Was: Specialist in LA ? Now: Dispair

[Guest guest]

Hi Kimber,

Thanks for your reply. I will take any and all help and info you can

provide. This is my 3rd attempt to reply since this morning.

Please excuse my spellng errors since this touch screen is pretty

basic, no word processor, so no spellcheck or " save " function.

I am at the local hospital here in Santa Clarita. It is fairly small.

I went to the ER here on Friday night, with crippling abdominal pain,

a high fever and severly dehydated. I had been ill since Wednesday

night and not able to eat or drink...

I have only had a CTscan and ultrasound, but was not diagonsed

with " probable " Pancreatitis until Sunday.

Blood test show my lipase and amylase had been elevating since I

arrived (175 Sat, 350 Sun, 780 Mon)but they droppedback down to

normal today.

(I hate these beig a medical mystery ()

I have been on iv for dehydration, antibiotics (do they help??),

and recieving a shot of demoral (100mg)every 3 hours. They have now

order the demoral through the iv, click the button, as needed.

The pain keeps increasing and as I get no better, I am getting more

depressed and impatient.

I am both encouraged and demoralized with the info and posts that I

am reading from this group. I am very grateful that it exist(really,

really grateful), but freaked as I realize what might lie ahead for

me and my family.

I am going to sign off now or I might lose this post to the vapours.

Thanks again,

Hanging in there.. aka Pck aka kozy

-- In pancreatitis , Kimber <hominid2@c...> wrote:

> ,

> I have the names and locations for a few doctors in the LA area,

but

> they are all for UCLA, not Cedar Sinai. If you would like their

names,

> let me know and I'll send them to you. I am the CA and Southwest US

> regional representative for PAI, so if you ever need anything, feel

free

> to contact me and I will do my best to help you if I can. It

certainly

> sounds like you have pancreatitis. Do the doctors have any idea

why you

> are having these attacks? Have they done a CTscan, ERCP or MRCP to

make

> sure there are no blockages in your ducts? As for what happens

next,

> that varies per individual. For some people with pancreatitis, the

> disease progresses rapidly and for others it progresses slowly.

I've

> been one of the lucky ones and it has progressed slowly. I've only

been

> on daily pain meds for about three years now.

>

> How much demoral are they giving you and how often? If what they

are

> giving you isn't helping, then you need to ask the doctor to

increase

> the dosage since you aren't getting much pain relief from what they

are

> giving you. You sometimes need to be aggressive with doctors

regarding

> pain management. They are required by JCAHO to treat pain

agressively

> now and you have the right to some pain relief.

>

> Here are a couple of website to check out.

> For pancreatitis: http://hopkins-gi.org do a search on

pancreatitis and

> read everything you find on there. It's a very good website and has

lots

> of good information on both acute and chronic pancreatitis.

>

> For the pain management, go to the JCAHO website:

> http://www.jcaho.com/

> Do a search on pain management. Also, if you feel you aren't

getting the

> required care, you can submit a complaint against the

doctor/hospital

> for inadequate pain control. I'd also submit a similar complaint

to the

> state medical board as well.

>

> You can usually reach me by email as I am usually on at least once

every

> day. If you have AOL, MSN or Yahoo Instant Messengers, you can

also

> contact me that way. My AOL and Yahoo screen names is hominidtwo

and my

> MSN screen name is hominid2. My home phone number is

and my

> cellphone is : .

>

> Hope to hear more from you.

> Kiimber

>

> --

> Kimber

> Vallejo, CA

> hominid2@c...

> CA and Southwest US regional representative

> Pancreatitis Association, International

> Note: All advice given is personal opinion, not equal to that of a

licensed physician or health care professional.