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My wife had gall bladder surgery a month ago. Two weeks later she

got really sick and the doctor said that two stones were stuck in her

pancreas. She had emergency ERCP to remove them but the surgeon said

that they were to far into the pancreas and instead he cut the

spincter muscles to allow them to fall out naturually. They were

very small and he felt it was not worth the risk of damaging the

pancreas to go in and get them. Within 24 hours she developed acute

pancreatitis as a result of this surgery. Spent two weeks in the

hospital and recently was discharged. She continues to be in pain

and the surgeon said that this was normal and would take 3-4 weeks to

abate. Some days are tolerable and others quite miserable. She has

a difficult time eating and sleeping due to the pain. She is on pain

meds but they only take the edge off. What if anything can she do to

speed the healing process along? When she was in the hospital she

could not have anything by mouth and was fed via IVs. She was also

on a demarol pump for pain management during this time. She has been

home only 10 days now and is quite miserable and very depressed

thinking this is never going to end. Her gallbladder was full of

stones and she had been complaining for almost twenty years about

pain in the chest area and even though she had been under the care of

a gastrologist for the past three years it was only when she demanded

that an ultrasound be done was she diagnosis with a severely damaged

gallbladder. The surgeon said that it was stuck to everything and

was very difficult to remove. She still had not recovered from the

first surgery which was done laproscopy (sp?) when she had to have

the ERCP. Of course the ERCP caused the pancreatitis which only made

things worse. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

dave

(davidtfull)