Hi,
My name is Michele Thomas.
Was diagnosed with mesenteric panniculits by the Trauma Center radiologist in Columbia, SC where we had a car accident in May of 2019.
Have a massive hematoma from the seat belt tightening or embedding in my abdomen from one side to the other. The panniculitis is located on
the left side where the seat belt fastened into the center of the front seat--the air bags did not go off--so I took all of the force of the crash where
the seat belt was fastened across me. I was very fortunate to have gone to Mayo Clinic in Rochester for an endothelial cornea transplant which saved
the sight in my left eye in 2015. So I went on the Mayo site and found Dr. Pardi et al's research article from 2007 on mesenteric panniculitis. Called the GI Department and the doctors asked me to sent the records from the Trauma Center which I did and they called the next day to schedule an appointmemt for August. Dr. Glen Alexander and Dr. Zheng, his resident, saw me and ordered another CT Scan which I did. In evaluating the CT scans, the
mesenteric panniculitis had not changed in any way. Since I'm allergic to steroids, they concurred that since I was asymptomatic it was okay to take nothing.
Have never had outright pain with it, but rubbing it gently you can tell its not quite right. They said that 16 to 25% of individuals with this diagnosis
go on to have non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, so if I end up with night sweats, fever, loss of weight or other "b" systems to head back ASAP. If not we
plan to reconnect in a year from my last visit to see if there are any changes. They were wonderful--I highly recommend them. Dr. Alexander showed me the
CT scan pointing to the different important things present in my abdomen--some diverticulitis, a good liver with one focal area of fat, a healthy spleen. Felt very comfortable with him and asked him a number of questions and pointed to things I did not understand on the screen. He very gently answered my questions slowly so I could take it in. I could tell that he was very experienced and he told me he had seen many of the cases in the original study done in 2007. So grateful to God that I was able to see him.
Before I went to Mayo, I saw a local dietician here and am on a FODMAP diet which includes gluten free and also careful of acidic foods for GERD. Subscribed to Diabetic Living Magazine and Simply Gluten Free and More--they both have great recipes. My local GI has run differential blood tests to watch my white cell count and hopes that I will go to a hemotologist/oncologist because he was taught that this disorder is not best covered by GI practitioners, but is rather a disease of the blood--he did his training and residency at UK and this is first year in practice. He is very encouraging and listens which has been very helpful as he had originally suggested the FODMAP diet when I saw him after the accident in May. This week he looked me in the eyes and said, "You have a rare disease--1 in one million people have it." So I decided to do a little research today to connect with others who have this disorder so I won't feel so alone and maybe I can help others by sharing and learn what others have done that has worked for them.