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Posted 7/19/2012 4:58 AM (GMT 0)
about two months ago I got pacreatitis and was admitted to the hospital. It took 6 days to get my lipase levels to start coming down. I don't drink alcohol and it's not from gallbadder or kidney stones. They thought it was a side effect of the Imuran (75 mg/day for a little over one year). I stopped taking it immediately and was given Prednisone, which I finished tapering off of 2 1/2 weeks ago.

A few weeks ago my pancreas area started twinging after eating, and I've been having a low fever (about 100 degrees) off and on since then. This week I'm in Denver for my sister's wedding and took advantage of the time to have my surgeon check on my fistula (looks like there's not an infection! I started Remicade and had my 3rd infusion 3 weeks ago). I live in Utah and I'm a teacher, so my insurance in UT doesn't kick in until Sep 1 and there are no Kaiser (my current insurance in Denver that goes to Aug 31) doctors or hospitals in UT. They'll cover me in an emergency situation in an out-of-network hospital, but nothing else.

I did routine blood work yesterday and asked them to also check my lipase levels to see if it was pacreatitis again. The results came back today that yes, the levels are about 4x higher than the highest healthy level should be. I trie clear liquids for the day, but yesterday and today the pain was a lot worse. I went into the ER this evening and was admitted for the night. We'll go from there!

Does anyone else have pancreatitis, chronic or acute? One doctor said it could be the Lialda/Asacol/Mesalamine that I take, since that can be linked to pancreatitis. I would love to have more information, since most of what I find online is that it comes from drinking too much alcohol, but I've never had alcohol in my life. It's also not from kidney or gallbladder stones, and the MRI from last time didn't show a fistula.

I'm just hoping and praying that I won't miss my sister's wedding on Saturday! That would make my cry.
Posted 7/20/2012 8:07 PM (GMT 0)
scifigal- I had pancreatitis about 3 months ago. I do not drink either so the Hospitalist Dr thought it was caused from Apriso which is a sister drug to Lialda. I have successfully taken Lialda for the past 3 years but it has become ineffective so I was switched to Apriso and after  the first dose, I started having abdominal pain. While in the hospital for the pancreatitis, my GI did an upper endoscopy and found my duodenum and small intestines was inflamed from a bad crohns flare so she suspects that this caused me to be predisposed to pancreatitis although she couldn't be 100% sure.

I hope you  feel better soon!

Take care!

Posted 7/20/2012 8:23 PM (GMT 0)
scifigal, can you quite taking the mesalamines for now? I'm so sorry you are struggling with this while preparing for a wedding.

Were you taking the mesalamines while on Imuran too? This dang disease and its treatments can get so frustratingly complicated.
Posted 7/21/2012 3:09 PM (GMT 0)
My best wishes so you will be able to attend your sister's wedding. Maybe they can medicate you and let you out as an out patient to attend the wedding atleast for a bit. Best wishes that they will be able to get the pancreatitis under control.
I recently read that once you come off imuran they still have to watch you with follow ups, but don't say for how long. I'm not sure how long imuran would take to clear your system in all entirety? Maybe someone else knows?
Posted 7/21/2012 6:25 PM (GMT 0)
I went through a bit of pancreatitis a couple years ago. Absolute worst pain I ever had. It was due to the Lialda I was taking at the time, so my doctor instructed I reduce my dose. I did that, and all was clear. I stayed on Lialda for another 6 months or so after that before totally going off and starting Imuran.

I still occasionally get pain in the pancreas area, BUT, nothing like what I had at that initial attack.

I hope you can get this sorted out. I agree that the pancreatitis info out there now is mostly tied to drinking, and I too am not a drinker.
Posted 7/23/2012 8:28 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks, everyone, for your advice and input. I really appreciate it! They let me out Friday evening, so I was able to go to my sister's wedding. The deal was, though, that I would stay on a liquid diet for the weekend - very difficult to do with so much yummy wedding food around! But I did it!

I started eating solids again today, but slowly. I also started up the Asacol again per my GI's directions. I do Remicade infusions, though, so I think that I should start weaning off the Asacol. I'm going to talk to him this week to see what he thinks I should do. @dorri, I think that the Asacol has played a part, although Imuran takes several weeks to fully get out of your system. He thinks it's still just the Imuran effects. @kazbern, yes, I was taking both at the same time.
Posted 7/23/2012 10:12 PM (GMT 0)
I had a very serious issue with Imuran and pancreatitis. I had been in the hospital for a week with Septic Shock not long after starting Imuran, went home for 3 days and came back with pancreatitis, I remember the night before I went to the ER I had HORRIBLE pain which I wrote off as a bad case of reflux since I had similar pain in the past. I was in for another 4 days, luckily I recovered quickly (My lipase was 4400 when I went in) and I've not had trouble since, which was almost a year ago. I had not been on Imuran long at all (8 days) so after that initial hell I was pain free. I too never really drank alcohol. I was on pentasa for probably 7-8 months but after the Remicade started kicking in I told my GI I felt like I didn't need it. Remicade is the only med I'm on and I'm fine for now. I would think those drugs could be involved.
Posted 7/25/2012 2:46 AM (GMT 0)
Wow....I just emailed my GI about the Asacol. Apparently she had called me while I was in the hospital when she heard I was back in with pancreatitis and told me to stop it! I don't even remember that. But I was pretty heavily medicated - 2mg of Dilaudid, 50mg Benadryl for the Dilaudid itching, Ambien to help me sleep, and Valium for the MRI because I'm claustrophobic. All of that together really made me loopy. I don't like that feeling at all....apparently I also hung up on my husband because he didn't buy paper plates "liked I'd asked" (even though I never asked!) and had a couple of other weird conversations with nurses and one or two people. My phone needs to be taken away next time I'm hospitalized, and I think I'll just suck everything else up. Good grief.

@Ishiman, I thought my pain was reflux, too! I've had it for years and take 40mg of Omeprazol (Prilosec) every day, but even then....glad to know it wasn't just me feeling it that way!
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