I am a 45 year old male in otherwise good health, but have engaged in occasional (once a month or less often) bouts of heavy drinking (5-7 glasses of wine) over the last 6-7 years. Over the last year, I noticed that I was experiencing pain in the back after drinking, but the pain would resolve on its own by the next day. A few months ago, I started experiencing a burning feeling in my stomach accompanied by burping. Having been diagnosed positive for H Pylori a few years ago (treated by Prevpak), I went to the doctor and he found that there was a recurrence of H Pylorri. He prescribed another course of the Prevpak. However, the symptoms did not resolve after the course. The burning feeling continued and after a month, I went back to the doctor, who ordered an endoscopy. The endoscopy came out normal. Meanwhile, the pain continued along with discomfort in the back. The doctor suspected something wrong with the pancreas and ordered a LFT and pancreatic enzyme test. The liver function test was normal. However, serum lipase was 1200. The doctor asked me to get a CT scan of the abdomen, which I got done a few days ago. The radiologist reported a 1.8 x 2 cm hypodense pancreatic pseudocyst consistent with acute pancreatitis, but also recommended further imaging to rule out the "much less likely possibility of cystic neoplasm." In addition, the report also mentioned a 10 mm retroperitoneal lymph node.
I have been reading up a lot and am getting extremely worried. On one hand, if I am right, the report of a cyst-like structure seems a little better than a solid mass that might be characteristic of a carcinoma. On the other, the fact that the retroperitoneal lymph node is at the upper limit of normal seems suspicious.
Could you shed some light for me? I have not been able to get an appointment with a GI specialist till next month and am going crazy with worry.