The Pain of Pancreatitis

One of the worst and the hardest things about Pancreatitis is the pancreatic pain. It is honestly INSANE how much the pancreas hurts when it gets inflamed. Words cannot describe how horrible the pain gets. I have learned that there are very few lucky people that may not experience any pain, or their pain may not be as bad as it is for the most people who have chronic pancreatitis. Well, unfortunately I belong to the group that gets this ridiculous pain, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Every second of every day, my pain is always there with me, always there.

The pain of Pancreatitis is a very complicated topic and I will be talking a lot about it. I will be posting everything that I have learned about this type of pain from my experience with this disease. As I continue writing this blog, I also continue living with my Pancreatitis. Over time things will be changing, and most likely they will be getting worse for me, so I want you to know that I will continue updating the chapters as soon as I get new information with respect to Pancreatitis. I will be talking about every experience that I have had with this disease, no matter how embarrassing or humiliating things may be. I want you to know that it is extremely difficult for me to expose myself like this, but I am constantly searching for a cure. I do not want to give up. I am not ready to give up. I also pray and hope that my struggles with this disease can help others like me. I am keeping my fingers crossed for all of us.

Now, let’s talk about the nasty pain of Pancreatitis. So how severe is the pain? I honestly do not think that I can find the perfect words to describe how bad the pain gets. Just to give you an idea, I have given birth two times to two beautiful boys, and that was a peanut in comparison to the pancreatic pain that I experience on daily basis. Between the two boys, Peter and Oscar, I was in labor for about 40 hours, from the beginning to the end, so believe me, this was not like a walk in a park for me. Still, dealing with the constant pain of Pancreatitis is the hardest thing that I have ever done. So believe me when I tell you, Pancreatitis causes excruciating pain. It is insane to the point where I feel like I am losing my mind sometimes, like I want to blow my head off just to get a relief. I know that I would never ever do that, but the pain does make me feel like this. It is horrific. Our pancreas is an amazing organ, but when it gets pissed off it can take you down. That is why I say this now, please, please, please love your pancreas and take the best care of it. The amount of pain that comes with Pancreatitis is not worth anything.

My first major symptoms started in 2011 when I was 26. At that time I was raising two beautiful boys and attending university full time. I was full of life. I felt like I can do anything. I had ridiculous amounts of energy. I kept myself busy all the time. My life was full of dreams and future plans. Things in my private and professional life were perfect. Then the symptoms started. First, on daily basis I started vomiting undigested food shortly after eating. I was getting very nauseous all the time. I was losing my appetite. I had severe intestinal spasms and diarrhea after eating. I was not tolerating many different foods that were part of my regular diet before. I had malabsorption of nutrients in my bowels, oily dark stools, frequent migraines, low blood pressure, fatigue, and weight loss. That was going on every day in 2011. As time progressesed, so did the Pancreatitis.

As you can see pancreatic pain was not on the list at first. I had lots and lots of medical tests done since 2011, but I will talk about those in another chapter. Pain is my main focus in this section. In 2012 I started feeling pain in my upper abdomen, in the center and on the left side. The pain was much worse in the upper center of my abdomen. The pain was radiating to the back and it would get much worse after eating. At that time, the pain was not constant, but would come and go. Also, the pain was not as severe as it is today, 8 years after. In 2012, I could tolerate the pain without using any medication. Daily vomiting and malabsorption of nutrients worried me more because I was not getting any relief from those two. On top of everything, I started vomiting bile. Before I even opened my eyes in the morning I would begin throwing up bile and undigested food contents. It was horrible. Things were progressively getting worse and I was not getting any answers.

In 2013 the pain got much more severe. It also progressed to a daily thing. Sleeping became extremely difficult because the back pain would get much worse after laying down. 2013 was the first year when I started using over the counter pain medication, called Acetaminophen to deal with the pain. I still tolerated most of my pain because I was always against any pain medication unless absolutely necessary. Acetaminophen helped for about a year, but by the end of 2013 the pain got so bad that nothing over the counter would relieve my pain. Eating was becoming impossible. The pain would get too severe and trigger vomiting. The nausea would also get much worse when the pain increased. My appetite was completely gone. I was seeing my family doctor for all of these issues, but I was not being heard.

First, in May of 2011 after a blood test was done, I was told that I have H-Pylori bacteria, which was treated with a course of antibiotics and PPI’S. After this treatment, my symptoms persisted and things continued to get worse. To be continued…..