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Pancreatitis and You I was recently diagnosed with Acute Pancreatitis and spent 16 days in the hospital - much of that time was spent without any food or liquids and an IV in my arm for nutrients. Since then, I have been studying and learning what works for my pancreas, my body, my diet and my life. I have created this website as a way of sharing my experience with pancreatitis with other sufferers of the disease and those helping you in the recovery process. I hope you find it useful and I wish you and your loved ones all the best in your recovery. The reason the site is called Alcoholic Pancreatitis is because one of the main causes of pancreatitis is alcoholism. If you are aware that you are having pancreatic symptoms and you do not have gall stones then you probably need to take a look at your drinking habits and like my doctors said to me, "You must stop drinking immediately and you can never drink again." It is not easy for an alcholic to stop drinking. You might want to consider an alcohol rehab program or alcohol treatment centers to help you stop drinking. Alcoholic pancreatitis can be very dangerous and it is easy for an alcoholic's brain to tell you that it is okay for you to keep drinking, even when you encounter pancreatic pain and other pancreatic symptoms. Yeah, I bet that's not what you want to hear. Too bad. You've had more to drink than most people will ever have in their life time. You've had your quota. You're done. The conversation is over! Excessive drinking is the most common reason for symptoms of pancreas in a person. A low percentage of people have Gall Stone issues and they can have surgery to fix their problem. Even fewer people have pancreatitis in their family line. Most people who suffer from pancreatitis also suffer from alcoholism. You can face this fact or not. It's your life. Chances are you will die from alcoholic pancreatitis if you don't stop drinking immediately. This is probably a fine time for me to tell you that I have no medical credentials. I only have experience as a patient and sufferer of pancreatitis. Sometimes I think I'm getting better. Sometimes I get worse. Certain foods and recipes clearly help depending on what I'm able to eat or drink at the time. Take a look around the site. There are lots of articles to help you better understand what you are going through or what kinds of foods and recipes have worked for me and you might want to try. When you first have a pancreatic attack, like me, you were probably completely uneducated as to how you need to deal with it, what can help it and what can hurt it. I hope this site helps you along the process of recovery. It is important that you understand that Acute Pancreatitis can become Chronic Pancreatitis which over time can become Pancreatic Cancer over a prolonged period of time. It's a hard cancer to detect and a hard cancer to cure. Most people die from it within the first year - something extreme like 90%. In fact, the rate of recovery from Pancreatitis is only 95%. This goes to show how vitally important it is that you respect this disease and give it proper attention. Unfortunately, a lot of things about it we simply don't know until after we've relapsed again. If you have pancreatic symptoms than your pancreas probably isn't digesting food properly. Initially you will probably need to stop eating altogether for about a week, then slowly start eating again. It is very easy to relapse and set your pancreas back into remission. Eating too early can set you way back. Emotional or physical stress can also set you back. The doctors did not tell me about these things. I have since learned the hard way. This makes it all that more difficult for me to recover completely and all the more likely I will end up with Chronic Pancreatitis. Treat your healing process as though it is the most important thing in your life... because quite honestly, it is. Do everything you can to get well. Otherwise, there is a very good chance this disease will kill you. It's not a kind disease. Pancreatitis can be very painful and very uncomfortable. Do what you can to heal completely the first time around and do what you can to stay healthy. May 1, 2008 If you have Acute Pancreatitis then your pancreas has become swollen and it has become difficult for your pancreas to digest enzymes properly. Is it serious if you're pancreas can't properly digest enzymes? Yes, it is very serious. If the enzymes are not functioning properly in the pancreas they will turn on the pancreas and start eating away at it. This is very serious because you cannot live without a pancreas. Acute Pancreatitis can turn into Chronic Pancreatitis which over time can - and most likely will - turn into Pancreatic Cancer which will most likely kill you very quickly. People who have Pancreatic Cancer don't live long. One of the problems with finding funding for Pancreatic Cancer is that people diagnosed with it don't live long enough to become spokespersons for the disease - think Patrick Swayze. I have no interest in hyping this disease as worse than it is, nor is it in my nature to be a sensationalist. I'm just being honest about the affects of this disease. Take it seriously or it will seriously take you... and fast. Most people who have Pancreatitis got it from drinking too much alcohol. The best, and perhaps only, way to prevent recurrent pancreatitis is to stop drinking completely and forever. Yes, it's a tall order for an alcoholic but it's the only option you have if you would like to continue living. It is unclear why alcohol affects the pancreas. What is clear is that alcohol most certainly can affect the pancreas and when it does it continues to do so, so if you start drinking again later it will continue to hurt your pancreas. The pancreas can heal completely from acute pancreatitis if cared for properly. That does not mean that you can return to drinking. It is said that the pancreas remains frail once it has become frail and although you may be able to recover from pancreatitis you cannot start drinking again. There are a lot of support groups out there for recovering alcoholics. Alcoholics Anonymous has meetings all over the world. You can find out more about AA in your area online through searching the keywords 'Alcoholics Anonymous'. You might also enter the name of the city you live in so information specific to your area will come up. Many people also go directly into alcohol rehab centers. Maybe alcohol treatment centers offer in-patient services which allows the alcoholic to live-in and therefore not be as subjected to being around alcohol. An alcohol rehab center may not be for you. It may be out of your price range. Or, it may simply not be a realistic option for you. If that is the case so be it. Many people have recovered from alcohol without going into alcohol treatment centers. Just do it. Don't drink and you won't have the booze in you. Remember this is serious, very serious at this point since you are at this website. Your life is in your hands. If you have pancreatitis there is a chance you will not recover... don't let alcohol be the definitive nail in that coffin. What happens if you keep drinking when you have pancreatitis? You can die from pancreatitis. You can die from your first pancreatic attack. Your organs can fail from low blood pressure causing you to go into shock and die. 95% of people recover. 5-out-of-100 do not recover and die. I'm guessing those who haven't stopped drinking have a much higher chance of falling into the 5% that die. April 28, 2008 The levels of pancreatic pain vary greatly from person to person. Some people suffer from severe pancreatic pain while others barely experience any pain to no pain at all. Although I suffer from an ongoing bout (over a month) of Acute Pancreatitis my pain is generally dull and I usually choose not to take pain killers, even over the counter pain killers. The reason is because I want to know what is happening with my pancreas and I feel that if I make it so I can't feel the effect - what is cause the pain - I won't know if I am making the symptoms worse by some action I have taken and as a result I won't know what to avoid in the future. Of course, if I had severe pancreatic pain I can only assume I would be reaching for the pain killers. But, I don't. My pain is annoying, uncomfortable and comes and goes depending on if I am eating or drinking, presently. Sometimes, eating and drinking doesn't hurt it. At present I am experiencing another attack so the pain exists. If I were on pain killers I would be more inclined to eat because I wouldn't be able to feel the pain and therefore wouldn't know the negative impact eating would have on my pancreas. From what I have read and from my personal experience, the pain level a person feels in relation to pancreatitis is not directly related to the progression of the disease. Some people never feel pain. Other people no longer have pancreatic pain once the symptoms worsen yet feel pain during the onset of the disease. If you feel this information has been useful consider leaving a donation. I love giving to you. I also love receiving. All the best to you! April 26, 2008 The best pancreatitis cure for alcoholic pancreatitis is to completely stop drinking alcohol and to never start again. If you are an alcoholic, or if it is difficult for you to stop drinking them you might want to seek help. Many people with a drinking problem go to an alcohol rehab program so that they do not need to fight the disease on their own and so they are in a protected environment with others who suffer from the same disease of alcoholism. Alcohol Treatment Centers can be found all over the United States and have varying degrees of success and use various approaches. Most alcohol treatment programs to some degree or another follow the 12 steps of alcoholics anonymous because AA has been proven more successful in helping alcoholics stop drinking - one day at a time - than any other program. If you are wondering why I am addressing alcoholism in such detail then please remember why you are having the problem with your pancreas. You are having pancreas problems from drinking too much alcohol. (We are assuming that is your diagnosis and that you have not been diagnosed with gall stones and have not gotten pancreatitis as a result of diabetes.) If you have pancreatitis from drinking too much alcohol then it is vital that you stop drinking immediately so that your pancreas can heal. If you do not stop drinking your symptoms can get worse. How much worse? Well, Acute Pancreatitis can turn into chronic pancreatitis which can result in Pancreatitis Cancer over time, which tends to quickly kill you! On the other hand, a severe case of pancreatitis can result in organ failure and you can die of shock. Just out of curiosity, how bad to you want that next drink? Do you want it bad enough to kill you? Quickly or slowly? If you want another drink that bad then you really might take a look at the way you drink. Only alcoholics need that next drink and it is probably safe to say that only an alcoholic would consider the next drink more important than life itself. A non-alcoholic would gladly put the drink down and never pick it up again if they thought that drinking might or could kill them. An alcoholic might very well want to weigh their options. If you have found the information on this site to be useful consider leaving a donation. 
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