Desperate for answers regarding mystery patient

[flmommyof2]

My husband is 33 years old and has been in the hospital for the past 5 days.  He is in severe pain and we can't figure out why.  So far he has been diagnosed with Pancreatitis and Duodenitis.  Initial xray done in ER showed possible bowel obstruction.  He can't eat and is progressively getting worse.  He has a hard mass in the upper right quadrant but it hasn't shown on any films to date.  Any ideas on next steps or do any of these things put together bring to mind a specific diagnosis?  He had more blood work, xrays and CT scan done STAT at midnight last night.  We dont know the results of these and we are waiting on a surgical consultation.  He has a long history of bowel pain - he would eat and need to go to the bathroom immediately but this was before we changed our diet to lean proteins, veggies and fruits low on the glycemic index and no sugar, caffeine, alcohol or carbs.  On this new diet he has lost 40lbs in the last 9 weeks.  Additionally he had severe rectal bleeding a couple months ago.  Colonoscopy found polyps which were benign.  

I am just so lost and looking for some answers.  

Any Help?

[michell221]

I know that pancreatitis can cause horrible pain and if you are in the middle of an attack it often cause a blockage.  Has any doctor ever suggested he may have chronic pancreatitis? You can have chronic pancreatitis and have flares of acute pancreatitis.   This can be hereditary or from  drinking or many other reasons.  

If you have this disease then you are unable to digest a lot of food.  Sticking to a low fat diet and taking specially prescribed enzymes to help digest food seems to help some people with this.  Usually a diagnosis is made from an endoscopic ultrasound procedure or from CT scan.  The eus can detect it earlier but you really need a skilled dr.  There is a dr in SC Peter Cotton at MUSC who is a pro at this.  It really could be so many things and maybe I could offer more help if you could let me know what the ct scans and blood work results are.

[B_Shel20]

Well, good news is, the colonoscopy ruled out anything there that could be causing the issues. Has he had an endoscopy done? Im sure the tests they ran last night will give you the diagnosis you need. Once they give you the results of the tests, feel free to post any questions you have here, although the docs/surgeons should be able to tell you everything you need to know. Wish you guys the best on this.