Have you had pancreatitis?

[CheeseOnToast123]

Now I’m a self confessed hypochondriac - just internally though and joking within family about all my ailments and I very rarely go to the doctor.

But now I’ve convinced myself I have pancreatitis - what were your symptoms? Backstory is I have gallstones which were discovered during pregnancy last year, plan was to remove gallbladder after baby was here but that was over a year ago and I’ve not had an attack until this weekend so haven’t made an appointment again about it.

This weekend I’ve had sever stomach pain on and off, but location moves so not just in one spot. Pain at my upper back right side which is where I used to get gallbladder pain, and since yesterday pain in upper left side of back (which is how google found pancreatitis). Severe enough to have me in tears today but then the pain fades and I feel stupid for having panicked...

No fever or jaundice, some nausea on and off.

I guess I just don’t want to go see GP with 6 different symptoms and them thinking I’m imagining it....

My ds had pacreatitis few years ago and he was in agony. I think it was easy to diagnose with blood test for elevated levels of Amylase or something.

irvine did he need a hospital stay? Was it constant? I have looked on NHS but I’m still not clear if I have classic symptoms or not. I guess if it gets more constant or much more servere I’ll phone? Hopefully they’ll see for my records I don’t go in for the small things...

I had pancreatitis due to gall stones. It started like a normal gall bladder attack but with a gall bladder attack I would be sick and be fine afterwards. When I had pancreatitis the pain got worse and worse. I spent a week in hospital having regular morphine and even that only made the pain manageable but not disappear. I couldn’t eat and felt very very poorly. Too ill to even feel sorry for myself. I had hallucinations - not sure if they were through illness or morphine induced.

I also previously had cholecystitis. With that the pain was bad for a few days and came and went. I started to become jaundiced and was admitted. I’m so glad my gall bladder has gone now. No problems since it’s removal thankfully.

Maybe ring 111 for advice? Good luck x

Thank you Skipped, I’ll phone this evening if no better. Glad you’ve improved since having it removed, I think I’ll visit GP regardless later this week to see about getting it removed.

I had pancreatitis last year. Absolute agony, I could barely walk by the 5th day, so rang an ambulance. Was very, very poorly for about a week or so.

Yes, he was nil by mouth and on drips for few days. It was related to his other problems and he was on painkiller already, so can't tell if actual pain from pancreatitis was constant or not.

Irony that sounds awful, did it come and go at first? That my main issue in thinking it’s not anything serious as I’ll be I’m a large amount of pain then it passes for 10-60 minutes. And it seems to be worse when I move, which shouldn’t happen if pancreatitis?

It sounds more like gallstones, my DH had it like this until his was removed but it never progressed to pancreatitis fortunately (although he was in agony at the end). As said, a blood test would diagnose pancreatitis straight away I believe.

It’s the main pain being on the opposite side of the gallbladder that’s thrown me, but it feels the same pain as gallbadder pain if you see what I mean? I really deep pain that feels like someone is twisting an organ.

Right even if it fades I’ll see GP this week and ask for it to be taken out. Don’t want to be on pancreatitis watch all the time

I had it. Never had gallstone pain before, woke up in the middle of night with a pain across the top of my abdomen which got worse and worse until by early afternoon I could barely walk, it was agony. Was taken to A and E crying all the way there with pain. Admitted immediately, blood tests told them what it was.
It was the most painful thing ever- worse than giving birth. I was in 10 days and on morphine plus other painkillers. Nothing took it away, just dulled it between morphine does and by the time the next dose was an hour away I was sobbing with pain. Lots of fluids, nil by mouth for 3 days. They said it was a small gall stone which got trapped in the tube going into my pancreas.
I went home with two carrier bags of painkillers, still in significant pain, and it took 6 weeks to recover during which I had a further minor attack. Gall bladder was then removed and I have had no further problems.
The pain was across my abdomen high up and I couldn't believe how bad it was and that morphine did not get rid of it.

Try not to panic OP. Dr appointment would be best as it's always better to be safe than sorry.

I had undiagnosed gallstones (as my GP was useless and I was apparently too young for them to be considered) which became pancreatitis. I had a few days of gallstone flare ups then cramps and severe pain suddenly. It was so bad it made me vomit, would rise up to unbearable then settle back down to very painful. I couldn't sit, lie or stand comfortably.

The pain was in the middle at the bottom of my rib cage but in the centre of my body, if that makes sense? I had cramps in my stomach (all over it) and in my back. When they worked out what it was (in hospital) the dr told me this was normal. Something about inflammation and my spinal chord meaning the pain felt like it was moving? I can't really remember.

Mine was agonising and DH called an ambulance on day one - if you're managing for now, start with GP.

Thank you everyone for sharing, I’m thinking it’s ‘just’ gallbladder as I’m not as bad as all of you. I don’t feel I need an emergency appointment at the moment so I’ll just wait and see how it progresses. If it’s consistently extremely sore I’ll phone 111 tonight, if it stays the same or eases I’ll catch up with GP tomorrow hopefully.

You can have severe gallstone pain without pancreatitis. DH woke up with it so bad one time that I took him to A&E and they gave him pethidine. As it progressed he was in loads of pain all the time (and on loads of painkillers) but still it was 'just' gallstones. The good news is he recovered super fast after having his gallbladder removed and has been fine ever since. Get on the waiting list as soon as you can would be my tip!!

No, mine never came and went, the pain was constant, however there were waves of stronger pain on and off. Didn't help that I was self medicating with nurofen which gave me a stomach ulcer on top too.

I had my gallbladder out yesterday. Months of agony over hopefully. I'm having a rough day today but I'm sure it was worth it.

I had it 20 years ago. Never had pain like it. It was worse that my two horrible long labours and giving birth. I was in hospital for about 10 days.

Ok I’m now 99% sure it’s not that, in fact I think it was maybe muscular pain around the back

However stomach pains are ramping up and pain in left stopped me getting much sleep last night, so I’ll go to GP today as there’s obviously something going on.

I had gallstones when I was 21 (now 32) and I can still remember the pain, it shot out the middle of my back and radiated up and across both of my shoulders so my whole upper back was effected too. Sounds like what you are describing so it may be that the gallstones are ramping up not that you necessarily have pancreatitis. I would be doubled over in pain. I had codeine to manage the pain until I had it taken out 6 months later (had to wait to finish my college course first).

A lot of the pain with gallstones is the gallbladder squeezing to release concentrated bile when you've eaten fatty foods as bile is used to digest it. When the gallbladder squeezes to release the bile it squeezes on the stones causing pain a low fat plain diet will help you while you wait for an operation to remove the gallbladder.

Go see your GP again as soon as you can!