Pancreas worries

[glowworm]

Hi - For over a year, I've been getting bad pains in my middle, which sometimes bore through to my back. I did have a suspected gallstone at one point, which apparently passed, but then the symptoms came back.

In a recent ultrasound, they didn't find any sign of gallstones. The ultrasonographer made what he probably thought was a throwaway comment that you can't always get a good enough view of the pancreas, but since I'd already googled pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer, I became obsessed with the idea that something's wrong with my pancreas, but they just haven't found it yet.

My doctors don't seem to be too concerned, as they say I have other reasons for the pain (e.g. I do have Crohn's disease), but I still think it doesn't all add up. I've also been losing weight gradually over the last three years without trying, when I used to find it hard to lose weight.

Now they've offered me a CT scan, saying it's the only way to put my mind at rest, but they also say it can itself cause cancer. They say it's my choice.

So what do I do? If I turn down the offer of a scan, I may not find out something's wrong till it's too late! If I have it, it's going to cause me a lot of stress waiting for the results and it may all be for nothing.

I don't know what to do!

[wnsos]

I'm not sure if this will be of any help (I do hope it will be though! No one should feel this frightened, I it's the worst thing, speaking from experience) but I had pancreatitis due to a gall stone seven years ago and I promise you, you'd know if you had pancreatitis. The pains were like nothing ever before. It makes me scared even trying to think back about it. Whenever I get a twinge in my middle or acid, I get scared it's coming back because it was initially misdiagnosed, and is now what I think was the route of my HA. The docs couldn't tell how much pain I was in but you can't even walk during a pancreatitis attack, so to me what this sounds like is good ol' HA had you focus on what the sonographer said and that led you to reading about it yourself. I will say my problems were only misdiagnosed cos I'd never had a blood test. In fact I only just got the blood tests booked. They'd have caught there was something wrong f I had. So many positive thoughts for you. I know how hard this is so I do hope this was of use. Xx