I have suffered from pancreatitis for 10 years now. I have been through a medical nightmare. I was born with a lot of birth defects of my pancreas. Annular pancreas, pancreatic divisum, sphinter of oddi disfunction, and no minor papilla. These are what we know currently. I have been scheduled at the University of Minnesota to undergo what is known as a total pancreatectomy with an islet cell transplant. The pancreas is removed and the insulin and glucagon making cells are isolated and harvested, the duodenum and spleen are removed. The pancreas is placed into University of Wisconsin solution to digest the organ and release the islet cells and then they are infused on to the liver and the portal vein. I have read that sometimes heparin is used, apparently this helps the islets to settle in.
I am scheduled for surgery August 11, 2006. This surgery would not be possible without the help of my God Jesus Christ my King. And of course a very supportive spouse Michael Atwell. This man has stood beside me, when most would have probably walked away. We met and fell in love, and he knew from the very beginning that I was sick. He never waivered in his commitment to me, or my disease process. There have been many times Drs. have not believed me, and when the final diagnosis was given, he said " I have never doubted you once, I knew you had pancreatitis. I dedicate this blog to my husband, lover, friend to you Michael Atwell. I truly believe that God put us together. Without you I would have never lived this long. I wake up everyday and push forward for you, you are the reason I keep going. I will try and make a daily post as to what it is like to have chronic pancreatitis, what it is that we go through, the good the bad and the ugly. If you happened here because you googled pancreatitis I can lead you to more board sites that will be mentioned at another time, as I will need their permission to list.
Pancreatitis, is medically known as inflammation of the pancreas. Most consider it a disease of alcohol abuse. I for one am not an alcoholic and have never been. As I stated earlier I was born with defects of the pancreas, for what reason, only God himself knows. But for those of us out there I will say that "I am fearfully and wonderfully made" and that" I am made in the image of God Almighty" by his own wonderful hand. God makes no mistakes. Please sit back with a cup of coffee and begin to read my life, it will be a "good read". I will show you that with perseverance and a lot of help from God that those of us with this disease can and will do what ever it takes to live a normal existence. There are a lot of hardships along the way. Governmental assistance such as SSD which takes too long to get and is a horrible fight. Attempting to find a pain management Dr. or any Dr. that has any clue about pancreatitis can be a nightmare in it's self. Drs. who only want to make more money by doing procedures that have little to no postive effect. Being deemed a drug seeker or addicted to medication, that I need to keep myself as comfortable as possible. The pain never goes away, it only becomes tolerable with enough medication. I have an implanted intrathecal pump (pain pump) which has helped a lot, but it does not stop the damage that is being done on a daily basis, by an organ attempting to digest food, which is in reality only digesting itself. I have a tube inserted into my small bowel for nutrition that is called a J-tube. I eat no food as food is too painful, it stimulates the pancreas to digest the food and the cycle of pancreatic digestion starts again. I wake up most days unable to walk until I have taken pain medication. Some days I wake up to the sound of my own voice screaming from pain. Some times I wake up to my husband saying "Baby open your mouth your crying in your sleep" attempting to put pain medication in my mouth. This is a disease I would not wish on anyone. I personally believe that sometimes we as people become so obsessed with things of the world that we have to go through some trying times so that when those times are over we will truly understand how sweet the taste of life can really be. I will close with this, it is true what doesn't kill you does make you stronger.
I am scheduled for surgery August 11, 2006. This surgery would not be possible without the help of my God Jesus Christ my King. And of course a very supportive spouse Michael Atwell. This man has stood beside me, when most would have probably walked away. We met and fell in love, and he knew from the very beginning that I was sick. He never waivered in his commitment to me, or my disease process. There have been many times Drs. have not believed me, and when the final diagnosis was given, he said " I have never doubted you once, I knew you had pancreatitis. I dedicate this blog to my husband, lover, friend to you Michael Atwell. I truly believe that God put us together. Without you I would have never lived this long. I wake up everyday and push forward for you, you are the reason I keep going. I will try and make a daily post as to what it is like to have chronic pancreatitis, what it is that we go through, the good the bad and the ugly. If you happened here because you googled pancreatitis I can lead you to more board sites that will be mentioned at another time, as I will need their permission to list.
Pancreatitis, is medically known as inflammation of the pancreas. Most consider it a disease of alcohol abuse. I for one am not an alcoholic and have never been. As I stated earlier I was born with defects of the pancreas, for what reason, only God himself knows. But for those of us out there I will say that "I am fearfully and wonderfully made" and that" I am made in the image of God Almighty" by his own wonderful hand. God makes no mistakes. Please sit back with a cup of coffee and begin to read my life, it will be a "good read". I will show you that with perseverance and a lot of help from God that those of us with this disease can and will do what ever it takes to live a normal existence. There are a lot of hardships along the way. Governmental assistance such as SSD which takes too long to get and is a horrible fight. Attempting to find a pain management Dr. or any Dr. that has any clue about pancreatitis can be a nightmare in it's self. Drs. who only want to make more money by doing procedures that have little to no postive effect. Being deemed a drug seeker or addicted to medication, that I need to keep myself as comfortable as possible. The pain never goes away, it only becomes tolerable with enough medication. I have an implanted intrathecal pump (pain pump) which has helped a lot, but it does not stop the damage that is being done on a daily basis, by an organ attempting to digest food, which is in reality only digesting itself. I have a tube inserted into my small bowel for nutrition that is called a J-tube. I eat no food as food is too painful, it stimulates the pancreas to digest the food and the cycle of pancreatic digestion starts again. I wake up most days unable to walk until I have taken pain medication. Some days I wake up to the sound of my own voice screaming from pain. Some times I wake up to my husband saying "Baby open your mouth your crying in your sleep" attempting to put pain medication in my mouth. This is a disease I would not wish on anyone. I personally believe that sometimes we as people become so obsessed with things of the world that we have to go through some trying times so that when those times are over we will truly understand how sweet the taste of life can really be. I will close with this, it is true what doesn't kill you does make you stronger.
posted by Lisa Atwell | 6:28 PM
1 Comments:
I so know how your hubby felt hearing you crying in your sleep. My hub did also, even doped on pills he would moan and sob even asleep. This is totally consuming disease that NO one can possibly understand unless they have it or live with someone afflicted by this monster. Im wishing you the peace from pain that has been given my hubby!
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