For this story, I’m going way-way back to the first year after my diagnosis, which was quite bumpy. Right after my diagnosis, I had to complete an Upper GI series (an awful test), however, I was really sick and threw up and the test was inconclusive since I didn’t finish it. Six months later it was time to try again. I had recently had a colonoscopy and the results were very poor. My doctors were leaning towards removing my colon but they needed to see how the rest of my GI tract looked, cue the agonizing Upper GI series.
Fine. I did what I needed to do and got through the awful diagnostic test with very little drama. That weekend I was pooping a lot of chalky diarrhea, thanks to the gallons of barium I drank for the test. My stomach was upset (more so than usual) and I attributed it to the barium. As the weekend progressed I was only getting worse and we called the doctor. They upped my steroids to try and quickly fix the problem.
That Sunday I woke up with this sharp and constant pain that was higher up my GI tract, I was used to lower abdominal pain. This was definitely new. I thought maybe it was a stomach bug because that’s what it felt like. It didn’t take long before I was praying to the porcelain god. However, after I puked my guts out the pain did not let up. I spent the entire day puking and taking hot showers, it was awful. The worst part was the pain, there was nothing I could do for relief.
This was exactly 9 months after I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. I knew nothing back then because if this happened today I would be in the Emergency Room. The following day I went to my doctor’s office and I was admitted to the hospital, no surprise there. Later that night I found out that I was suffering from pancreatitis. I couldn’t tell you what the pancreas looked like or what its purpose was. All I knew was that my pancreas was angry.
I wasn’t allowed to eat and my doctor wanted to start me on tube feedings via a nasogastric tube, which meant they were going to put a tube up my nose. This isn’t that big a deal, it’s common, however, I fought it tooth and nail. I pretty much cried and my doctor gave into my pleas for mercy. Also, as each day passed I was improving.
I had to slowly reintroduce food into my diet and I had to actually pay attention to fat content. The first week I was only allowed to eat food with zero fat, which was really sad. My mom bought me these awful tofu hot dogs which tasted like plastic. It was a rough week. Then I had to eat a low-fat diet for a month, which sucked but was better than zero fat.
The pancreatitis was caused by one of my medications. I was immediately taken off this drug because even if it was helping with my Crohn’s symptoms, I couldn’t stay on it. 17 years later every now and then a doctor will suggest this medication and I remind them that this medication caused me to have pancreatitis. Just another reason why it’s so important that you give doctors a complete and thorough medical history.
Pancreatitis was no joke and I hope I never have to deal with it again, it was truly awful. It was one of the most painful things I’ve experienced, right behind the time an abscess burst and perforated my colon.