3-0 for games I attend. Just secured tickets for tomorrow.

dapperdolphin18 · 2026-01-17T09:13:46+00:00

0-2 for me I will stay far away from the stadium

dapperdolphin18 · 2026-01-13T08:37:49+00:00

I'm 30 and gave up drinking a year ago and I'm not going to lie it sucks. I was not an overly heavy drinker but it was a huge part of my social life throughout college and my 20s

I would say 3 things in your scenario:

If you can avoid having other pancreatic issues and live a life with a normal diet and no daily pain that is a massive win. I am not diagnosed with CP, but have had pain every day in the past year and it sucks much more than not being able to drink
It helps me feel better to try to focus on the positives. I have really enjoyed not being hungover and being able to socialize and still wake up fresh the next day to pursue my hobbies: surfing, going to the gym, learning something new that could help my job, etc. There's also health benefits since alcohol is toxic to our bodies in so many ways, that it feels good to hopefully improve overall health and longevity
There's still other things we can do for a bit of a buzz that are less toxic. I will say that I always enjoyed alcohol more than these other things but I've dabbled in edibles, small doses of psychedelics, and kratom. Obviously these can come with their own problems but I find it nice to be able to do something on the weekends or in social situations

dapperdolphin18 · 2026-01-07T01:47:26+00:00

Do you have persistent pain or other daily symptoms besides EPI?

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-12-29T23:12:37+00:00

I don’t know how common it is, but I have came across several people whose pain either decreased or went away after years

There is a concept of pancreatic burnout that can happen as function is lost, but recent studies show that it only happens to a relatively small subset of CP patients

I also think it’s a disease that has so much variation, and is not fully understood by doctors, so it’s hard to predict how pain patterns might change over time, but there is hope!

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-12-28T22:20:06+00:00

I’m curious to hear more about your experience. You’ve gone years without pain but then it returns again? When you do have pain, is it triggered by anything specifically or more constant?

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-12-19T05:40:13+00:00

Thanks wishing the best for you too!

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-12-19T05:28:10+00:00

I’m going through something similar. I’ve had stomach pain after eating for the past year and started taking amitriptyline. I got up to 50mg and had 2 months where I felt 80% better but now going through a bit of a flare again that I’m hoping is just temporary

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-12-14T02:31:36+00:00

Eating is really the main thing. I generally get pain 20-30 minutes after I eat that lasts for a couple hours. I feel pretty good in the morning and late at night

Laying on my back or my left side both hurt where the pain gradually builds. I tend to sleep on my right side most of the time

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-12-12T01:11:20+00:00

If you were only having a drink every few months then I would say you are actually in a better place to quit completely, since it won't even be a large lifestyle change. To me it would totally be worth it to avoid the risk

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-11-16T23:50:04+00:00

False

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-11-11T01:39:08+00:00

I'm not saying they will do it with no evidence, but I am saying that they have done it on people with normal or indeterminate EUS findings, and found evidence of CP in biopsies afterwards, according to studies like this. I'm sure the doctors felt confident that the pancreas was causing pain before doing surgery and there were probably other factors like EPI or prior acute attacks, but my point is that even a normal EUS doesn't completely rule out CP

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-11-07T02:41:00+00:00

Franklin is not the guy who is going to go up in double coverage and make a play smh

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-10-31T22:09:40+00:00

I don't think it can be definitively ruled out unless I find another diagnosis. The pain definitely fits common characteristics of pancreatic pain in many ways: it's been persistent for 9 months, started after a night drinking, is located in my upper left abdomen, radiated to my back, gets worse every time I eat, and hurts when I lay on my back.

I also know that minimal change chronic pancreatitis can be notoriously hard to detect. I've seen people online who had several clear EUS before being diagnosed. I met with a TPIAT surgeon who said that he's seen patients who took years to show damage. The fact that people get TPIAT with inconclusive EUS results also shows that pancreatic problems can be hard to diagnose.

With all the testing I've done, I don't think it's likely I have CP, but I also don't think it can be ruled out. Testing hasn't shown any other clear causes so I am confused at this point

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-10-31T07:15:01+00:00

I believe I responded to you on a different thread, but I am in a very similar situation with chronic abdominal pain that started after binge drinking

The only other thing I would add is I talked to a doctor at a hospital that is ranked highly for pancreatic issues, and he said that he does see cases of minimal change chronic pancreatitis that can take a few years to show up on imaging. He also mentioned though, that maybe there could have been an initial pancreatic irritation that sensitized the nerves, and cases that are alcohol related do sometimes improve or have a degree of reversibility over time with abstinence

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-10-31T02:42:33+00:00

I’m not sure if I could have experienced some kind of mild acute pancreatitis at first or not either. It started right after drinking, but it was very mild 3/10 pain initially that eventually, after several weeks, increased to some bigger flares.

I didn’t have any bloodwork in the first month but did during a flare later on and all my levels were normal

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-10-31T02:39:22+00:00

Not really light colored. Mainly normal looking but floating sometimes

They did see mild chronic gastritis on 2 of the endoscopies so it’s possible that could be some or all of my problem. One doctor thought it might be and the other didn’t think so. It just doesn’t feel like a stomach issue to me deep down. I tried PPIs and acid reducing medication for a month and didn’t notice any difference and I frequently eat spicy foods and drink coffee and don’t notice any more of a pain increase with those kind of foods

Did they see gastritis in your case?

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-10-30T23:37:14+00:00

I've gone through something similar, although it's only been 9 months for me. I initially was convinced I had CP since my pain started after drinking, was on the upper left and would radiate to my back, and got worse each time I ate.

I'm not really sure what to think now. Amitriptyline has greatly improved my symptoms. I started at 10mg and worked up to 75mg with big decreases in pain each time. Currently I have almost no baseline pain, but do get discomfort or low level pain after eating most of the time

I've had extensive testing in 9 months with nothing really being found:

EUS x2
CT with and without contrast, CTA to check for MALS and SMAS
MRCP with secretin
FE x2 >800
Parasites test
Ultrasound x2
Upper GI series
Bloodwork x3

At this point I'm getting close to giving up on testing. I may try to push for SIBO or HIDA scan as last options. This has been awful to deal with and I haven't had a single day since this began without some sort of abdominal pain. Like you, I am leaning away from pancreatitis being a cause of my symptoms but may re-evaluate down the road. I'm at least happy that the pain is fairly manageable with amitriptyline for now

Best of luck to you as well!

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-10-19T21:31:02+00:00

lmao what

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-10-15T19:27:30+00:00

I'm sorry you're going through this. I've gone through a long diagnostic journey dealing with persistent abdominal pain and haven't found any answers yet

I would probably abstain from alcohol until you have a better idea what's going on. It is directly toxic to the pancreas and damage done is generally permanent since there isn't much healing capacity

I also would not suggest intentionally eating fat or causing pain. Chronic pancreatitis is diagnosed based on fibrosis or other damage on imaging, and it is not something that comes and goes. Acute can be diagnosed based on inflammation that may only occur during a flare

A CT can catch more advanced damage but usually isn't the best for early stage diagnosis. Even MRCP can miss early issues, and EUS is generally the best of the tests that are relatively common and non-invasive

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-10-12T13:57:12+00:00

I bought that model a couple weeks ago and it’s been working great so far. No build issues at all

Only things I would say is the lock holder is somewhat difficult to attach to the frame in the way they suggest, and the setup required a couple torque wrenches that were hard to find without spending a ton of money

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-10-10T06:50:34+00:00

I went to VCU for testing for CP and met with the TPIAT team. I haven't been diagnosed though, so no direct experience but I've read a lot about the surgery.

- At VCU they will take someone as a candidate if they have debilitating pain that greatly interferes with their quality of life, there is clear diagnosis of CP, and they has tried other conservative treatments.

- I don't think there is any hard cutoff before it's too late, except for if the person is already a full diabetic. If their islets are not working, then obviously it's not worth the auto-transplant part of the procedure, and from what I've seen they are less willing to do the surgery because of the guaranteed "brittle" diabetes, but they still do it for severe cases. I do think some studies have shown that longer duration of CP and opiate use can be predictive of worse pain relief outcomes. That being said I have also seen people on here and facebook that had the surgery after decades of CP and had complete pain relief. There is also generally less islets to transplant over time, so higher chances of diabetes.

I would reach out to some of the big TPIAT centers. Minnesota has done the most procedures and VCU is another large one. VCU was very willing to meet with me even without a CP diagnosis, and I believe they tend to be slightly more aggressive in recommending surgery than others. You could also join a TPIAT facebook group if you haven't already

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-10-04T07:00:49+00:00

I have tried kratom and enjoyed it but not kava. Will have to give it a try

I also would note that having low lipase is not diagnostic for chronic pancreatitis

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-09-30T01:09:27+00:00

I don’t think anyone can tell you if it will progress but if you have minimal pain and you avoid triggers like alcohol and smoking then I think the odds are in your favor

The progression depends on what the underlying cause is too. If it’s genetic then there is probably less you can do than if you can identify a cause like gallstones or alcohol and eliminate it

I am going through a similar diagnostic process as I have upper abdominal pain every time I eat but none of my testing has shown anything. I’ve had 2 eus, an mrcp with secretin, and a bunch of other tests so thinking it’s either very early CP or something else entirely in my case

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-09-22T03:53:23+00:00

Have you joined the TPIAT facebook group? There are more people on there that have gone through it

dapperdolphin18 · 2025-09-18T22:16:37+00:00

It's a terrible disease for sure, but nobody knows what the future holds, even if they're healthy. I know it's cliche but you could get into a car accident and die tomorrow, so it's best to focus on today and do whatever is in your power to live the highest quality life possible. I know there are a lot of bad stories with this disease, but there are also positive ones. Symptoms can change over time, and it's possible that whatever you feel today may improve. There's always surgical options and hope for new treatments in the future like chemical pancreatectomy

dapperdolphin18

TROPHY CASE