Is my treatment well taken care of ?

[Guest guest]

Hi group members.

Forgive me my <oriental> way of writing in English, but as a

Dutchman I am trying to do my best. Did not find a Dutch group....

In short my story is :

My doctor warned me in the past about my drinking. I was a heavey

drinker out of habit. But over two years ago I took his words no

longer for granted and quitted drinking strong liquer. I sticked to

dry white wine from then. But, a bottle of dry white wine a day

worked out to be too much I am afraid. My liver was already slightly

damaged by the abuse of strong stuff in the past.

About half a year ago I began to have disturbing pain in the stomach

area. I did not give it much attention in the beginning and tried to

fight the pain with simple medicine meant for acid burn. Oh, it

helped during the first couple of weeks.

But not that much later the pain became more violent and was no

longer to be suppressed with the acid neutralizers I used. To make

things worse, whenever I used (even a little) alcohol or fat food

the pain became even more unbearable and lead to vomiting, loosing

all I ate that day.

At that moment I visited my doctor and told him what was wrong. He

suggested it might be ulcers and gave me an acid neutralizer plus

some pain killers. I also had to do some blood tests (which were NOT

tested on pancreatitis).

It helped for a couple of weeks. Then the pain returned and was hard

to fight with the painkiller I had (paracetamol). I noticed the

connection between use of fat food or alcohol and my complaints.

Again I visited my doctor and this time I was sent to the local

hospital for a gastroscophic examination. The exam reveiled a trace

of old damage in the part just after the stomach, but that could not

be held responsible for my pain.

I received a new acid neutralizer and stronger pain killer

(paracetamol with codeine sulfat). Which I am still using now. They

are no longer sufficient to keep down the pain.

By the way, I am not drinking any alcohol anymore for more then two

months now. That was not so hard....I do smoke....stopping with

smoking will be tough but if it is needed I will.

In the mean time I could not bare the pain anymore and I could no

longer keep in food or fluid. I was (still am) loosing weight in a

fast tempo. From 78 kg down to 63kg right now.

Again I visited the doctor, but he was on holidays so I met a

student doctor instead. She suspected pancreatitis immediatly and

took new blood and urine tests. Which were positive.

I was advised to steer clear of alcohol (already done that) and gave

me a higher dosis of the painkiller. She also advised me to eat

liquid food only until new tests could be performed.

During the days after the visit the higher dosis gave me some relief

and I was convinced all would work out OK. But that turned out to be

wishful thinking.

Again I was suffering the pain and up to now (last two weeks) I

cannot eat proper food and liquid is also a problem. I was examined

again in the hospital last week, there were taken new blood samples

and they turned out to look somewhat better. Nevertheless the pain

is there....constantly and is no longer suppressed by the

paracetamol and codeine (I´m on the maximum daily dosis now).

The hospital sent me home and advised to take it easy, watch the

food and I am expected to be there again next week. I am thinking

about asking to be hospitalized for treatment. But I wonder if that

initiative should come from the patient rather then the medical

staff.....

To complete my story, I am 46 years, was healthy (or rather felt) up

to the beginning of this year.

Maybe anyone can advise me on how to cope with the symptoms.

Regards, Danny Maijer.

The Netherlands.