Good Afternoon Everyone,

I'm brand new to the forum and new to Chronic Pancreatitis. I don't yet have a definitive diagnosis like many of you but have most of the halmark signs. I'm waiting on an EUS but who knows when I will get in for that, our health care system is swamped.

I had felt for 3 or so months things were going down hill for me health wise, it just took me a while to understand what was going on. I didn't even know what a pancreas was until a month ago :-). I've been a reasonably heavy drinker most of my adult life... not to the point where I was drinking in the morning or during work, but wine in the evenings and 6-12 drinks in the evenings on the weekends. Clearly I feel pretty terrible as this is at least partly caused by myself, but I can not dwell on that as it is in the past.

I got sick with what I thought was a bad stomach bug 4 months back, that took weeks to finally run its course, then another one about 2 months ago that was viscous but eventually settled. A month ago however I got a stomach but that didn't go away and was only prevalent in the hours after eating. I also had pain in my upper back that had got worse over the last 3 months, as well as dark urine the odd morning and kidney(ish) pain. I also had a few fatty bms which I never discussed with anyone, just thought I ate too much fat and my body didn't need it all. My bms have floated for a long time.

This last 4 weeks went from normal, to sore stomach, to sore stomach and back pain and now I have pain under my left rib which is severe. It feels like someone poured acid on me and does not go away for 36 hours or so, although I feel much better in mornings and absolutely awful in the evenings.

Clearly I stopped drinking completely a month ago after I suspected pancreatitis. I went from eating regular, to cutting down on fat, to eating smaller meals, to eating fruits and vegetables and whole wheat bread and chicken breast, to soup and now I am down to smoothies. Yesterday I tried a whole bowl of veggie soup for lunch and suffered all night. I'm down about 35lbs which is a ton, although the first 15-20 of that was just eating super well in the summer.

I've had an ultrasound, ct scan, blood work, xrays of chest and abdomen, urine samples all come back clean. Due to my symptoms, the doc figures 'minimal change' chronic pancreatitis and has referred me for a EUS.

The doc put me on a Proton Pump Inhibitor which made my stomach pain after eating better. I also have some T3s that I am using to help get through the pain in the evening and trying to get sleep. Every day I get definitively worse, although I am working hard to hold my head high because I have young kids. I have so many questions:

- Is this the best I am ever going to feel or is it possible to get out of this downward pain cycle?
- Stopping drinking is easy, eating very strict is not super hard for me either. How do I start getting better? What are the steps you took?
- Are there any supplements you would recommend me to take like digestive enzymes?
- If you had it to do all over again, and were at the time of your diagnosis, what would you do differently?
- The pain is terrible and I know they will prescribe pain killers but don't want to get addicted to them. Any tips?
- I'm also constipated, any advice?
- How do you keep you calories up?
- What are some things I should ask my GI Doctor (December 3rd)?

I appreciate you spending the time to read my story and am looking forward to hearing from some of you.

Cheers,

Cory