My surgeon's appointment

[Guest guest]

Good morning friends,

When I got home last night after my long painful day in

Savannah, I was too tired to post about my own appointments,

except to respond to some messages.

Bob let me sleep in this morning and it's the first morning in the

past three weeks that I've awoken not reaching for the pain

medication bottle on the bedtable!!! Yipee!! I slept through the

night without waking in pain and needing some pain relief.

Double Yipee!!

My first duty yesterday was to go by the hospital and pick up the

iodine contrast to drink 3 hours before my CT-scan. We then

rushed to the surgeon's office, with me drinking the first bottle of

contrast in the car...yum-yum! That was my lunch for the day.

My meeting with the surgeon was thorough, yet very

disappointing. Basen on the fact that my pain had shown no

decrease in the week since my release and the new swelling in

my abdomen, he did suspect that the pseudocyst in my tail has

inflamed and enlarged, as well as the already angry one in the

head which brought about my hospitalization on the 22nd. I was

in a lot of pain during his examination, despite the fact that I'd

just taken a Percocet only 1/2 an hour before, and he agreed that

right now, addressing my pain issues was going to be

paramount. He brought out a clean writing tablet and a diagram

of the organs in the abdomen and drew a sketch of strange

positioning of my pancreas, as opposed to the one in the picture.

and the location of the pseudocyst. He then proceeded to draw a

sketch of the customary drainage techniques, and showed me

how impossible it would be to drain my pseudocyst. It's just too

far to reach and there are too many other organs in the way.

He also stated that even if the drainage were possible, he feared

that it wouldn't provide any considerable amount of relief from the

pain, and that I would be very disappointed in the outcome. He

said that additionally, there was a good chance that the cysts

would fill back up again, but would be further hampered with

scar tissue from surgery. There was a whole lot more to our

long discussion, but I'll try to be brief. Complete pancreas

removal was discussed. He has done this procedure, he said it

takes him a minimum of 12 hours, but would not recommend it

in my circumstances, that the brittle diabetes that is the

guaranteed outcome would be totally unmanageable. He said

he realized that I was already brittle, but I had conquered this

brittleness to some degree, but the type of brittleness that would

result from this procedure would be so unmanageable that my

life would be destroyed by trying to maintain a control that

couldn't be controlled. That it wouldn't improve my life, but make

it far worse.

We also discussed my going to MUSC for a review with Dr.

, whom he also spoke very highly of. Yet he said that he

honestly felt that after reviewing my films and records,

would reach the same conclusion that he did.......and that

sometimes, there just wasn't anything that could be done

surgically to bring improvement, it would only bring more

distress.

We parted with this disappointing, but realistic prognosis. Then I

went and had my 16th CT-scan at yet another hospital. It will be

interesting to see how yet ANOTHER set of radiologists interpret

my films! I have an appointment with my GI late this afternoon to

review the notes from the radiologist. This should be really

interesting, since this one has never seen any of my other films.

I am feeling MUCH BETTER today (knock on wood), so maybe

all the activity down below is finally settling down. It sure would

be nice to have a break from the pain.

Thanks for listening to my rambling. It makes me feel better to

get some of this off my chest and run it by others that know what

I'm talking about. My family has been wonderful! and

call me every night to check on me, and my stepson, Rob,

who lives right down the street, stops by every night after work

when my husband is gone, to see what he can do to help out

with around the house, and with the animals. So I'm being well

looked after, and I feel so blessed to have such a caring family.

With hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

South Carolina

SC & SE Regional Rep.

PAI, Intl.

Note: All comments or advice are personal opinion only, and

should not be substituted for professional medical consultation.

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 11/05/2003 09:46:11 AM Mountain Standard Time,

hhessgriffeth@... writes:

Thanks for listening to my rambling. It makes me feel better to

get some of this off my chest and run it by others that know what

I'm talking about. My family has been wonderful! and

call me every night to check on me, and my stepson, Rob,

who lives right down the street, stops by every night after work

when my husband is gone, to see what he can do to help out

with around the house, and with the animals. So I'm being well

looked after, and I feel so blessed to have such a caring family.

I'm praying for all the best to happen for you, and to defeat this

disappointing scenario! God Bless your family and your strength, Heidi. I'm

lighting a

candle and saying a prayer.

Marcy in Colorado