Going Down In Flames

Me and My Pancreas

I now have an appointment with Dr. Gnome in St. Louis on October 16th. I talked with his nurse, and they are requesting more records from my gastroenterologist's office since they didn't include anything from my recent hospitalization, or some of the lipase tests I have had over the last nine months.

Wasn't able to work a full day today as The Belly hurt bad enough that the mild pain killer I took at work didn't touch it, so I drove home and medicated with stronger stuff. This still did not completely kill the pain but it made it tolerable. The pain seems to increase in the evening, so the second dose I took at about 9:30 just isn't doing too much. I'm hesitant to go to the doctor about this before the Dr. Gnome visit because I run the risk of hospitalization again.

My daily meal plan at this time is one meal each day of a poached egg and a piece of toast with jelly no butter and about a third of a cup of applesauce, eaten with pancreatic enzymes. Starting to feel the effects of not being able to eat, rather weak, but I have had to do this for months before so I know it is possible. Have been hydrating much more as I was instructed in the hospital but this has worsened both the diarrhea and the incontinence issues I have from the radiation therapy.

I am going next Tuesday to Washington University in St. Louis to be seen concerning the long terms effects of radiation therapy. I found information while researching this for radiation neuritis in the lower spine, and this seems to match many of my leg symptoms. The problems are not resolving, but keep getting worse and I am concerned about what the end result will be. The weakness is a big issue, since continued standing and walking make it worse, making it harder and harder to travel and to do my work when I am at a client location where I have to walk and stand a great deal. I'm hoping these physicians will have some new ideas on what I can do to make the symptoms better tolerated even if we can't make them go away.