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!

Swimming and Pancreatitis

Next to walking, swimming is my favorite exercise.

It is gentle on the entire body including my pancreas.

Swimming and walking, for me, might be similar to meditating for other people.

It's where I find peace and tranquility. Calm and silence.

Swimming has the added benefit of ensuring I'm catching a little vitamin D if I'm swimming

during daylight hours then catch a few rays on the chaise.

When I'm more on the stressed out side I try to ensure exercise is part of my routine. Focus on something other than me. Restful exercise. Sounds like an oxymoron.

If I'm mid pancreatic flare-up, I pay attention to my pancreas and let it guide me.

My goal is always to allow my pancreas to rest when it needs it. If I don't think swimming is going to make it feel better than I would have no business swimming. I never want to do anything that would cause discomfort to my pancreas. I always want to take it slow and easy and allow my pancreas to dictate what kind and how much exercise I do.

Pancreatitis and Walking

Exercise is vital for health. I tend to exercise in a gingerly manner and have no desire to ever do anything that might strain my pancreas in some manner.

I like walking. I always have and probably always will but now that I have chronic pancreatitis I feel that walking is a safe, very beneficial exercise to engage in.

I have a dog who needs to be walked daily. This ensures that I get out-and-about at least once or twice a day. It does not ensure that I walk at least a mile each time I walk the dog. This I do because I know that it is probably going to be my main form of exercise for the day and because sometimes I need a break and walking really seems to clear my head and perhaps help me de-stress a little.

I don't meditate or do yoga. Although, I hear yoga can be very beneficial for decreasing stress and overall health so that is an excellent alternative if you're looking for an exercise to add to your regime.

I walk. I like being out in nature. Walking frees my mind for unencumbered though

Today, for example, I'm a little stressed so I took an early walk in hopes of giving myself a little space to relax and soothe my soul.
Stress can increase the chances of a pancreatic flare-up so I do what I can to reduce stress levels and find peace and tranquility when and where I can. Walks benefit me in this way.

Pancreatitis & Oatmeal

I love oatmeal with honey!

Repeatedly, I have read the importance of eating enough grains.

Eating grains is not my strong suit. Nonetheless, I've been craving oatmeal for about the past month.

I'm not the queen of eating whole grains. It is definitely something I am working on.

Oatmeal is a food I can enjoy and know is something I should have in my balanced pancreatic diet.

Sometimes I'll add a few berries to mix things up!

Noteworthy: It is always better to make too little than too much. If I've made too much I tend to want to eat it all. My pancreas benefits from frugality rather than overabundance. Therefore, due to my lack of discipline, I'm always better off making a little, then making more if I am still hungry.

Pancreatitis & Chrissy's Tea

I make all my own teas now. I buy the ingredients in bulk and honestly you can either grow or get most tea ingredients if you so desired!

I don't know why but Yogi Teas now tend to hurt my abdomen when I drink them. Before I had chronic pancreatitis, Yogi Teas were always fantastic! Now, the Yogi Teas cause discomfort to my pancreas.

My solution has been to make my own teas.

I've written several other articles on tea. If you go to the 'search' bar on the left of the screen and type in 'tea' it will bring up the other tea articles.

I think my all time favorite tea includes the below 4 ingredients:

1. Artemisia Capillaris
2. Dandelion
3. Lavender
4. Ginger

Let's name it! Let's call it 'Chrissy's Tea'. My favorite grandfather used to call me 'Chrissy' so both the name and the tea have a special meaning to me!

This is probably my favorite tea because it tastes good and seems to flush my system while also decreasing inflammation. It always feels beneficial. I was recently in NYC for 10 days. I didn't bring the tea and noticed such a difference in how the organs in my processed and rid itself of food. Often, when I drink this tea I feel like I'm not really experiencing problems with my pancreas anymore. I think it simply does an excellent job of flushing my system which seems to make life much easier on my pancreas.

The artemisia capillaris seems to flush and protect my system. Note: Especially if you haven't tried this herb in a tea before, you might want to make sure you are home for the night. For my system, it gets things moving. It is also considered to be beneficial for the liver. Many people with pancreatitis end up having liver problems. I think this tea (herb) helps me protect the longevity of my liver! By the way, you can totally smoke this herb but it might give you a headache and it will not get you high. I haven't found that the benefits are the same when smoking it. I prefer it in tea!

Dandelion is high in Vitamins A and B12 (riboflavin), is known considered helpful with hypertension, as a diuretic and is known to prevent the formation of gallstones and possibly helping to dissolve gallstones. Gallstone problems are often prevalent in people who suffer from pancreatitis.

The lavender seeds I put in my shake herbal tea mix smell so good! It brings a smile to my face. Besides, the seeds are a beautiful shade of purple. I don't use many, maybe 5-10 seeds. I suppose some people might use more but that is the quantity that works for me. Lavender is considered an herb that helps with anxiety and nervousness as well as depression and insomnia. It also is known to help with the digestive tract, in relieving persistent flatulence, spells of nausea as well as indigestion. Many of these symptoms are experienced by people who suffer from the disease of pancreatitis.

I love ginger! It is an anti-inflammatory. I buy jars of the pink ginger that accompany sushi in restaurants and eat it straight up! I love the way ginger tastes in tea. It has a zing to it! It is said that ginger can help with abdominal cramping and the treatment of kidney stones, as well as having an antiseptic quality that is extremely beneficial in dealing with all manners of gastrointestinal infections. Ginger is also known to help with flatulence (gas)!

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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