DissolveGurl

I have been reading a lot of posts about different experiences people have trying to find a diagnosis, and they sound so much like what I'm going through right now, and was wondering if anyone had anything to offer, suggestions for me?

I am 25 years old, and gave birth to my daughter almost a year ago. Up until about a month ago, I had been a heavy drinker since 14 years old (i didn't drink at all during my pregnancy). I never thought it would catch up to me until the past October, when after my last big drinking binge, I woke up in the middle of the night, stomach burning, dizzy, chills, and finally looking in the mirror and realizing I had lost a tremendous amount of weight. When my daughter was born, I was about 128 lbs, and today I weigh only 104. Well, that night in October I went to the emergency room, as the burning was horrible, and I couldn't eat anything. They did some blood tests, and told me that my amylase was elevated, telling them it was pancreatitis. I had a CAT scan done and they didn't find any cysts or whatever on the pancreas, told me to stay away from fatty foods for 4-7 days, don't drink alcohol, and that was IT.

I didn't listen very well and drank a few times, no problems. Then about a couple of weeks ago, I began to have a different, achy pain near the pancreas, so I went to the emergency room again. This time they did blood tests and a regular x ray of the abdomen. The doctor told me that my amylase was elevated again, offered even less help than the first doctor, and sent me home with a prescription for Lortab. That weekend I woke with the pain in the pancreas gone, but the same, achy pain lower down, to the right a little, about halfway between my ribs and my navel. I took some tylenol and it seemed to go away. But as I was sitting there that night, I somehow touched the area on the right that was achy earlier, and OMG it hurt so bad when I pressed down on it. Back to the emergency room. They did the blood tests again, and another CAT scan. CAT scan was normal, and the doctor told me that my amylase was still elevated, but a little lower than it was a couple of days before.

I found out after all this that my insurance had kicked in recently (no one told me) so I made an appt with a gastroenterologist. When I went I told her about the ER visits, the suspected pancreatitis, so she sent me for more blood work and an ultrasound, and scheduled an EGD. Well, the ultrasound came back normal, the blood tests did not. This time the amylase was normal, but the lipase is elevated. She wants to figure out what is going on with my pancreas, and says something else besides alcohol must be causing this, because it's been over a month since my last drink. She keeps mentioning ulcers, but I don't think that any of my symptoms fit, especially not the pain in this ONE spot I mentioned, that now doesn't hurt unless I press hard on it. It feels like something is IN there, bruised or whatever, and it has me really nervous. I'm wondering if anyone has ever had pain similar to this. She says I may have an ulcer in the duodenum (sp?) that is penetrating the pancreas, causing the inflammation, but that if I truly had pancreatitis, I would be in too much pain to even speak. The pain in my pancreas hasn't really bothered me, it's the other spot on the right that's freaking me out.

I'm going in for an MRCP (MRI) on Monday, to look at the pancreas, and my EGD is scheduled for Feb 12th. I keep asking her if the pain is in a different spot, why are they focusing on the pancreas, and she told me everything in there is close together, not spaced apart like in the pictures and it could be any of the organs causing this pain, probably from an ulcer. But don't ulcers cause a burning pain, not a localized pain that I only feel if I'm pressing on it? Wouldn't I have acid reflux, or heartburn? I don't have any of that. She had me start taking Aciphex 20 mg once a day, and I really don't feel any difference.

Does anyone have any suggestions? It just seems like a big guessing game to me, meanwhile I'm afraid something serious is going on that she might miss. She even mentioned the possibility of cancer, which scared me half to death.

I thought it might've been my gallbladder, but nothing showed up there on the CAT scans or ultrasound. Help, anyone?