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Could something besides gallstones cause panreatitus?
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MedHelp Member's Question

Could something besides gallstones cause panreatitus?

by cwitt, Mar 14, 2002 12:00AM
On Sat March 2, I woke up with a stomach ache (The night before I had indulged in a sausage hot link). By noon on Sat, I had chills and an unbleievable pain in my upper right abdomen (I thought I had the flu). Could not eat and everytime I did, the pain would get worse. On Mon Dr thought it was flu. Finally Tuesday at 4pm I had Untrasound of Gallbladder-nothing showed up. By 7 pm I was at emergency room- could not take pain any more. They put me on IV for dehydration & gave me pain killers. They ran blood tests-my amylase was 2100 & my Lypase was elevated (Pancreatitus). All other blood work was good. By Wed eve I was feeling better and needed no pain killers. Thurs they did CT scan & Hyda scan (which the dye made me sick)& Ultrasound. They showed nothing but Ultrasound showed slight inflamation in the Gallbladder & Pancreas. The Dr assumes this was due to a Gall Stone I may have passed & wants me to have an ERCP after things settle down. He also said, if you get one stone, you will get more so I should consider removing Gallbladder. All of this scares the heck out of me. I am a 33 yr old female, 5'8" & 135 lbs, in good shape & active. My diet is good, I did indulge once in a while but have always ate well. I wonder if the sausage I ate the night before triggered all this. I was released on Friday but still have this bloated feeling in my upper abdomen when I eat but am feeling better other than that. Amylace level has dropped. They want to do ERCP to see if a stone is blocking bile duct? I am scared to do ERCP, any other ideas on what this could be? Thank you.



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Member Comments (15)

by pikamom, Mar 14, 2002 12:00AM
My sister-in-law had pancreatitis with her gallstones and had her gallbladder out with a very simple "band-aide" surgery. The pancreatitis is more serious than gallstones so you should follow your doctors advice to have your gallbladder out. Another cause of pancreatitis is alcohol.

by imkindly, Mar 14, 2002 12:00AM
To: cwitt
You asked about the sausage triggering all of this, so I thought I'd give you a comment---

(fatty foods are something you should stay away from!)



My husband has "sludge" in his gallbladder, and once in a while gets a pancreatitis attack. Anything fatty can bring it on.

by cwitt, Mar 14, 2002 12:00AM
What exactly is sludge in the gallbladder?  I am reluctant to just doing and ECRP and/or remove the gallbladder when they have not seen a sign of a stone thus far and are not even sure if thats the problem.  (you hear of so many people where they remove the gallbladder and they still have problems or stones & the ECRP can cause a Pacreatitus attack- so if I am not in pain now, why risk causing an attack).  I am interested in other things this could be.  They asked if I had ulcers but never looked into it any furhther.  I am interested more about what the sludge is?  Thank you.

by imkindly, Mar 14, 2002 12:00AM
To: cwitt
Hi cwitt

I was going to just tell you that "sludge" was little particles of ****, not big enough to be called stones. But that sounded terrible and not very accurate. lol

So I found some sites that explain it better.

Take a look at



http://www.gutdoc.com/gallstones.html

it says:

Gallstones vary in size. They may be as small as tiny specks, or as large as a small ball. The vast majority measure less than 20 mm, about 1 inch, across. Over time gallstones may grow in size and/or numbers. However, many gallstones remain the same size for years.

Gallbladder sludge occurs when multiple crystals of cholesterol and bilirubin pigments accumulate within the gallbladder but do not fuse together to form a gallstone. Gallbladder sludge typically occurs with fasting and resolves spontaneously. In some, but not all persons, gallbladder sludge can develop into gallstones. In the majority of cases, gallbladder sludge is asymptomatic. However, sludge may cause symptoms identical to those attributed to gallstones.



and

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/Art.asp?li=MNI&ArticleKey=8402

calls it "biliary sludge"



and

http://papa.essortment.com/symptomsgallbla_refb.htm

has some advice on foods to avoid



Hope this helps

by pikamom, Mar 15, 2002 12:00AM
Yes, fatty foods bother a bad gallbladder. Another confirmation that your gallbladder is the culprit of your problem. Sure there could be complications of left behind stones, but that's pretty rare. Most of the time if they "suck" the gallbladder out through tiny holes, it's outpatient surgery with a very short recovery, I think around a week compared to 6 weeks for the old open surgery. They could do an ultrasound after your surgery to make sure no stone was left.

by cwitt, Mar 15, 2002 12:00AM
To: imkindly
Thank you so much for the info.  I have decided at this point to wait it out and get a second opinion.  Even the regular Dr at the hospital did not agree with the GI Dr to just remove the gallbladder when we have not found a stone at this point.  Sludge would make sense.  I am comfortable and no pain.  My biggest concern is the feeling full/bloated feeling after I eat.  I have been on a strict diet (low fat-very healthy and taking herbs) and still eating smaller meals.  I have not talked to anyone who has had this happen before, to find out if they felt like this while they were still healing up.  My family keeps trying to remind me that my pancreas went through a lot and needs to heal & my stomach probably shrunk due to not eating all those days. I have been out of the hospital a week tonight, maybe I expected to feel better sooner.  When your husband had his Pancreatitus attacks did he feel full when he ate (while he was healing after the attack)?  I appreciate any info- if I knew this was normal I would not worry so much.  You can email me at ***@**** if you would like.

Thank you again.

by sugee, Mar 17, 2002 12:00AM
To: cwitt
Please, maybe I can give you some advice concerning your pancreaitis and you won'y have to go thru the samething I did. About eighy years ago I started having severe abdominal pain and after several hours of this pain and vomiting IMy DH took me to the hospital emergency room. At the time they were very busy and it had been eight hours before I finally told the desk clerk that I was going to sit right there and die and they weren't going to do anything about it! All of a sudden several nurses fook me in the back and the doctor started giving me pain meds. thru the iv and just a few minutes later I had three doctors with me,as I saw the third one come in I reconized him as he was a surgeon that my family used on accasion as needed.Well, for three days I new nothing since the doctor was keeping me medicated. On that third night my gastro specialist walked in and woke me up and told me he needed to talk to me. I was running a high fever and my blood pressure was sky high. He told me I had pancreaitis and he was going to have to run some tests on me which one was the ERCP. Well I finally started losing the fever and at midnight the next night he did the ERCP. He put me to sleep