Pancreatitis or cancer - how can it not be?!

[MrsNonSmoker]

Tonight is the night I want to get my story down as clearly as possible.

About a year ago I started to get the idea that something was terribly wrong with me. I just had a dreadful feeling. About the same time I started to get some visual disturbances, kept going fuzzy, then headaches, then dizziness. First thoughts? Brain tumour of course, you knew that!! So I got a referral to a neurologist. Whilst all that was going on, I thought I pulled a muscle in my left ribs. Ignored it. Also ignored the fact that if I lay on my back, my ribs felt like they were being pulled down from inside - I am hugely overweight, so assumed it was fat pressing on my organs. Anyway, I like to sleep on the left so that was ok. Kept thinking I must see GP about pulled muscle, after all, I'd had it for over 8 months, when at the end of July I made a fateful decision.

Only a few days before my neurology appointment, we were rushed for dinner so we had a rare Indian takeaway - have been trying to economise so not had anything like that for months. Huge meal, towards the end I thought blimey I am out of practice! Could barely finish it. Little did I know my life wouldn't be the same again as the next day I began to get the most bizzare pains in this "pulled muscle". It was as if I had a full term baby inside me, exactly the same as when I was pregnant. This "thing" kicked my bowels, scraped across my bladder and generally thrashed about in my chest cavity and abdomen. And once it started, it never stopped. 8 weeks later, it has still never stopped. Now, don't get me wrong, sometimes it might calm down for an hour or so, but not stop, its always there.

This "thing" wakes me early in the morning - it kicks through to my upper and lower left back, has now moved to include my right ribs as well. If I turn over in bed, or when I stand up, I can feel it flop over or down a second or so later. After I've been up for about an hour, I get my small respite when its not as noticeable, for about another couple of hours, then it starts to build again and by this time of night its scraping the inside of my ribs and drilling through into my back. Oh and for good measure it twists my ovaries and sends cramps down the front of my thighs. My "thing" is literally giving me Chinese burns inside. Waves of dizziness crash over me again and again, bending down is worst, mind you - its hard to bend down as I feel like I am trying to fold a large uncut loaf in half inside my abdomen.

Every symptom to me points to a cancer somewhere, or at the very least pancreatitis - when it flared up 8 weeks ago, I was able to carry on life relatively well but not so now, every week its got a little worse, a little worse - now I can't drink alcohol and am only eating 3 small meals a day. If I eat any fat I am awake all night, but even so I still only get about 5 hours on a good night, and when I do doze off I have horrific nightmares.

What's worrying me most is that it gets a little bit worse every few days. If this was IBS, surely it wouldn't be progressive like this - ie. the less I eat the worse it gets. Sometimes I get a lump in my throat, as if my eosophagus was trying to get out. My glands are up in my throat and under my left arm. If I push or touch anything on my left side I get a shot of pain from the armpit down the body into my groin or bowel.

When I saw neurologist he couldn't explain dizziness etc and said he thought it was nothing but wondered why on earth my GP wouldn't give me any tests for this pain, all she'd done was stick me on lanzaprole and tell me it was gastritis. Eventually I had to go private, and she wrote a referral letter saying I'd had stomach pains. That's it. Nothing about any of the other symptoms, gave my gastroenterologist completely the wrong information. I am waiting to see him on 4 October for an endoscopy, but I am going to try to get him to change that to a CT scan.

Now I want to say the horrible thing that should never be said - my mum died when I was 13, and now I look at my two girls and think the same thing is coming for them. I've had some bad times in my life, but the last few weeks have been terrifying. I think I must be mad to sit here and wait, like I am allowing my life to be drawn away, I want to run to the hospital and beg them to help.

If you are still reading now, you deserve a medal, but thank you and thanks for this forum where we can say the unspeakable.

[nomorepanic]

I was going to say that it sounds like acid indigestion/reflux to me or possibly gall stones?

Just my thoughts on it anyway but I am not a doctor of course.

[countrygirl]

If you had pancreatis in any form you would be in agony and I mean rolling around on the floor agony. Pancreatic cancer causes dramatic weight loss and any pain you get form it gets better if you bend over. So doesn't sound as if from your description its pancreas???

I get twitching muscles in my abdomen that drive me mad and feel just like bag of ferrets fighting and this can go on for weeks on end plus my ibs can give me feelings of extreme tightness and pulling but not pain.

Maybe go back to your Dr and tell them your worries about pancreatic cancer etc as they can do a simple blood test that would be abnormal with any pancreaitc problem and or an ultrasound if only to rule this out as a cause of your pain.

Have all these symptom started after you first felt a feeling of doom or something wrong but sounds like you did not have the physical symptoms at this time they came later???????
I am not saying that your pain and symptoms are anxiety related just that they might be but you will be happier getting things checked out as we all are !!

[hyg]

Hi
Mmmmm sounds like acid indigestion or gall stones to me from what you said- Im also not a GP BUT I suffered with terrible indigestion a coulple of years back and a lot of my symptoms were like yours-the stomach acid irritated my insides to the point where drinking a small glass of wine was agony and I could hardly finish a meal as felt like I had a brick in my stomach. I used to wake in the early hours with pain under my right rib and I would feel breathless as the acid was irritating my trachea. I was sent to hospital by my GP who suspected gall stone ( you cant tolerate fatty foods with this) after loads of tests that were negative i eneded up going to the out of hours at 4am with terrible pain in ribs stomach etc and the bleary eyed doctor said-My dear you are suffering with indigestion. I doubled up the omeprazole and 6 weeks later I was better. I still get it from time to time but know how to deal with it. I suppose my point is I had emergency tests done when the simple explanation was overlooked and if Id been treated for indigestion in the begining. . . I would nt have thought it was your pancreas as you would be worse by now and the fact you ve had it for a while now points to something chronic.It sounds like you started with classic anxiety symptoms that got worse-hope this helps

[MrsNonSmoker]

Thanks everyone. I'm intrigued - where do you get the idea of acid from? I don't have any acid reflux or indigestion? What is it in my symptoms that made you think that - my husband says I am not explaining myself properly, if that's true, if I made anyone here think it was acid related (most of the pain is in my side and back) then it may be that I have misled GP as well? I genuinely can't see any connection?

[Anxious_gal]

headaches, dizziness, visual disturbances could be a type of migraine.

I do think you need some sort of scan to see whats going on inside you where it hurts, I would ask for that , maybe along the lines of a CT scan.

Can't believe you put up with the pain for so long :(
If the all the tests come back clean I would start looking at food intolerance and allergies .

[hyg]

Hi
Have you can considered you might have a couple of things going on and the anxiety is making it worse ? Migraine can caused weird neurological signs like vision probs and dizziness-but it could also be anxiety. The pain in your side and back may be something else. The reason I thought you may have indigestion is because your pain worsenend after food and you said eating was difficult-when I had indigestion I didnt actually feel acid reflux or burning-just pain-esp under ribs ( which is a build up of gas ) The lump in your throat maybe a globus sensation-again caused by anxiety. I suppose we all want to help you and reassure you but the specialist you see next week will be able to help you. take care x

[Mendez]

Tonight is the night I want to get my story down as clearly as possible.

About a year ago I started to get the idea that something was terribly wrong with me. I just had a dreadful feeling. About the same time I started to get some visual disturbances, kept going fuzzy, then headaches, then dizziness. First thoughts? Brain tumour of course, you knew that!! So I got a referral to a neurologist. Whilst all that was going on, I thought I pulled a muscle in my left ribs. Ignored it. Also ignored the fact that if I lay on my back, my ribs felt like they were being pulled down from inside - I am hugely overweight, so assumed it was fat pressing on my organs. Anyway, I like to sleep on the left so that was ok. Kept thinking I must see GP about pulled muscle, after all, I'd had it for over 8 months, when at the end of July I made a fateful decision.

Only a few days before my neurology appointment, we were rushed for dinner so we had a rare Indian takeaway - have been trying to economise so not had anything like that for months. Huge meal, towards the end I thought blimey I am out of practice! Could barely finish it. Little did I know my life wouldn't be the same again as the next day I began to get the most bizzare pains in this "pulled muscle". It was as if I had a full term baby inside me, exactly the same as when I was pregnant. This "thing" kicked my bowels, scraped across my bladder and generally thrashed about in my chest cavity and abdomen. And once it started, it never stopped. 8 weeks later, it has still never stopped. Now, don't get me wrong, sometimes it might calm down for an hour or so, but not stop, its always there.

This "thing" wakes me early in the morning - it kicks through to my upper and lower left back, has now moved to include my right ribs as well. If I turn over in bed, or when I stand up, I can feel it flop over or down a second or so later. After I've been up for about an hour, I get my small respite when its not as noticeable, for about another couple of hours, then it starts to build again and by this time of night its scraping the inside of my ribs and drilling through into my back. Oh and for good measure it twists my ovaries and sends cramps down the front of my thighs. My "thing" is literally giving me Chinese burns inside. Waves of dizziness crash over me again and again, bending down is worst, mind you - its hard to bend down as I feel like I am trying to fold a large uncut loaf in half inside my abdomen.

Every symptom to me points to a cancer somewhere, or at the very least pancreatitis - when it flared up 8 weeks ago, I was able to carry on life relatively well but not so now, every week its got a little worse, a little worse - now I can't drink alcohol and am only eating 3 small meals a day. If I eat any fat I am awake all night, but even so I still only get about 5 hours on a good night, and when I do doze off I have horrific nightmares.

What's worrying me most is that it gets a little bit worse every few days. If this was IBS, surely it wouldn't be progressive like this - ie. the less I eat the worse it gets. Sometimes I get a lump in my throat, as if my eosophagus was trying to get out. My glands are up in my throat and under my left arm. If I push or touch anything on my left side I get a shot of pain from the armpit down the body into my groin or bowel.

When I saw neurologist he couldn't explain dizziness etc and said he thought it was nothing but wondered why on earth my GP wouldn't give me any tests for this pain, all she'd done was stick me on lanzaprole and tell me it was gastritis. Eventually I had to go private, and she wrote a referral letter saying I'd had stomach pains. That's it. Nothing about any of the other symptoms, gave my gastroenterologist completely the wrong information. I am waiting to see him on 4 October for an endoscopy, but I am going to try to get him to change that to a CT scan.

Now I want to say the horrible thing that should never be said - my mum died when I was 13, and now I look at my two girls and think the same thing is coming for them. I've had some bad times in my life, but the last few weeks have been terrifying. I think I must be mad to sit here and wait, like I am allowing my life to be drawn away, I want to run to the hospital and beg them to help.

If you are still reading now, you deserve a medal, but thank you and thanks for this forum where we can say the unspeakable.

My dear, I feel for you, this is the second time I have commented on your thread...I very much relate to your symptoms plus i experience other weird and scary symptoms that u havent mentioned, and as I said to you before i ve had mine for over 5 years on and off, I have been too told in the past that it was indigestion and sometimes the omeprazole helped sometimes it didnt, this time round it flared up beginning of may, got worse and worse and the past 4 months have been one of my darkest times in my life, but I am slowly getting better...

I, in my opinion, though not a doctor think it could be a mixture of indigestion, trapped wind and anxiety, trapped wind can cause extremely horrible pains, and can make you very ill, i constantly even up to now feel like I have a heavy ball moving from my lower abdomen to my ribs and back and everywhere...and trust me its not pleasant at all, I know what you re going thru...but I suggest you go on with the endoscopy (I had 3 myself all was normal), and also request for a ct scan (had one which was normal) just so that can put your mind at rest that it ins't something serious. Stop worrying dear because it only makes it worse, try and think positive and calm yourself, take each day as it comes and trust me things will get better. I wish you all the best.