Continuing the discussion from Pancreatitis Member Introductions:
Hello, I’m Nicole. I was diagnose at the age of 33 with what they thought was pancreatic cancer. I spent the whole summer waiting for the Whipple procedure that would give me a few more months to live, it was horrible, I had a 3 and 5 yr old at the time. I had surgery in August 2003 at the University of Michigan hospital in Ann Arbor. They opened me up to find that the tumor they were measuring was my calcified pancreas. They did a biopsy since they were in there and it came back chronic pancreatitis. I have been on insulin since 2003 and after the last hospital stay have started on Creon again. From what I have read of others with this horrible disease, I am lucky that my pancreas is mostly calcified. I don’t have the constant daily pain that some do, and in the last 13 years, I was only hopitalized twice with an attack. I have SO much stress in my life that I am surprised things aren’t worse, but then again I don’t have the time to be sick. I am the person who had my gall bladder out in July 2003 and came home to clean my house because my mother kept my children. I feel better when I do things despite the pain, and then you forget when you’re busy that it hurt. My daughter had a bone marrow transplant in Jan 2007 for a blood cancer she had, she is currently 9 1/2 years cancer free and doing well in high school. My husband fell at work in 2011 and has a 5 cm dead spot on the right side of his brain, which has now become a seizure disorder. He also had a pocket of infection in his brain this past winter and had brain surgery in Feb 2016. So to say my life is stressed is an understatement. My son graduated high school last week and is going to be attending Finlandia University in the fall, studying biology and playing football! Thanks for listening, would love people to talk to!
I I will try to remember my log in info. And get on later on today. Thank you again! Ms Barb