What causes Pancreatic Calcification?

One of my biggest concerns regarding chronic pancreatitis is the calcification of the pancreas. The way I understand it, the calcification is perhaps parallel to petrified wood. It doesn't seem as though there is a way of fixing it once the pancreas becomes calcified.

I did a good search and come up with the following article, Spectrum of Causes of Pancreatic Calcification. I thought I'd share it with you.

My goal is to live as long as possible. The idea behind this research is to learn more about what causes the calcification of the pancreas in hopes of avoiding it altogether or perhaps, at least, slowing down the process.

Chronic alcoholic pancreatitis is the most common cause of pancreatic calcification. I no longer drink so hopefully my pancreas will benefit from the lack of alcohol in my system.

Pancreatitis & Thanksgiving

It is possible that I am beginning to have a better understanding of and relationship with food. This more advanced relationship will help with the holidays.

It seems like now might be the perfect time to talk a little about how to survive Thanksgiving without enduring a pancreatic attack.

Alcohol should not be considered an option. People with pancreatitis have a pancreas that is too weak or dysfunctional to properly digest alcohol. Therefore, the only safe option is to stay away from it.

Some people are usually used to celebrating with an alcoholic drink. It is fine that such a place

is where you have come from but it is now time to realize that drinking and holidays are not where you are at anymore. Why? Because you want to keep living for as long as possible and you would like to do that pain free. Therefore, celebrate with something that won't hurt you. Martinelli's Apple Cider might be a nice choice. (Hint: The Martinelli's Website has a whole section on non-alcoholic drinks!) Maybe a cold premade anti-inflammatory tea that you can that you can put in a high baller or something like that if it makes you feel better to have a drink in your hand.

Here is the calorie information on Turkey:

Calories in Turkey

TURKEY SELECTION	SERVING SIZE & PREPARATION	NUTRITION NOTES FOR TURKEY	TURKEY CALORIES
Calorie in Turkey-Dark Meat	3 ounces	Excellent source of protein.	159
Calories in Turkey Gizzards	3 ounces	Excellent source of protein. Good amounts of zinc and B Vitamins.	139
Calories in Turkey Liver	3 ounces	Excellent source of protein. Good source of Vitamin A, folate, zinc and riboflavin.	144
Calories in White Turkey	3 ounces	Excellent source of protein.	133

Maybe a simple green salad with sliced carrots and radishes and slivered almonds? Remember not to weigh the salad down with added calories. Sugared walnuts are bad. Dried cranberries have added sugar. If you use a salad dressing, perhaps opting for a 'lite' or fat-free dressing will be proactive in protecting your fat intake.

The potassium in potatoes is necessary. Smothering the potato in condiments kind of defeats the point. I love lots of sour cream. Thankfully, there is fat-free sour cream. Fat Free Margarine or the equivalent will be easier on the pancreas then a rich butter.

The goal is to be able to eat and enjoy the holiday food while not suffering the ramifications of a pancreatic flare-up as a result. The goal is balance.

If you eat sugar and want a dessert than go for a fat-free dessert. There are fat-free pies and chocolate dishes.

If you are spending the holidays with others than be participatory and bring a dish. No need to tell them it is because you need a fat-free option. Heck, do you even need to tell them it is fat-free. Just be a helpful guest and bring a food dish. This will also help ensure that there is food to eat. If your sister or friend is also going and the group doesn't know you have pancreatitis maybe your sister or friend can also bring a fat-free dish which will mean you will have at least two dishes you know will be safe to eat. No one needs to know your circumstances if you are a private person. None of this needs to be a big deal. It's just something you can set up as a safety

measure, a precaution to ensure you can both enjoy the holiday in a participatory way while not suffering from a pancreatic flare-up as a result.

If Auntie Mame is insisting you eat a little of this or that and you know it will hurt you but she's trying to guilt you into it just look at her lovingly directly in the eyes and say, "Auntie Mame, I love you and I want to see you again next year but eating that could kill me so I'm not going to have it so that next year I can come back and see you again." Smile, kiss her on the forehead and continue with what you were doing. She'll probably back off.

Enjoy the holidays!

Fat Free Dessert Recipes

Pancreatitis, Eating & the Holidays

Note: The above is for not meant for people who are just out of the hospital and not on solids. Each person is different and their process to recovery and maintenance will vary. Toast w/Jam, Chicken broth, baby cereal, jello, tapioca pudding, pureed veggies, etc are going to be much better options for many pancreatitis sufferers who are feeling more sensitive and tender and who have systems that are not in the mood for solids. Some people will only be ready for an IV hook-up. Some will only be ready for clear liquids. We're all different and each stage of recovery needs to be respected and appreciated.

Holidays do not affect our current stage of pancreatitis and what a person, at that stage, can eat. Being alive while enduring a life with pancreatitis gives us an awful lot to be thankful for... and isn't that really what Thanksgiving is about. Homemade Turkey pictures and turkey hats are just as wonderful as any other aspect of Thanksgiving. There are many ways to celebrate the holiday and thankfully we are alive to enjoy our options!

Pancreatitis Pain & Diagnosis - Letter From PD

Thank you for sharing your personal experiences with Pancreatitis. I was specifically intrigued by the lack of pain with your case. I am a 40 year old heavy drinker with swelling in the upper left quadrant. Aside from the dull aches under my ribs, in my back and left chest, I experience none of the other symptoms like jaundice, oily stool, sick to stomach, weight loss etc. I am wondering what were the symptoms that provoked you to go to the ER? Like when yours was discovered, I feel my pancreas may be huge at this point. Best, PD

Hi PD,

Yeah, your symptoms sound very similar to what mine were... and are, at times.

I did reflexology on my feet. That was how I initially found out about the pancreas in the first place. The bottom of my foot was sore in the spot that pinpointed to the pancreas.

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I had never heard of the pancreas before and eventually looked it up online. I didn't pay too much attention to it over a period of time - probably about three years - until the symptoms seemed to become clearer and perhaps more regular then ongoing.

The only way I can describe what sent me to the hospital is that when I would drink it felt like a waterfall was going over the center of the bottom of my ribcage in the middle.

I had had problems over the past several months before I had gone to the hospital. There were times when I had stopped drinking for a few weeks and times when I had pretty much stopped eating. I knew there was a serious problem from the 'waterfall' feeling and other symptoms and by the constant soreness on the bottom of my feet in the places that would indicate the pancreas.


If you are having a problem as a result of your drinking then you might consider that you might have a problem with alcohol.

Acute severe pancreatitis is not kind. It has an incredibly high mortality rate, the long term does not necessarily look bright for many who do not deal with it early and even some who do. Eating can end up being difficult and burdensome for the rest of your life.

Pancreatitis can sometimes happen once, or a few times, or it can even take a couple years before one recovers from it then it go away (this is what I've been told but not what I have experienced) and sometimes it can it can turn into chronic pancreatitis which (if you live long enough with it - statistics say that 50% of people diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis die within 2 years) can turn into pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest and most painful forms of cancer. People don't live with it long enough for doctors to be able to study it for very long. It's basically a hopeless disease at this point.

Look at Steve Jobs. He had all the health care money could buy but there was only so long he could live with the disease even though his form of pancreatic cancer was one of the mildest with some of the most hopeful statistics.

My suggestion is that you stop drinking, fix what's going on in your life which has put you in a position to want to drink so much and move forward.

I have heard that Alcoholics Anonymous has meetings in most large cities throughout the world and even many small cities and towns in the US.

It might be worth looking into. A sonogram or ultrasound are options to have the state of the pancreas diagnosed. A simple blood test (ask them to look for pancreatitis specifically) can tell you if there is a concern with the pancreas.

Another thing to keep in mind is that often the liver becomes the problem. So, even if the pancreatitis doesn't kill you the problems that then can occur with the liver can kill. Again, if you relate this to Steve Jobs, his liver gave out before his pancreas did. Although, as of today, I do not believe the actual cause of his death has yet to be announced.

I believe that each of us has a biological system makeup that is slightly different from everyone else based on lifestyle, diet, etc. Therefore, it only makes sense that the symptoms one person feels will vary from what another person experiences.

Do you have bloating after you eat? If so, it could be a sign that your pancreas cannot handle that much food intake. This is my case. So, for me, less food more often seems like the easier, softer way for the health of my pancreas for the long term.

How to locate the Pancreas Reflexology Zone
Detailed Reflexology Chart

Pancreatitic Diet & the Single Egg

I'm not always the best when it comes to eating small meals.

I'm not bad at it next to a non-pancreatitic impaired person. But I have pancreatitis and I should never have a big bowl of lentil soup... even if it doesn't bother me. Why? Because I don't always know if it will be the first, second

or third slightly over-sized meal of the day or the past couple of days that will set my pancreas off, especially if I'm stressed.

It is always better to be safe than sorry.

That's why I like the Single Egg. It's not like a second egg can jump in the pan or I can miraculously end-up eating an egg-and-a-half when my intention was to only have one egg. With eggs, I put one in the pan I know exactly how much I'm getting.

Lentil soup doesn't work that way. Today, I made some lentil soup. I meant to make one small

bowl's worth. Instead, I made a nice, large delicious looking bowl of lentil soup. And you what I did then???? That's right! I ate it.

I surrender to the fact that I have no control. I see it. I want it. I eat it. Not always. Not everything. But if I'm cooking and I have the opportunity to pour it all in my bowl or just half... apparently I'm the kind of person who doesn't use much refrain and ends up pouring the whole

thing in my bowl and eating every last delicious bit of it.

Yes, I know. It's that same approach with booze that cause my pancreatitis in the first place! Fiddlesticks!

Really.

One egg.

Simple.

With protein.

Couldn't really ask for any more than that!

Can You Die From Pancreatitis?

From my understanding, a person can die from pancreatitis from their very first pancreatic attack. A person can also completely recover from an initial attack and never have another attack or pancreatic problems again... this is what the doctors in the hospital told me.

I would guess that a person's recovery, whether or not they recover and how long it take them to recover has a lot to do with that person's actions and how they treat their pancreas and whether they give the pancreas ample time to recover.

Alcohol can trigger a pancreatic attack. Therefore, if a person's pancreatitis was initiated by alcohol that person might be wise to steer clear of drinking alcohol particularly during the months following the attack to allow the pancreas to recover.

A pancreatic attack can also be brought on by a severe blow to the pancreas. I don't know (nor do I know that the information exists for anyone to know) if this sort of pancreatitic attack makes the pancreas more vulnerable to alcohol.

Pancreatitis can turn into chronic pancreatitis - which is what I have - which can turn into pancreatitic cancer.

Pancreatitis can kill you, it can become chronic pancreatitis or you can recover completely from it. From what I can tell, it seems that there is more choice than chance in the direction a person goes with the disease of pancreatitis.

If this is a person's first bout with pancreatitis and if it is caught early on - often not the case - then one might assume it is possible to recover completely without additional pancreatitic attacks if a person stays away from alcohol, high levels of stress and fatty foods.

If a person is diagnosed with pancreatitis after having had it for a while - often several years - then it is perhaps more likely that person would be susceptible to the pancreatitis developing into chronic pancreatitis. Chronic pancreatitis is either reoccurring or doesn't go away. In my case, the chronic pancreatitis pretty much never goes away but can still be kept under control.

From what I've read, if you're lucky enough not to have the pancreatitis or chronic pancreatitis kill you then it will in time most likely turn into pancreatic cancer. A brutally cruel disease that usually kills within 6 months to 5 years.... if you're lucky.

One of the reasons it is so hard to find a cure for pancreatic cancer is because people die from it so quickly.

If you or a loved one have pancreatic cancer then heart goes out to you and what you are going through. I hope that in time we are able to find a cure or at least a way to live a longer, pain-free life with this disease.

One of my favorite discoveries are natural bulk herbs that reduce tumors that I turn into teas. Often tumors go undetected. Therefore, I feel like I'm being proactive when I try to fight tumor growth from the beginning.

Alcoholic Pancreatitis

In April of 2008, I created a website called Alcoholic Pancreatitis. From researching my disease, pancreatitis, I realized that doctors didn't know much about pancreatitis, that the disease was often left undiagnosed until at a terminal state, that people who suffered from this disease were often blindsided by the disease and hope and a cure was no on the forefront of medicine. In fact, doctors seem to just accept that if you have pancreatitis there is nothing they can do for you beyond pain killers and that too little is known about the disease for traditional western medicine to be able to help us.

Hopeless, helpless suffering wasn't and still isn't an acceptable solution for me. I don't want life put in the hands of someone who has that mentality, belief or limited knowledge about my disease. Therefore, I started a website to track my disease and my progress and to share my experience with chronic pancreatitis with others who suffer from the disease of the pancreas.

This blog, Living With Pancreatitis, came out of my website. From a purely technical position, the blog is easier to manage.

Although many factors probably contributed to me getting chronic pancreatitis. I doubt I would have it if I hadn't been drinking alcohol day-and-night for an extended period of time before I went into the hospital and was diagnosed.

Once hospitalized for Severe Acute Pancreatitis, I was told that I would never be able to drink again. I already knew this because I had self-diagnosed the disease before being admitted to the hospital.

I no longer drink alcohol. I will never drink alcohol again.

I want to live. My pancreas cannot tolerate alcohol. If I drink, I will die.

There is a very good chance my chronic pancreatitis will turn into pancreatic cancer if the chronic pancreatitis doesn't kill me first. I completely accept this.

My goal is to live as long as possible. I'm not done with this life. There are a lot of things I want to do. Therefore, extending my life as long as possible is extremely important to me.

Drinking alcohol would be the equivalent of committing suicide. I don't want to die. I wanted to drink through a period of my life and stop when it was over. I didn't realize I could get pancreatitis. I didn't realize the drinking so much could kill me. I was ill educated on the subject. I am not today. So, today, I do not drink alcohol.

It feels good to be able to share my story of pancreatitis with others who are experiencing similar difficulties.

Living with pancreatitis can be scary and isolating. Doom and gloom can be a bad neighbor constantly knocking at our door when we are mid crisis and our pancreas is inflamed and we can't get the flare-up under control. But the pain can be temporary and there are things we can do to allow our pancreas to heal - such as not drinking alcohol, sometimes refraining from eating for a days or weeks and reducing stress levels.

It is okay to be afraid. This disease is very, very deadly and extremely painful at times. Be patient. Don't expect your pancreas to heal today, tomorrow, this week, this month or ever really... Do expect that times of crisis can diminish over time and the pain you are experiencing can leave you and you can begin to live a softer, gentler existence with little-to-no pain a daily basis.

Do know that when you give your pancreas the love and care it needs the pain you are feeling can subside and you can regain a normal-to-relatively normal life.

The last time I thought my chronic pancreatitis might win and kill me was over a year ago. It's a horrible feeling. Don't give up hope even if it feels like you may never get well. Feelings aren't facts.

Deal with what is in front of you. When I am in crisis mode - meaning my pancreas has flare-up and as a result I can not at that time function normally in life - I must refrain from food and stress.

Fear doesn't help. When my pancreas is inflamed I need to deal with it not live in the false belief that it'll never get better and I will die. Love yourself and know that this too shall pass. Patience, time and the loving care you give to your pancreas will help you recover as quickly and in the best health as possible.

It's easy to worry about dying from pancreatitis when you can't eat and you're in constant pain but the reality is that you probably won't die from starvation. If needed, hospitals can hook you up to an IV to ensure you get enough nutrients to keep you alive.

No food. No alcohol.

Stress is a killer. Stress is not the friend of the pancreas.

Alcohol is the worst enemy of the pancreas. It can send the system into a state of shock and kill you immediately. So, no booze. Even if you want it. Even if you think it is okay. It is not okay EVER!!!!

If you are having a hard time not drinking alcohol then you are are probably an alcoholic because non-alcoholics don't have a problem not drinking. Alcoholics Anonymous is a place where many people go if they have a problem putting down the drink. If you are used to drinking and all of a sudden you can't drink anymore, it can be helpful to be around people who are also not drinking. AA is a place to find people who live life on life's terms while not drinking alcohol.

As a person who suffers from chronic pancreatitis and who wants to live as long as possible, I no longer drink alcohol. My life and longevity is much more important than booze.

If you are unhappy with your life. Change it. No really. I mean it. If you are here, you are probably on death's doorstep. Therefore, you have nothing to lose by reinventing yourself into the person you want to be. The person you've been stuffing through drinking alcohol. The person you've told yourself you cannot be or you do not have the right or time to become.

Now is the time to be the YOU that makes YOU happy. Happiness and joy are an important part of my healing decreasing stress has the potential to help me live longer!



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