Celiac Plexus Blocks and Pancreatitis. Twenty Five (25) blocks strong!
Updated: Nov 9, 2018
I am so thrilled to be writing my first medical blog that will hopefully change the lives of other Pancreatitis sufferers.
Lets skip all the details and long drawn out story of Sarah's battle with chronic Pancreatitis and shitty medical care and get down to how I went from starving to death to plump and curvy while only losing 10% of my pancreas to CP. And, did I mention now Curvy... menopause has its perks. Double D's and they look good! My body is strong and muscular for the first time in five years!
So back to the pancreas.
How do you know you may or may have had pancreatitsis?
If you are questioning if you have or have had pancreatitis, let me tell you, its worse than childbirth I have been told. It is worth than being stabbed in the back by your drug addicted fake friends and it is a close third to your sister serving you a restraining order because you told the truth about her lies and scams. Pancreatitis is the devil. The pain comes on in throbbing aching waves and intensifies with every breathe and movement to the point you vomit from the pain, you cling to anything close by in case you pass out from the pain and you yell for help.
I have had the privilege of being escorted by the fire department via ambulance over ten times for pancreatitis and sphincter of oddy dysfunction attacks. I spent two years living in the hospital, fired from jobs, threatened by friends over ruined friendships, a boyfriend who became a drug addict because he could not handle my pain and misery, I have been homeless, suicidal and a raging bitch trying to find out why I had pancreatitis and why I was dying. I was desperate.
I hired a naturopath. I hired a shrink. I hired a psychic. I literally did everything I could to stop my pancreas from eating itself. A bruised ego and $60,000 grand lost on doctors, cash mind you, not what insurance paid but what I paid. What my parents paid. Money just gone on my body to fight to stay alive.
I was blessed with the gift of my Pain Doctor here in Scottsdale, Arizona. The man is a saint, a healer, a man among doctors who stands out for his unbridled quest to solve the route problem for your cause of pain and not just write you off.
Dr. Patel of Integrity Pain and Wellness has been the only Doctor to fight my insurance company for my treatments. He has gone over and above to get me back to some sort of happiness and quality of life.
Dr. Patel has watched me be abused and lost in the system. He has received the direct calls from Er doctors saying they can not help me. He has turned his car around, called his staff back into the office and met me in Mesa to give me an emergency celiac plexus block with ketamine. The only treatment that saved my pancreas from killing itself.
I want to share with you my treatment and my plan to beating and overcoming chronic pancreatitis. I want you to have a fighting chance like I did. Doctors are so uneducated and unaware of how to treat pancreatitis that I am excited to hopefully be able to share a protocol that works. That can be confirmed by medical doctors that worked. That can be confirmed on imaging, that it works.
CLick here to pay $499.99 to get the answer!!
Just kidding!
I do not want to go into long jargon and complicated medical terms that really will do you no good when communicating with a doctor, I have learned that the hard way, so here is the fast route to curing your pancreatitis. Yes, I legit said cure. Because I was dying from chronic pancreatitis, legit dying, starving and withering away for years from malnutrition and vomiting up the smell of food. I worked full time while thinking my food allergies were poisoning me. I spent half of my day praying to God I would not pass out or puke on client tours, visits and wedding days. And I spent a lot of hours crying and begging god to end my life because I could not take the pain and misery anymore. I was desperate.
ENZYMES
We began my pancreatitis treatment with enzymes but plant based enzymes and organic natural ones. I then downgraded from 50-200 a month on enzymes to Creon since the insurance would pay for those. I highly recommend an enzyme daily and with meals. But one that works for you. There are so many just try to find one that works for your price point and budget and needs. I take them as needed and since I am doing nutritional shakes and clean healthy protein powder I do not need them anymore.
DIET
Legit stop eating everything. You need to clean your system out with good pure products. I use Life Recovery Wellness amino acids and protein powder. You need to give your digestive system a break. But you need nutrition and you need fuel that is why my go to is the shakes and smoothies and juicing.
I will leave this up to you to decided how you can manage your diet but stop eating solid food for 24 hours when you feel the pain coming on. Then go to my next step.
MAGNESIUM, L-GLUTAMINE SUPPLEMENTS
Start swallowing these daily. I preach about this to everyone. I can stop my pancreatitis and SOD spasms with a handful of magnesium 1000-3000 mgs. I only take this mass quantity when I feel the pain coming on. As soon as I feel that nudging twinge in my upper abdominal muscles I start swallowing magnesium. That is your first line of defense.
Second L-Glutamine will protect you and heal your GI system. I take 500-40,000 mgs a day. L-glutamine when used in massive quantities, has been used to relieve people of their feeding tubes. It has been used in studies, hospitals and by doctors to treat GI ailments and get people back to eating food and out of the hospital. There are great studies in medical journals about L-glutamine and I can not say enough about it personally. I have been able to tolerate dairy and gluten again even with a celiac disease diagnosis. Those would both send me to the hospital triggering pancreatitis and now I eat cereal daily and can have cheat foods such as candy and cookies when I feel frisky! Or when I want to get fat! I made up for missing Halloween this year!!! I just swallowed a lot of magnesium and l-glutamine and I have had minor pain but not enough to make me too miserable. Enough pain to tell me no more cheating!
AND CELIAC PLEXUS BLOCKS
I started off with one series and I got relief immediately. The blocks were not lasting long maybe four-six days as they ae supposed to. My doctor at Integrity Pain and Wellness is a John Hopkins trained Doctor as well as mayo Clinic Doctor who has his own practice, so he is not confined by rules and standards of old school medicine, he is surrounded by knowledge and the ability to just help people. He is a genius and a pioneer when it comes to pain medicine. That man is the reason I can sit here drinking a glass of Italy's best Sweet Red Vino writing this blog smoking marijuana.
Short of the long story- I have had twenty five (25) blocks in series of three over the course of three weeks so one block a week for three weeks. Then we evaluate and see where I am. At one point I had to do two blocks some times but after a year of treatment with Dr. Patel, I can honestly say that celiac plexus blocks are a life saver but they have to be done in a series of three and aggressively as needed.
The blocks also must be done through the spine into the celiac plexus region. Blocks done under the scope do not work at least for me and they were a waste of time. I also get ketamine as a sedative and ketamine also is healing my body and helping me have better days. Considered still an experimental drug, ketamine gives me a lot of hope for future treatment of my degenerative neurological disorder.
My advice about celiac plexus blocks is that you have to find a pain doctor who will be aggressive for you. You can always call my Doctor at Integrity Pain and Wellness and work with him to help with your care. He is the nicest man and his office manager Amy wants to help people. I guarantee you will be happy you did!
Medical Marijuana
Get over your old school uneducated beliefs about marijuana and start smoking, eating edibles and letting the marijuana bring a smile to your face and food to your mouth. I would not be alive if it was not for medical marijuana.
I will be posting a blog next with the products and items I use and dosage and quantities and links to purchase. I need a break from writing! I been at this for three hours.
Be back!