Pancreatitis Support Group
Chronic pancreatitis can present as episodes of acute inflammation in a previously injured pancreas, or as chronic damage with persistent pain or malabsorption. Patients with chronic pancreatitis can present with persistent abdominal pain or steatorrhea, as well as severe nausea. Some patients with chronic pancreatitis often look very sick, while others don't appear to be...
For the chronically ill, details are all. To cope with chronic illness means to routinely scan minute bodily processes. Attention is vigilantly focused, sometimes hour by hour, to the specifics of circumstances and events that could be potential sources of worsening. There is the daily quest for control of the known provoking agents. Enervating decisions must be made about when to initiate or terminate an activity, when to move from baseline medication to second-level drugs, and when to seek professional help. And all this occurs in the context of active lives that are filled with the same pressures, threats, vagaries, and exultations that make of normal living such a blooming, buzzing confusion [James] Is it any wonder that exhaustion is one of the common shared experiences of chronic illness?
Arthur Kleinman, The Illness Narratives
Arthur Kleinman, The Illness Narratives
A Harvard psychiatrist and anthropologist argues that interpreting the illness experience is an art tragically neglected by modern medical training, and presents a compelling case for bridging the gap between patient and doctor. Based on twenty years of clinical experience studying and treating chronic illness, a Harvard psychiatrist and anthropologist argues that diagnosing illness is an art tragically neglected by modern medical training, and presents a compelling case for bridging the gap between patient and doctor.
We are lucky to find doctors that are the exception rather than the rule.
I love my PCP.....the GI docs need some work....heehee