Just diagnosed with Pancrease Divisum

Just found out I have a birth defect of Pancrease, Pancrease Divisum. It's when 1 of the small ducts of the Pancrease doesn't fuse to the main duct of the pancrease. Some people don't have any symptoms, and others can have pains, pancreatitis, and elevated lipase blood levels. My doctor told me only 10% of patients have symptoms of this birth defect, and only very few people know they even have the birth defect. This could explain the sharp pains I've been having in my upper right abdomen and my elevated lipase levels. The doctors did several CT Scans, Ultrasound of Gall bladder, and finally did a MRI of Abdomen with MRCP. So now I have Lymes disease to treat and the birth defect.

I wonder if me having this birth defect, if it could cause me to have trouble detoxing?
It seems every time I start a knew treatment my lipase blood levels seem to increase and that's when I have some pains in my abdomen. I take 2 digestive enzymes with each meal, and eat no-fat diet, Gluten Free, Lactose Free, Sugar Free, Dairy Free, and Yeast Free diet. Could the defect cause the detox problems?

Thanks

Lymenomore -

WOW. Very interesting dx - have never heard of that condition. And WOW - your diet is very restrictive (I've been there) and to still have sx is very frustrating.

I agree w/ PeteZa's comments.

I've suffered crazy GI problems in the past decade but I've had trouble my whole life. In the back of my mind I am convinced there is something structurally wrong that hasn't been diagnosed yet. I did some DNA investigation and found out I have some mutations that make digestion difficult--was born with low "good" gut bacteria, I have trouble processing sugar, a few other things.

I was also born with pyloric stenosis (the flap at the bottom of the stomach took longer than usual to develop and so I had some weird sx the first several weeks of life. This isn't an uncommon condition but I really wonder if it was caused by--or caused something more significant that has disrupted my digestion my whole life.

And having GI issues while treating lyme is very complicated. Not only is nutrition so important to us, but we take treatment orally and since 70% of our immune system IS our gut, it plays a HUGE role in recovery.

I think detox is a good thing to focus on, absent any other specific info. Detox has several components to it-- getting rid of what we're killing (at the SAME rate we are killing it!) by flushing it out of the system along with the other debris and toxins that build up in our bodies, and supporting those detox systems and methylation pathways that make the delicate chemical interactions work that make our bodies work.

Have you done any MTHFR (or DNA-mutations that affect detoxing and methylation) investigation? That's one good place to start.

I've also been doing a lot of reading about GI problems that were solved with fecal micro biome transplants... this suggests that basically, those with some GI issues simply have a bad balance in their gut of good vs bad bacteria. It's a fascinating and emerging area of study. You can do a search on Healingwell.com's chron's and/or GI type forums for the fecal transplants---a lot to read. But these people have had all sorts of diagnoses but seem to all have the same symptoms--no matter what they eat. So I think there is a lot more to your situation than the MD's diagnosis.

And, I don't remember where I read it--I'm really sorry--but I vaguely remember a study done w/ the transplant wherein the patient had immediate improvement in lipase levels. I didn't understand it enough to be able to articulate how/why but it might be something to start searching for.

Plus, with all due respect to your MD, I've found that MDs and gastroenterologists are often the least informed about the broader world of GI and nutritional health (one MD I read about mentioned that they don't teach basic nutrition in MD courses--which I find idiotic and dangerous). The fact that our immune system relies so much on gut health is a relatively new concept to the average person (why only recently have MDs been prescribing probiotics along w/ abx --and some still don't?!?) And they're the last to get on board with the notion of balanced gut bacteria. I think that's changing, though.

I have bart in my gut (who knows what kind of damage it's doing) but it creates these awful attacks and I ended up in ER Christmas eve a couple yrs ago. The ER doc wanted to get the on-call surgeon in to rip out my gall bladder. This is with none of my medical background, not even a remote understanding of lyme and certainly not bart, and very unconvincing imaging of the gall bladder and what looked like it might be a stone. But maybe not.

After I fled the ER ;) I found a great gastro who was lyme-literate. He has been very helpful.

Anyway, your dx is a good place to start and provides some info but keep searching and reading as much as you can. And let us know if you have any other q's about your treatment, etc.

-p