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pancreatitis - followup to pain after gallbladder removed

Does anyone know if pancreatitis always can be seen by a blood test?  what tests do they do to see if you have it, and can they always tell?  What are the symptoms?

thanks!
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Avatar universal
Glori,

I'm so sorry about your sister.  I don't have much information to offer, except to make sure she is at the best medical place possible.  I assume if she has had a transplant, she is already at a good teaching hospital.  I am going to be getting an MRCP test very soon, you can only get this test at certain centers.  I believe this will look at the pancreas as well as bile ducts.  It's non-invasive, just a certain type of MRI.  Perhaps she has already had this test.

I am hoping for the best for her.
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Avatar universal
My sister was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 9, she is now 20, and she has been to hell and back the past few years with pancreatitis, adhesions, and numerous other difficulties.  She was recently blessed with a new pancreas and although the pancreas is working beautifully, she is still having difficulty with nausea and pain.  I'm sure that many people face these difficulties when they have as much surgery as she has had (from her adhesions, pancreatitis, and gastroparesis (spelling?).

Anyway, 5 1/2 weeks later after transplant surgery, she has lost so much weigt etc... etc... etc... she is just so sick!  Any ideas from anyone?  Is Crohn's disease a possibility? or anything someone isn't paying attention too?  I'm obviously not very medically backgrounded - but I will send ANY feedback to her - she deserves a life of happiness!  Especially at her young age - I remember what my life was like at 20 and I feel very guilty to have had such a fun experience!

HELP!
glo
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Avatar universal
Gee,my symptoms are so much like you describe when I get an attack.  I sure hope they can solve something with the ercp.
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Avatar universal
Sometimes pancreatitis can be suspected by a blood test if the amylase and lipase levels are elevated, though it is not unusual for a person with advanced pancreatitis to NOT  show elevated levels, so the blood test is not a totally accurate diagnostic tool for this condition.  Other tests done to determine pancreatitis are stool tests, triglyceride tessts, ultrasounds, x-rays, MRI's, CT-scans, ERCP's, endoscopic ultrasounds, and more rarely, the secretin stimulation test or the bentiromide test.

Some symtoms of pancreatitis are: mid-abdominal pain that radiates to the back, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, difficulty and pain digesting fats and proteins and fatigue.  Not all people have all of these symptoms, some only a few.  At the onset of my acute, and then later chronic pancreatitis, I had all of these symptoms at one time or another.

Please feel free to email me if you have any further questions.

Nanny
***@****
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