new symptom (pitting edema)

[Guest guest]

Dear Freinds,

I recently seem to be having a new symptom I was hoping some of you can shed

some light on. I have been getting swelling in my extremities, hands, feet,

face...and it seems in the night to creep up my arms. It aches in the night.

It is so bad that it is called pitting edema, which means when you push your

finger into the tissue, the dent stays there. It also affects my thinking-the

swelling must affect my brain as well. I feel really spaced out and cant think

straight at all. The edema happens in the night and worsens through the night

= until it wakes me up. I have had pancreatitis for 10 years and I have been

getting worse the last few years. I take a lot more pain medication than I

used to. I have not been hospitalized for an attack in a long time now, and at

the moment have no medical insurance at all, so I am trying to avoid getting

acute.

Thanks for any insight into this. I would like to understand the physiology

of what might be causing this.

Morgaine Madrona

Burlington Vermont, recently living Tucson, AZ.