Adults with diabetes. Adult poor mental health. First trimester prenatal care age 18 or older who have ever been told by a doctor that they have diabetes …
Reprinted from PEaRL Pancreas Education and Research Letter a
publication of the Pancreatic Studies Office in the Division of
Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh
wwwpancreasorg
Kids Corner
What is Chronic Pancreatitis?
By David C Whitcomb, MD, PhD and Erin N Fink, MS
When we hurt ourselves - for example, scrape or cut our hand - we
have an injury, and our body has to heal itself If we bleed, our body
makes a scab over the cut areas on the hand After a few weeks, the hand
may look perfectly normal, as if it had never been hurt or injured, or a
scar may have formed over the area where there was injury Bigger cuts and
more serious injuries tend to make scars that can be there for a lifetime
Sometimes, it is difficult to know if an injury will leave a scar or if a
person will heal back to normal
In a similar manner, if the pancreas gets injured or inflamed as
happens when one has acute pancreatitis - please see the last Kids
Corner in PEaRL volume 1 number 3, the body has to work to heal the
pancreas Often, the healing process leaves a perfectly normal pancreas
However, at other times, the pancreas is left with scars As with
scars on
the skin, scars within the pancreas tend to stay for a persons entire
life This long-term scarring within the pancreas is known as chronic
pancreatitis
Other people do have problems and symptoms when they have chronic
pancreatitis Some people have pain This pain can be a little or a lot,
only at certain times such as after eating or all the time People with
very bad pancreas pain often need the help of a special team of doctors and
nurses that are specialists in dealing with pain a pain clinic to help
with the pain A person may take pain medications or pancreatic enzymes
special digestive proteins the pancreas makes to try to make the pain
better
For some people the pancreas can have so much scarring that it cannot
make the proteins that it is supposed to, and these people may develop the
two major problems of chronic pancreatitis:
They are unable to digest food properly The pancreas makes the
digestive proteins needed to obtain the calories that are in
food - and calories are the fuel for the body They lose the
undigested food in the stool their poop, especially fatty
food The stool may be very large,
look oily or greasy and hard
to wipe off or hard to flush down the toilet The person may be
very hungry and eat more than before but still lose weight When
this happens, a person is said to have exocrine insufficiency
and must be given pancreatic enzymes special pills to help
digest food properly
They start to have trouble controlling their blood sugar This
is called diabetes mellitus A person may lose weight, feel
thirsty, and drink a lot This can cause the person to urinate
pee a large amount If a person develops diabetes, he or she
must start to take special injections shots of insulin,
which is a special protein that the pancreas normally makes when
it is healthy Sometimes, if their pancreas is still making some
insulin, a person can take a pill to lower their blood sugar
instead of taking shots of insulin
A person can live many, many years with chronic pancreatitis - but
taking care of any pain, digestion problems, and diabetes becomes
very important
