Chronic acute pancreatitis long term outlook?

Posted by sdsharp @sdsharp, 1 day ago

In March of 26 my 72 year old strong, busy, energetic husband got violently ill with stomach and back pain. After trying to just “get over it” we went to our local ED. After some terrifying minutes he was intubated and tests ran showed a hemorrhaging pancreas. He was admitted to icu. And kept heavily sedated. After 3 weeks of severe pain and because they were unable to decide what course to take he was imaged where they found a huge cyst that was killing his pancreas. He was transported to Swedish hospital where he spent the better part of 3 months. At this point he has had numerous procedure to remove dying tissue and stents placed to drain them. He is still in pain. Has lost 40 pounds and can’t eat much. At what point is there another option to these monthly outbreaks of cysts? I might add he is not a
hard alcohol drinker, no diabetes no gallbladder, not genetic, not autoimmune. At this point living is his biggest obstacle.

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venture | @venture | 21 hours ago

When the pancreas has areas removed , the likely result is have the lack of digestive enzymes required to digest food.
He probably should have received a prescription for CREON. Which will help replace the enzymes. WITHOUT these enzymes weight loss will result and other factors from lack of complete digestion. You need a quality GI doc and get an elastase test. The test is a simple poop test that will tell the doc how much Creon is needed. Test result below 100 = severe EPI. My friend had similar operation to remove cysts and most of the pancreas and was immediately prescribed Creon. FYI-I have EPI that came on suddenly.