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Hello @cjmchicago and welcome to Mayo Connect. As I also have had pancreatic cysts (IPMN) for over 10 years, I was interested in your post and wanted to respond. My IPMN was discovered on a CT scan for something different and follow-up has continued. At first, every year, then after a couple of years with no changes, it is now checked every other year by an MRI.
You mentioned having a lot of gastric symptoms. Have you had an upper endoscopy? If not, you might request this to make sure there are no other gastric problems that need to be dealt with.
How are you dealing with the symptoms? Have you made any adjustments to your diet? It can be helpful to keep a written log of what you eat and when your symptoms are the worst. It is also goof for GERD patients to eat small, frequent meals, rather than large meals.
Have you found any prescription meds or over-the-counter products that give you relief? I look forward to hearing from you again.
Replies to "Hello @cjmchicago and welcome to Mayo Connect. As I also have had pancreatic cysts (IPMN) for..."
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Hi,
Thanks for commenting on my post.
I did have an upper GI and colonoscopy 7 months ago and I have mild gastric reflux only. I’ve had GERD symptoms for years and used to take omeprazole daily until it stopped working a couple of years ago. Now I just try to stay away from all the triggers like coffee, fried foods, or over eating too many fatty foods. I also had lipase, amalyze, and many other labs- no cancer markers though- and they are all normal. I’ve had so much anxiety around my GI issues and since they could never find anything wrong with me, they presumed I have functional dyspepsia and need to seek therapy for my anxiety disorder. It’s hard for me to decipher whether my GI symptoms would be minor but are being severely exacerbated by horrible worry and panic about them. Since my symptoms have persisted chronically (definitely worse under stress/worry) I had another CT w contrast last week and that’s when they found the 0.8 CM IPMN in my uncinate process without duct dilation or surrounding inflammation and my PCP recommends coming back in 1 year for a repeat CT or MRI. It seems odd because I had a CT scan 15 months ago and my pancreas was normal.
Now, after hearing this news and researching online about IPMN’s, it’s put me into a panic with even more GI symptoms and back pain almost like trapped gas which is causing back pain and stomach cramps.
I have an appointment with a new gastroenterologist on Friday to see what he thinks. Reading about IPMN’s online has been somewhat frightening and it sounds like in time I will have to have surgery and there is a pretty significant chance I will develop pancreatic cancer.
It’s great to hear you have been ok for 10 years! Were you frightened initially, or are you still worried about it? Is there anything else that you do besides get a repeat MRI every couple years?
Thanks again for your support.