Pancreatitis Pain: How to Stop Pancreatitis Pain

Pancreatitis pain can be mild to severe. I can personally tell you from experience that you do not want to experience the severe form of pancreatitis pain but I'll wager that if you are reading this blog post about pancreatitis pain that you've been there, done that.

I can remember one acute pancreatitis attack I was kneeling over the toilet when my wife came in (I was married at the time) and she asked me something, probably "what was I doing?"

I asked her "are my guts still inside me?"

I actually remember asking her that exact question but according to her I wasn't real coherent and obviously in severe pain so she got my ass into the car and she drove me to the ER.

This was just one of my many acute pancreatitis attacks and I can say, without doubt, you never want to experience severe pancreatitis pain. Sometimes it felt like something (remember Alien where that giant wormy thing pops out of peoples abdomens?) was trying gnaw a way out and explode from my abdomen.

Pancreatitis pain, especially when severe, is debilitating. Most people can't even phathom what it is like; however if you can imagine the pain associated with pancreatic cancer you are most likely close because pancreatic cancer patients often suffer from acute pancreatitis. So one could say pancreatitis pain is similar to pancreatic cancer pain, which may or may not be true.

Normal medical protocol is to treat pancreatitis pain with opiates such as demerol, morphine and morphine derivities. I've had demerol and it did absolutely nothing. It didn't even take the edge off my pancreatitis pain.

I've talked with several people who have had demerol for different types of pain. It was used years ago to reduce or eliminate pain from surgery and people who had experienced demerol told me it was a wonderful time for them. They flew high in the sky for an hour or two and felt nothing but pleasure.

I thought " how nice for them, isn't doing shit for me!"

I was diagnosed with acute and chronic pancreatitis in 1979.

It took 7 ER visits and half a dozen other doctors to finally figure out what was wrong with me. I don't want to go in to it in this article but let's just say I found out why doctors call their business a "practice."

I was sicker than a dying dog for several years. Then ...

I started drinking grapefruit juice.

I believe I started in early 1982 but get this ...

My acute pancreatitis attacks stopped.

My pancreatitis pain was far less severe and 30 years later I find research on the internet that specifically states that flavonoids, found in grapefruit juice, STOP acute pancreatitis in rats and actually protect their pancreas.  Ok ...

So maybe I am part rat!

All I know is that grapefruit juice stopped my acute pancreatitis and protected my pancreas long before it protected rats. You are most likely shakin' your head thinking this guys a nut so here - READ THIS! Scientists discovered in 2004 what I discovered in 1982, that unsweetened, white grapefruit juice stops acute pancreatitis but ...

At the time I thought it was my low fat diet and the drug called Robinul that my doctor had prescribed starting to kick in. I wasn't smart enough to realize that I'd been on that drug for about three (3) years already and it was most likely something else. Since my really low fat diet was new (within about 6 months) I just chalked it all up to the diet and the drug. But ...

The real winner was the grapefruit juice and ...

Unsweetend, white grapefruit juice can be found at any grocery store.

Fast forward about 12 years to 1994.

In 1994 I discovered antioxidants.

In fact I learned about several very special, highly anti-inflammatory antioxidants that are so powerful they literally stop pancreatitis pain and with diet allowed my pancreas to heal.

As it turns out the medical community stumbled upon my previous discovery as well and published the results of a study done by Pramod Kumar Garg, MD, DM, of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi in 2009. Dr. Garg states: "We are encouraged by our findings, as significant improvement was noted with antioxidants in respect to all the parameters of pain in this study. In addition, reduction in pain resulted in fewer man-days lost, thus providing functional employment gain to the patients. The findings should spur further research in this exciting area."

It took the good doctor 15 years more than me to figure out that certain, very powerful antioxidants help pancreatitis pain. Unfortunately the good doctor used antioxidants, such as selenium that can be toxic at high doses whereas I chose NON-toxic, highly anti-inflammatory antioxidants like grape seed extract, curcumin and vitamin C.

Taken in theraputic doses they will help to control pancreatitis pain and with an anti-inflammatory diet for pancreatitis you may heal like I did and enjoy some pain free years.

Is it worth a shot to change your diet and try some supplements?

If you said yes, then go get the supplements.

You can get grape seed, curcumin, vitamin C, pancreatic enzymes and a muti vitamin/mineral formula at any good health store. Just make sure that the vitamin C, grape seed and curcumin are "stand alone" products. You don't want grape seed, curcumin or vitamin C that is mixed with a bunch of other crap that could be toxic when taken in large amounts.

Posts about managing your pancreatitis and how to stop pancreatitis pain:

1) Ibuprofen for acute pancreatitis

2) What happens during an acute pancreatitis attack

3) Pancreatitis diet

4) Supplements for pancreatitis

Pancreatitis Diet: High Protein, ZERO Fat for People with Pancreatitis ...

What is great for a pancreatitis diet and an excellent source of protein for people with pancreatitis?

Egg whites!

Yeep, you'll be able to heap protein into your pancreatitis diet (to gain weight and build muscle) simply by ingesting a fair amount of NO FAT egg whites!

Don't tell me you forgot about the benefits of egg whites?

Actually there is very little benefit for most people but for those of us who need to watch FAT due to pancreas damage from pancreatitis then a diet for pancreatitis should include egg whites for protein and vitamin B-12 (needed to make blood). So ...

Tomorrow when your buddy asks what you ate for breakfast you can stick your chest out with pride and say "I ain't a dozen eggs (with salt, pepper and garlic powder), 2 slices of whole wheat toast with jam (no butter or margarine) and a pot of hot, black coffee." And you will have ingested around 30 grams of protein and maybe TWO grams of fat (depending on your bread choice).

Pretty cool huh?

There isn't any flavor really to egg whites so I usually fry them (non-stick pan with no oil) and then add them to rice and veggies or just veggies or just eat them with toast (if you can call this gluten free shit I have to eat toast) and coffee as mentioned above.

One CUP of egg white will supply 26 grams of protein. Yeah that's about 9 eggs lol but eggs are cheap and egg white has ZERO fat, ZERO cholesterol and lots of protein! So ...

For those of you who wonder how to get the protein you need while healing I just gave you my secret pancreatitis diet weapon - Egg whites!

Acute Pancreatitis Damage: What Happens During an Acute Pancreatitis Attack?

Let's get down to brass tacks and talk pancreas damage from acute pancreatitis.

In order to completely understand how serious any acute pancreatitis attack actually is one must understand what happens during an acute pancreatitis attack. Now ...

I am not going to go all "medical" on you and get into all the bullshit details. You really only need to understand ONE thing and that is this:

What happens to your pancreas during an acute pancreatitis attack?

What happens to your pancreas during an acute attack of pancreatitis is this:

1. Your pancreas becomes inflamed due to alcohol consumption, gallstone obstruction, high blood fats, abdominal trauma or a myriad of other reasons.
2. The inflammation activates your pancreatic enzymes. Pancreatic enzymes are only suppose to activate when they reach your small intestine but inflammation can and does trigger early activation while the enzymes are still inside your pancreas.
3. The enzymes eat your pancreas. Early activation from inflammation turns your pancreatic enzymes into pancreas killers. Instead of being released and activating in the small intestine and breaking down your food they are activated while still inside your pancreas and finding no food to digest they begin eating your pancreas.

Not a pretty picture.

Acute pancreatitis hurts like hell, makes you sicker than you've most likely ever been before and may cause you to believe you just might be on your way out. Now ...

Enzymes are biological molecules that catalyze or increase the rates of chemical reactions and are necessary for almost all forms of life to exist, from bacteria to humans. There are many kinds of enzymes but we are talking human digestive enzymes and ...

To extremely over simplify the molecular structure of pancreatic enzymes and how they work, picture them as an ACID. So ...

If you were to spill sulfuric or hydrochloric acid on your hand how long would it take before you were aware of pain and visable damage?

Not long!

Maybe seconds!

So, how long do you think it takes for activated pancreatic enzymes to begin causing damage to your pancreas?

Again NOT LONG!

So while you are waiting for Dr. Shit4Brains, who normally can't diagnose strep throat with any degree of certainty without doing a throat culture, to discover the problem you are having which turns out to be acute pancreatitis what do you think is happening to your pancreas?

Did you say: "Geewhiz dude it is being damaged?"

Correctomundo keemosabi!

Your pancreas is sustaining more damage every minute that Dr. Shit4Brains searches for some off-the-wall imbecilic diagnosis when all symptoms point to acute pancreatitis. I mean  hey ...

Your first time at the ER may look something like this:

You come in sicker than a dog and the brilliant reception desk person gives you a silly form to fill out, then you wait, in pain, maybe puking. Then ...

You are shuffled into some dumbass nurse's office who wants to play 20 questions while you are doubled over in pain and puking. Finally when he or she thinks you need to be admited to the ER you get to wait in a room for Dr. Shit4Brains.

When Dr. Shit4Brains comes in smiling (he's tickled cuz the cute nurse in rooms 112 just smiled at him and said he was "lookin' fine today") he introduces himself and instead of looking at your sheet he needs to check out your life history by asking questions (the answers to which he doesn't really hear cuz he's still thinking about NurseHot4Action). then ...

He asks about symptoms (he can't see you are leaning forward, sweating and panting like a dog because of extreme pain and the fact you just puked on his shoes doesn't tell him you have nausea and vomiting). Then ...

He wipes off his shoes and asks you to lie on the bed (you can't even sit still cuz of pain but he wants you to lie down which normally makes the pain even worse) and begins to poke and prod asking the dumbass question "does this hurt?"  When he's done poking and prodding you immediately scoot back up onto the edge of the bed and lean forward to help ease the pain, which is a losing battle. Then ...

More questions from Dr. Shit4Brains (he doesn't pick up on the clue - you aren't able to keep lying down and instead lean forward to help ease the pain and he completely misses the part about the pain stabbing into your back) and he maybe orders a blood draw for a CBC series. Then ...

He leaves for awhile to check out Nurse Hot4Action and wait for the blood draw results. The blood draw results come back fairly normal with slightly elevated white blood cells and liver enzymes but nothing else and ...

Since he doesn't have the faintest clue as to what's wrong with you (he partied and slept through med school and paid his brainac dorm roomate to do his work and take his exams) he never does check your amylase or lipase levels which would most likely indicate pancreatitis. But ...

Dr. Shit4Brains does experience an epiphany!

Ah ha! He gets it! You are a druggie in "withdrawls" looking for a fix!

For one short moment he was considering some pain and nausea medication to help relieve your discomfort (gross understatement) while he consulted with 10 of his collegues (because he doesn't have a clue what is wrong with you) but ...

Nope!

You said you weren't an alcoholic so you must be a drug user! And ...

Since it is almost time for him and NurseHot4Action to end their shift he does what?

The dumb bastard conjures up a cool story about "gastritis" and the possibility you ate something bad and the moron releases you with directions to come back if the situation doesn't improve. Now ...

What exactly is happening to your pancreas while this moron, Dr. Shit4Brains, diagnosises you incorrectly and fiddle-fucks around with NurseHot4Action?

It is being destroyed by its own enzymes!

You go home, in agony, and wait for your pancreas to quit eating itself while Dr. Shit4Brains gets laid! And ...

Since you are sicker than a dog you instinctively don't eat and you are extremely lucky and the acute pancreatits finally resolves on its own but ...

The DAMAGE is done!

It may not bee seen on a CT scan but any moron would know that a pancreas subjected to being eaten for HOURS by its own enzymes is damaged! And ...

What exactly does this mean to you?

It means that within a short time you will most likely experience another acute pancreatitis attack, sustain more pancreas damage, that will most likely lead to chronic pancreatitis, but hopefully the second time you experience an acute pancreatitis attack you'll get someone, other than Dr. Shit4Brains, who didn't sleep through med school for an attending ER physcian and he or she will diagnose you correctly.

I hope for your sake that you do not experience a severe form of acute pancreatitis the second time, that you did get diagnosed in time to hopefully prevent disabiling surgeries and damage, in fact I hope you got diagnosed correctly the first time and the AP was quickly resolved and you are pretty much ok.

It took me seven (7) ER visits and 14 doctors to get a proper diagnosis.

13 dumb bastards and one very intelligent, good doctor.

I hope your experience is much better, hell, I hope you never experience pancreatitis EVER! But ...

Chances are if you are reading this post you have been inducted into the pancreatitis hall of pain and for that I am truly sorry and I sincerely hope you are able to achieve becoming pain free so that you live a fairly normal life. But ...

What I have tried to explain (maybe without success) is that the sooner you address the inflammation and STOP the acute pancreatitis attack, the less damage you will sustain. Unfortunately you will sustain damage no matter what happens. Any acute attack of pancreatitis is going to cause damaged tissue. Hopefully you will not be one of those who are really unlucky.

Like I said earlier ...

If you are reading this post chances are you have pancreatitis and since that is the case your primary concern should be to prevent another acute pancreatitis attack from happening again. In a previous post called: 5 Pancreatitis Remedies I Use you can find the diet and supplements I use myself to keep my pancreas as happy as possible and avoid more damage.

In summary: When you have an acute pancreatitis attack the most important stratetgy is to STOP the acute pancreatitis attack as quickly as possible by reducing or stopping the pancreas inflammation.

I would suggest if this is your first visit to my blog that you invest all the time you need to learn how to live with pancreatitis, more importantly, learn to over come pancreatitis and keep from incurring more pancreas damage.

I hope you have a pain free day!