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Could this be chronic pancreatitis?
Digestive Health | Last Active: Apr 19 7:45pm | Replies (42)Comment receiving replies
@missingthebeach,
Wow, my symptoms are also similar to yours. Last year, under Chiropractic care for back issues I had several CT and MRI scans in which the Radiologist noted an "enlarged pancreas". My PCP ordered a pancreatic MRI to be prudent and found a mass-like area of enhancement on the head of the pancreas and enlargement. This started a whirlwind of events including an Endoscopic ultrasound with Biopsy to rule out cancer, a new diagnosis of Chronic Pancreatitis cause still unknown and an episode of acute pancreatitis after the biopsy which put me in the hospital for a few days. My labs are mostly normal except I have a positive ANA. I have the extremely low body temperature in which I simply cannot warm myself back up, constipation in spite of oral fluid increase and a healthy pancreatic diet and the pain under my left breast or just over my pancreas. I went thru a 47 day Steroid Trial and just had my follow up MRI last week. This test was supposed to confirm that I have Autoimmune Type 2 Pancreatitis...however, my GI called today and feels that there was no shrinkage to the mass, which the biopsy said was negative for cancer and the report said that my pancreatic cells have been severely reduced and replaced by the fatty cells which is a decline from the last test. This is not an indicator of body mass, because I am underweight, instead when the pancreatic cells begin to die, because the pancreas is attacking itself, the cells are replaced by "fatty deposits".
In your case, I would absolutely insist on imaging. If you have pancreatitis, you may not have any change to your labs if it's caught in the early stages. Unfortunately, we must be our own advocate because the physicians have their own agenda.
My GI is sending me to a Pancreatic Specialist because clearly something is wrong with my pancreas but we've ruled out cancer for now, autoimmune, alcohol, and obesity. He acknowledges that having Chronic Pancreatitis puts me at risk for cancer at any time and will continue to order imaging every 6 months.
Hope this helps and I wish you the best in your journey.
Replies to "@missingthebeach, Wow, my symptoms are also similar to yours. Last year, under Chiropractic care for back..."
I'm having all the same things that you have symptom wise and I'm just curious, did they find blood in your stool before all of this? I've had blood in it years ago and I kind of just baved it off because I had so many other issues. But I just realized that they're all related liver, lung, kidney and now pancreas which has called us me a multitude of problems! Constant pain and I had my lung removed on that same side and it felt like there was a hands in my rib cage and it's swollen again but I ate. I haven't done anything to that area since I had surgery which was almost 8 months ago but all the sudden it started to swell and then I started taking probiotics and I started stopping something called dumping cuz I'm a type 2 diabetic the sugar in your system that you can't absorb that comes out the oily jelly belly crap. Sorry for the way I put it but the other night I had a sharp pain in that area and my doctor asked for imaging and blood work on it and I could not believe you was even asking for it. I never even thought about my pancreas other than the fact that I was on ozempic and trulicity and then the pill kind of which actually was worse than anything. It hurt my stomach so bad but I also have liver problems but I've learned that they're all related one way or another. But the first thing that was diagnosed years ago is that I've had blood in my stool for a very long time, but because of all of my other problems I kind of pushed it to the back burner thinking it wasn't a big deal. Could I have really messed up?
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I am so sorry you're going through this. Thank you for sharing your story it's so helpful to hear from others. I see we have some similar symptoms but it looks like yours came up in scans, I haven't had a definitive one. I did have a CT of the abdomen and MCRP as well and neither showed any inflammation. I did mention to my GI via a message both tests were done when I haven't eaten and while on my back. My symptoms under my rib begin after I start eating and while I am standing or sitting, laying down actually makes it better. I don't feel the foreign object under my rib when laying down as much as when I am standing. Haven't heard back from them yet.
I wish you well I hope your specialist is able to help you navigate through all this.