A bit of background

So, where to begin… I’m writing this blog mainly to keep friends and family updated with my status.  However, I have gained such an incredible amount of information from blogs of others dealing with pancreatitis, maybe one day this will be helpful to someone else going through a similar ordeal.

I guess it really started in March 2006 when I had my gall bladder removed.  It needed to be done – I had 3 large (ping-pong ball sized) stones in there.  The surgery went fairly well, although my surgeon had a very difficult time removing it.  Apparently, I have a very unique anatomy, and my gall bladder was connected to both my bile duct and my liver.  But, I recovered quickly and was back to work in 2 days.  Then about 6 months later, after a large dinner, I started vomiting uncontrollably and developed severe abdominal pain.  I figured it was a case of food poisoning, but it just never got better.  Maybe some day I’ll get into all the details, but basically I was incredibly sick – bedridden – for 2 ½ years until I saw a Medical Mysteries show about SOD (Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction), researched the best doctors in the world, found Dr Freeman in MN and flew out to see him.  He performed an ECRP with manometry and diagnosed me with SOD as well as incomplete pancreas divisum.  All of my pancreatic enzymes flow through my minor papilla, which is incredibly tiny and loops over itself twice.  Because the duct doesn’t open to allow for the digestive enzymes to be released, they back up in my pancreas and it basically digests itself.  It’s horribly painful – the worst pain in my life.  I can’t even describe it to others.  Anyway, Dr Freeman did a biliary sphincterotomy and a minor papillotomy, basically cutting both ducts open.  It was amazing.  After being bedridden and in and out of hospitals for 2 ½ years, I finally felt better.  Seriously, he did the procedure on a Thursday and I was scuba diving in Cozumel the next Wednesday.

That worked for about a year.  Then in April 2009, Dr Cunningham in Tucson performed the same procedure.  (Dr Cunningham actually trained Dr Freeman, so I felt ok about going to see him.)  Immediately thereafter, I actually felt worse.  I guess one of the stents stayed in my pancreas instead of falling out like it’s supposed to, and that was what was causing the pain.  During that procedure, Dr Cunningham also diagnosed me with chronic pancreatitis.  This means that my pancreas is constantly inflamed.  I will get bouts of acute pancreatitis that make me drop to the floor, but at other times there’s always that low, underlying ache that never really goes away.  It’s tolerable, but not fun.  I have very few days when I’ve got a ton of energy and am ready to go tackle the world.  Most of the time, I’m just exhausted and want to curl up in bed.  I try to fake it at work, because I have to.  Which means that my family suffers because home is the only place where I don’t need to pretend that everything’s fine.  It’s not fair to them, and I want to apologize for that.  But they’re wonderful and supportive and I could never get through any of this if it weren’t for them, so thank you.  From the bottom of my heart!

Here’s some good info on SOD and what a sphincterotomy vs sphincteroplasty is:  http://sod-stinks.blogspot.com/2007/04/transduodenal-sphincteroplasty.html