I have a complex medical history, as most of us with Fibromyalgia do. If you are interested in the origins of my health struggles this is where you will find them. In November of 2004 I was hospitalized with a severe case of pancreatitis caused by a genetic malfunction of my triglycerides, called Hypertriglyceridemia. Triglycerides should be under 200, but mine were 7,000. This was my 3rd time in the hospital with pancreatitis and by far the worst. After puking fruit-punch Gatorade all over the ER waiting room and nearly suffocating because I was in so much pain (a major complication of pancreatitis is lung failure), they did an EKG on this 28 year woman to rule out a heart attack! I was admitted to the hospital and put on IV NPO (no food or water), given serious pain meds and placed on Lopid, a triglyceride medication. The pain was so unreal that the thought of food was like 10 more daggers piercing my gut, squeezing in among the 100 already surging and stabbing it. On the 8th day they threatened to stick a feeding tube up my nose if I did not at least try some clear broth. Needless to say the day after that I was on my way home. Any way to communicate the pain of pancreatitis? No, not really, except I would not wish it on the worst person in the world. It must be what hell is like, unbearable misery and unrelenting, excruciating pain.
After returning to work I was still, for the next few months, in a significant amount of abdominal pain and popping Vicodin every day to get through my 10-hour-a-day stressful on-my-feet Prestige Cosmetics executive job. After extensive CT's and endoscopic testing revealed nothing was wrong (WHAT???), I was finally taken off Lopid (my husbands idea) and bingo! The pain was gone! However, after a few months my triglycerides eventually floated back up to 500 so I was put on a different type of medication.
Thanks for joining,
Leah
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