What are the symptoms, what are you experiencing?
My father had a pancreatic cyst removed in his 50's.
Its starts off as heart burn that just won't go away. Your whole abdomen begins to hurt and you start to struggle to breath. You will also suffer lower back ache.
This all happens within hours, even just minutes. My first attack took less than 15 minutes from first symptoms to me being rushed to the hospital thinking it was a heart attack. My second attack was much slower and but I realised quickly there was trouble brewing within 3 hours as the heart burn went from discomfort to me wanting to reach for the ENO's.
There are a lot of symptoms that start weeks ahead. I've found lack of energy and unexplained lower back ache - the pain is from your organs. Another common symptom is sudden weight loss, in my case its sudden weight gain which is rare. With my first attack I had heart burn every evening at 6pm for about a minute for the week leading up to the attack.
If left untreated, acute pancreatitis can kill you quickly. In my first attack the difference between life and death was hours and thats why getting correct medical treatment is essential. Had I waited an hour I would have ended up in ICU with possible organ failure. Took me 6 months to recover.
Continuous attacks can lead to chronic pancreatitis with a high probability of pancreatic cancer. One of the worst and deadliest cancers.
Treatment consists of pain killers (often morphine), drips and nothing through the mouth to give the pancreas a chance to rest. Hospitalisation is quiet long as there is continuous monitoring of the patient often as every hour for the first few days. Some patients can stay for weeks in hospital. You are often booked off at least a week to stay at home, I'm only returning to work next week Wednesday at the earliest and typing this before I take my next round of pain killers.
Long term recovery involves a low fat diet and abstaining from alcohol. An absolute lifestyle change but worth it.
