until yesterday I had my third real attack.
I've finally decided that I can't do it by myself because EVERYTHING in my life has an element of alcohol involved in it. I love sports, I work at a bar, my friends are all my age, that's what you do. I guess my main question would be, does anyone have a sufficient substitute? I don't like cigarettes, not supposed to drink soda or caffeine, those meds the doc gave me turn me into a zombie, anything?
I appreciate anyone who has taken the time to read the whole stupid story. I don't think I have told anyone the whole thing, ever. If any of you have anything you can suggest that makes your pains stay away, good foods, drinks, anything would be appreciated.
I am a RN and have taken care of many patients with pancreatitis - a couple your age. I know it is horrible and extremely painful. It is difficult to diagnose and treat. The pain meds don't help that much, at least for many of my patients.....it is sad to see the same people come back on repeat visits b/c the decided to go drinking again or can't control their diet enough.....not that i have any room to talk. the exact cause of pancreatitis isn't really known - i guess some people are just more prone to it than others.
you probably were told this but strict diet control has alot to do with preventing reoccurences....no greasy or fatty foods and no ETOH. there are also several others that irritate the pancreas.....google them.
Pancreatitis can also be triggered by some medications: thiazide diuretics and steroids are two that come to mind.
Be aware that pancreatitis can be a life threatening disease. If you're drinking enough to trigger the problem, it's time to take an objective look at how much alcohol you're consuming.
It'll take a lifestyle change to keep yourself pain free. Say goodbye to greasy and oily fried foods--french fries, fast food hamburgers and fried chicken, onion rings, sausage and such.
Don't despair!
This opens the door to a world of healthy eating--you might want to meet with a nutritionist to help you discover all the great foods you can eat. Whole foods, broiled, steamed, poached, salads, baked potatoes, broiled potatoes, rice, most Asian foods, most Italian foods, Greek foods, etc.
Meat? Sure, just choose lower fat varieties such as making a burger out of chopped sirloin that has 7% fat as opposed to plain hamburger meat as high as 40% fat...
What to drink? Fruit juices, fresh water with a lemon or lime slice, herbal ice teas, spritzers with juice and carbonated water...one of my favorites is cranberry juice with lime and carbonated water.
I don't have your condition, don't like alcohol very much, but do have a digestive system that doesn't react well to high fat and greasy foods, so I've learned to avoid the food culprits...
Be the designated driver all the time. You can do everything you want drunk or sober. If you have the need to drink to do it. Thats when you should think about popping into an AA meeting.
It talks about conventional and alternative treatments.
I myself had better healing luck with alternative treatments for things that seemed to be chronic and were not responding as well as I liked to conventional treatment.
You do want to take care of this and not play around with testing drinking out anymore.
If you read on that page there are other things that happen with this that are very painful (multi organ failure) or annoying and dangerous (diabetes)
If you think you hate not drinking wait till you see what you cant have when you are eating for a diabetic body.
great post pitt.......but system won't let me rep you again for awhile.
To the OP--I feel for ya. I've never been much of a drinker but did on occasion enjoy a bit of wine or a mixed drink. When I was diagnosed with a liver disorder and was told I could never drink alcohol again-ever!!; well no big deal if that prevents my liver from totally failing-right?
Sometimes................but not often I will desire a drink; but I won't do that to my liver--I just refuse.
Good luck and I hope you feel better and healthy soon
Quote:
Originally Posted by pitt_transplant
Be the designated driver all the time. You can do everything you want drunk or sober. If you have the need to drink to do it. Thats when you should think about popping into an AA meeting.
It talks about conventional and alternative treatments.
I myself had better healing luck with alternative treatments for things that seemed to be chronic and were not responding as well as I liked to conventional treatment.
You do want to take care of this and not play around with testing drinking out anymore.
If you read on that page there are other things that happen with this that are very painful (multi organ failure) or annoying and dangerous (diabetes)
If you think you hate not drinking wait till you see what you cant have when you are eating for a diabetic body.
I am with you. How can one or two glasses of wine suddenly do this to me? I wish I could take back the years of earlier drinking. Can someone with pancreatitis ever be well enough to have a drink at a bar or nightclub or does all alcohol use lead to chronic pancreatitis? I think I am mourning the loss of my wine. It was my five o'clock happy hour. I think that those of us saying goodbye to it are going to mourn. It's something we love. It's like overeaters giving up cookies or smokers taking that last puff. Five years ago, I gave up cigarettes. I'm sure I can do this. I just have this sneaking suspicion that I am going to search out every way to avoid the giving it up "forever" bit and probably end up falling on my face. I just have too much to live for to chuck it for a nice wine. WINE WINE WINE. Wine is supposed to be good for me. *****!
No offense, but I'd be taking a look at an alcohol problem here. If you keep going back to something that threatens your life, it strikes me as more than social drinking. Once someone has pancreatitus they are supposed to lay off the booze - forever. If you continue to drink, I definitely think you have a problem with alcohol.
I had viral pancreatitis a few years ago. Go non-alcoholic! I wasn't able to drink but still wanted to go out, so I drank non-alcoholic beer or a "virgin" mixed drink.
Definately stay away from fatty foods.
I never had a re-occurance of the pancreatitis because I didn't drink. If you find that you cannot stop I would get some help. It sounds like that may be the case with you. If AA isn't your thing then there are other options. Google Smart Recovery. I read something about it somewhere as being an alternative to AA. You need to get some type of help before you cause any more damage to your body.
There are a few other threads on here about pancreatits. You might want to check them out.
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