Sharon

Sharon's Story

Ever since I was a teenager I have had some problems with my BM's. I was never diagnosed with anything, I think that it would have been diagnosed as IBS but they didn't not have that diagnosis back then. By the time I was 20, I was having severe heartburn or so I thought. I was also diagnosed with ulcers at that time. I was not hospitalized and they did not have the diagnostic tools that they now have, so who knows what was wrong.

When I was 27, I got pregnant with my second son. This is when the problems really started. At about five months, I suddenly had pain so great I could not breath. I thought I was losing my baby, or having a heart attack. By the time I got to the ER, I was no longer in pain. The doctors just said I must have had gas pains, go home and relax and everything would be okay. This happened two or three more times during my pregnancy, but I did not bother to go the hospital as I assumed the doctors knew what they were talking about. Nine months after my son was born, I again was in great pain. Actually, I was rolling on the floor in agony, I thought for sure I was having a heart attack. When I got to the hospital, again they could find no reason for the pain and sent me home with instructions to have a test done to check my gallbladder. When I tried to schedule such test, I was given a date two months away. I called my doctor and told him if I waited that long I would be dead by then anyway, so I did not schedule the test. I was admitted that day, and saw a surgeon who said my gallbladder was expanding and he could not operate until it relaxed a bit. Two days later, I was in the operating room because my gallbladder was ready to burst. This was in 1976, so the surgery was major and took 4 hours to complete. I was released from the hospital two weeks later and told everything would be fine.

Four days later, on my husbands birthday, I again was in so much pain that I could not stand it. I went back to the ER, was admitted again, underwent their tests and told that somehow they did not get all of the stones out. There was one that was bouncing between the liver and the pancreas, it would plug whichever duct it was at, but was too big to pass on its own, causing pancreatitis. This meant that I was either sick as a dog and in so much pain that all I could do was cry, or I felt okay but was completely yellow. This required another surgery a couple of days later. This surgery was basically the same gallbladder procedure, but they were looking for a gall stone. The surgery took almost 8 hours, and the first thing I remember in the recovery room is the doctor saying she needs to wake up now or she won't wake up at all. After another three week stay, I was released and told I would not have any more problems with my pancreas.

I seemed to be okay for the next 23 years, I did suffer from constipation (diagnosed under active bowel), diarrhea (diagnosed over active bowel), and pain in the stomach or pancreas area (diagnosed as a sensitive stomach). Then in April 1998, I woke up one night in such horrific pain I thought I was having a heart attack. I really thought I was going to die. At the ER, I was diagnosed with pancreatitis, and admitted but only for a couple of days as my enzyme levels went down to normal right away. Ever since that time I have been in pain almost all the time. I have had some good days, but not many. I am so tired of telling my family that I do not feel good and I am in pain.

I have had 5 ERCP's, two stents placed, which have not helped. Now, my GI Doctor tells me he has just been working on the common bile duct, not the pancreatic duct. He wants me to see his partner, who does work on the pancreatic duct. He again asked me where the pain is, and when I told him he said if it is in the back it probably is the pancreatic duct that is causing the pain. Why did he not tell me this 3 years ago when I told him about this pain? The pain has always started in front under the ribs and centered in my back. It has never changed, I fact this is the same pain I had in 1976.

I do not know what I will be doing next, but after this weekend I do know something has to be done. I have been considering contacting Dr. Sutherland in MN, but do not know if this is the right thing to do. I know my doctors here in MI do not seem to be helping me at all. Sometimes I do not think they really listen to me. They probably think I just want the pain meds.

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