My Experience with Acute Necrotizing Pancreatitis

In 2015, I noticed that sometimes when I would drink alcohol I would feel this weird stinging sensation by my stomache area. This would come and go on and off. I was on medication for high cholesterol (Gemfibrizol) which had been found, and to be heriditary. I had also had my tonsils taken out this year due to repeated bouts of tonsilitis. I also had been having a lot of dental work done, being on antibiotics a lot between the tonsilitis and dental work. I had heard that.. antibiotics can raise your cholesterol and triglyceride levels. I was also taking birth control and had been since I was about 13 years old to control heavy bleeding during that time of the month. I was taking rantidine for acid reflux. So I would notice this stinging pain, and decided it was time to get it checked out.. I was leaning towards the idea that I had an ulcer. I was also having diahreah a lot.. 3 times a week or so.. which I thought was due to antibiotics but would also occur sometimes after drinking. The doctor ordered me two weeks out of work in order to get a ultrasound, blood work, and complete x rays done of my upper intestines. She felt a "mass". Everything came back normal, though this stinging pain continued on. My diet wasn't the greatest, I just ate whatever I wanted and how much I wanted. I only drank on the weekends. I started to get bloated, really bloated feeling, tired feeling, sickly feeling. My lower back ached a lot, and this pain progressed into feeling like a sharp twig was jabbed under my left rib. My rantidine for stomache acid was increased. I kept looking for more answers via google. I knew something was off when my temp was about 99.1 every night it seemed. I was sweaty. I found gastritis, ulcer, and pancreatitis. I scoffed at the idea of pancreaitits, I said oh gosh no way that would be happening to me. I woke up one day feeling like utter crap. I made it two hours into work, feeling utterly sick to my stomach, couldn't eat, was just about dry heaving, and my back and left side of my body hurt like it was being crushed. I was instructed to take ibuprofen.. and if the pain didn't go away, to go into the doctor's office. I decided to go to the e.r anyway. The pain was too much. I was admitted after having a ct scan, and blood work done. My triglyceride levels were at 9,000 and I was throwing up bile. Sure enough, I had acute pancreatitis brought on by high triglycerides. My condition wasn't improving. I had a feeding tube placed down into my stomache, heparin shots in my stomach to prevent a blood clot from forming, iv fluids, I couldn't eat anything, could hardly even drink water... I couldn't even move. I was given morphine every two hours. Once the first hour would pass the pain came back.. excruciating, I would whimper and I remember just repeatedly pressing that call button to get more pain meds. A catheter was placed in also as I had a real hard time even getting up to go pee. The pain was too severe. I had another ct scan done, chest x rays... I had developed pneumonia, was still puking on and off, and they believed a pseudo cyst was forming at the tail of my pancreas. It was also getting difficult to breathe, so I was put on oxygen. I just remember... being so scared, thinking this is it, They can't figure out how to make me better. I truly believed I was dying. The only things that relieved anything were the morphine, my family being there, unfailing hope, and when they sucked the contents of my stomach out, not so much when they tried to feed me, that was awful. A week had passed, and I wasn't given morphine.. the last night in that hospital, percocet. The percocet didn't help the pain one bit. I had a total of 2 hours of sleep, between the horrible pain and having anxiety to the extreme. My blood pressure reached an all time high of about 156 the entire time I was hospitalized. I was shipped off to a bigger hospital an hour away the following day. Once there.. I had another scan done, and awaited news. I was told I had severe acute necrotizing pancreatitis, a pseudocyst on the tail of my pancreas, pneumonia, and I also had suffered a pulmonary embolism. It was so bad that, just going to the bathroom felt like I was weighed down by a rock slab, and it took me a minute or two to completely regain my breath once back in the bed. My lips had turned purple at one point my family members told me. The next day I was put under ( thankfully for the second time around) to have a feeding tube inserted past by pancreas into my lower intestine. That way any food that was going into by body, was not further inflaming my pancreas. Which is what was happening in the previous hospital. Thankfully for me, my necrosis was sterile. I was put on a bunch of different medications. Let me tell you, when you have a feeding tube in... and you have a pill about the size of a lego.. throwing up, gagging, becomes routine almost. It very much sucked. Thankfully this feeding tube was smaller than the first, but everytime i swallowed just about... that tube had a way of going back in and gagging me. Finally we discovered if we put the pills in applesauce, it wasn't so hard to take. I had a pick line put in so they could give me medicines more easily. Unfortunately for me.. they were not allowed to take my blood this way. My arm was so swollen and bruised at this point, that any needles going into my arm hurt terribly. I gained about 60 pounds in water weight just from my skin swelling. I had my ring cut off in the previous hospital. It took around a week and 3 days, but slowly and gradually I was able to get up and walk, get rid of the fluid weight. One doctor had an idea, a very good one. Insulin... Insulin is what made my triglyceride levels finally come down to a stable level. The one doctor, told me that I was extremely lucky and that I nearly died. Some of it is like a blur to me now, but I remember the pain, and I remember feeling absolutely helpless. I couldn't do anything. My family watched me suffer, and in turn.. that caused me a great deal of suffering. I couldn't tell them I'd be okay, I couldn't tell them I was afraid I was going to die, I couldn't tell them, that I felt any better than the previous day, because it took forever for me to even feel like okay, I'm finally improving. It was frusterating. They had a special disease doctor and everything. I literally felt like I was a patient on the show house, it was crazy. I have now been almost two years free of the hospital. I take atorvastatin and fenofribrate to control my lipids and triglycerides. I no longer take birth control pills but thankfully for me, things have been staying okay there. My pseudocyst went from being almost 6cm down to like 1 cm if nothing currently. I was told I would still feel some discomfort here and there most likely due to scarring. I was not given another ct/mri as I've had a lot of them done. It's still strange getting use to not drinking. Even after almost 2 years, I still get the urge, and it kinda bums me out in social settings, but it's certainly not something I'd want to mess with. I basically watch what I eat and avoid lots of sugar things or things too high in fats. I do slip off here and there but that's normal. It's a scary thing, and I think once you've had pancreatitis, it's something that always stays with you. It's there in the back of your head, and some days it's really hard, the anxiety is hard. All it takes is one little pang to think there's something going on, but my blood tests have remained steady and normal.