Back from hospital

Pancreatitis
#1

To all of my dear friends,

On Jan 14, my doctor had me admitted upon my arrival to the hospital. Unfortunately, it was a “record” day of people in the Emergency Room and I had to wait 22.5 hours before I got a bed! My doctor came to see me on Tuesday the 15th and actually took about 45 minutes with me asking more questions than ANY Kaiser doctor had ever asked me before! After that I had (in this order) an endoscopy, CAT scan, MRCP and a colonoscopy. They did not find too much wrong with me except for a bit of gastritis and a couple of irritated spots in the stomach. They did find that I had a UTI and that my Vitamin D levels were extremely low (I am taking 100,000 IU’s of Vitamin D to catch up with that).

They also had me eat whatever I could off of the diabetic and low residual diet menu. After a while of just eating a bit of fruit, I gradually was able to venture out and eat more of a meal. By the 24th, I was then able to eat most of the meal itself as well as some extra chocolate pudding and popsicles. I was released from hospital on the 26th, my birthday, at 4 pm.

Right now, I am so exhausted and tired all of the time. I also ate more than i should have the day after I got home and have paid for it since. I still can eat what I want to but I have to eat very small meals throughout the day. I am hoping that this will really work. I do not really have any diagnosis or prognosis. So, If I can stay out of the hospital for more than 2 months, it will be a record. I started this round of illness the day I went off of TPM on Dec 5. % weeks later, I was back in the hospital. Now, should this 5-6 week cycle of health to terrible illness repeat itself I shall definitely be disappointed. I will just have to wait and see.

All of you take care and, Happy B-Day to yo Lisa!

Love,

Anyse

#2

I had been thinking about you. I am sorry I didn’t write sooner. I am glad you are able to eat more, I do hope for you some relief. I also hope you can stay clear from the hospital. Take care and try to stay hydrated!
Keri

#3

anyse,

happy to see your home. may this time lead to many mos of outta hosp time. i’m sorry that the tests all were negative as i know this can be frustrating. i was due yesterday for a cat scan and cancelled it after learning it will cost me 800 dollars. since learning from so many on here that cat scans often reveal nothing i was reluctant to get it done. i did mention to my primary care about the MRCP but, he again ordered the cat instead, thinking this is the bible to all. so i gather i will be looking for another doc in the near future, i hope all is well today and all days ahead are smoother then the days you leave behind.

your friend in the south
nancy

#4

Hey anyse, I am sorry to hear you have been in the hosp. no fun, at
least you came home on your birthday ! I want to wish you a belated
happy birthday and I hope so much you regain some strength soon ! Best
wishes !

julie

#5

@Anyse

Wanted to ask you what is the reason for the vitamin D levels being so low did anyone give you an answer ? or is because of the UTI. hope your resting well hun.

nancy

#6

Anyse: Sorry you had such a rough time at the hospital, but belated happy birthday wishes. I am not one to give advice, because I just don’t have as much experience as so many others do and I also know that everyone’s cp hits them in so many different ways. So I will just offer support and hope that you are feeling better and better each day. Take care of yourself. Ellen

#7

Thank you, Julie.

It is always so good to get back home from hospital. Back to the nice
warm, comfortable number bed, the love of my family, the loving
poodle, Dante, and all that.

Thank you for a belated birthday greeting as well. Usually, I drop a
million hints before my birthday but, I was in the hospital and they
don’t allow computers in there! You would think that they would have
their act together to let people have their computers in hospitals now
along with internet connections and all that stuff. Oh well, instead,
I read a few boos! LOL!

Anyse

#8

Nancy,

I have not been out in the sun for well over 3 or four years now. I
will be taking supplements from now on (I also don’t drink cold milk).

Anyse

#9

Anyse,
I’m soooo very glad that you are home from the hospital and able to rest in your own comfortable environment. To be near friends, family, and our very close companions (our pets). I have a Beagle and her name is Tassey!! She is such a character, I don’t know what I would do without her. I have a loving husband that comforts me when I’m going thru pain, but my dog has the unconditional love, and she seems to sense when I’m having a bad day and stays close by my side!! I’m happy that you got to come home on your birthday!! I’m praying that you will continue to gain your strength back Anyse! Keep your chin up and hang in there. It will get better, just take one day at a time and don’t rush or try to do too much until you gain your strength back!! Just know that here on Careplace, your are loved and cared about! We all know and are familiar with the pain that you have had to go through. Take Care of Yourself Anyse! Truffles 16

#10

Anyse, I wondered what had happened to you. I’m glad you are back from the hospital. Hope you had a gooood b-day.

Vonnie

#11

Truffles,

I an glad to hear about your Beagle, Tassey. My little 7.5 lb.
miniature poodle is named Dante. When I am not feeling too well, as I
have the past two days) and we are alone, he curls up under the covers
between or under my legs and lets me pet him as I please and all is
calm. He has turned out to be quite a guy since we got him on
Valentine’s Day last year. The “unconditional” love of pets is always
so nice to have since they have no great sense of judgement about our
actions but do have them as to how we are feeling. When I am upset and
talking about Kaiser, he does not even come near me at all! He senses
my anger and knows that it is not too good at all. Otherwise all is
well between him and me.

With care,

Anyse

#12

To all of you,

Thank you for your Birthday wishes and, certainly I send mine to Lisa.
Is there a way in this group to send out birthday notices each month
of our members? It would be so cool to have that.

Anyse

#13

Hi, Anyse…

My post didn’t post so here’s the short version (sorry)–

I wanted to welcome you home and wish you a Happy Birthday also!

At least we’re both home!!!

The site posts to the Group when our birthdays are coming up-- that’s how they know.

All the best and hope this one posts–

Love and hugs back to you,

Lisa

#14

Jamie,

Time is a devil of a thing! T. S. Eliot said that “April is the cruelest month.” What he meant in saying that is that the promise of life in the spring is far greater than that. It is also, in the long run, the promise of death. I say these things because you reverberated with me when you stated that you have now had a long time in just finding out what was wrong with you (about 1/3 of your life) and that the other 2/3rds are but a distant memory now. Soon, you will have spent half of your life in this horrible pain and suffering with pancreatitis. It HAS to change someone, somehow. One who was not changed would simply not be human. We hope that change is normally “good” and we hope it will always be. However, one seeing pain and suffering for so long may not “expect” the “good.” You don’t have to be an optimist to be a pessimist! Of this singular truth I am sure. While it may sound illogical or bending of the mind frame that we all have–it does get bent and, sometimes, broken. I know that I, at times, have been “broken” and I have so many mental scars to prove it as well as damage to the very ones whom I love the most. This illness makes no saints! I could never see the wondrous grace of Fatima full of arrows through her heart without joining in the cry or the screaming that just “has” to accompany it!

This year (in the last 365 days) I have spent 66 days in hospital and, even now, I begin to lose any real sense that this has accomplished very much overall in my own case. I got out this time on my birthday. My follow up with my doctor will be on Feb 14. My follow-up with my specialist will be on the 21st. I am already dreading those days with great trepidation. I just KNOW that there will be no answers, that my 5-6 week cycle has already begun and runs out on about March 7-10 when I will be back in hospital for “unknown” and “recurring” reasons.

I can hear my Primary Care Physician saying wonderful things with a positive voice as though this shamanistic act will somehow discourage this evil spell from coming again to me and forcing me back into the shaman’s home for extra “healing” potions and spells. My GI specialist will be more forbidding! She will not have to wave any wand or even level some spell. She will just say that there is no “reason” for me to be ill, to not be able to eat or drink, that my pain must be coming from somewhere that is beyond any shaman at all and, therefore, should not exist at all. Yet, I will still be in the hall of the shamans, their spells wafting through the halls and rooms, their chanting of diagnoses and prognoses clashing like spiritual swords in the heavens
(a sound only they hear!).

Enough of this for now.

The best to you and ALL,
Anyse

#15

Dear Anyse & ALL!!

Thank you for sharing your recent experience while in the hospital. I, like you, start counting the days, times, number of admissions and health related concerns and document them as victories if I am able to go without a lot of intervention. Sadly, this lets all of us know that we are not alone. Until I started reading many of the topics on Careplace, I truly did not realize just how many people were effected by pancreatitis. I live in a rural area and even though the hospital I know inside out - j/k; has over 400 beds, I am usualy the only patient with pancreatitis as many of the nurses want to talk to me about it and ask a lot of questions. I used to tell myself that even though I was born with this and did not have any problems until I was about 39 years old, it took over 14 years for me to be properly diagnosed. I also told myself that I had not been in pain all of my life, but now I cannot remember not being in pain. I do not know how you feel, but I think it changes who you are and alters ones’ perception of relating to others that are not in pain. This is really the only place that I feel comfortable discussing it and I do not talk of it with anyone else. Thanks to everyone for the support…I am hanging in there, looking for the daily good in my life and remain ever thankful for my family & friends.

Jamie