Carrie’s Story of Courage

My name is Carrie.  I am from Chunky, MS.  My battle with chronic pancreatitis began on May 21, 2007 at  Jeff Anderson Regional Hospital in Meridian, Ms.  It began the night I had my only child, Maggie.  I had been extremely sick during my pregnancy but was told it was just normal morning sickness.  The night I had her it began with a feeling of ants crawling all over me.  I kept telling the nurse I was having terrible stomach pains and it was laid on the fact I had just had a c-section.  Then I began to throw up constantly.  When the doctor arrived I had stroke like symptoms.  I couldn’t move or talk and could hardly breathe.  All I could think was how could this be happening to me- a 25 year old that was healthy before.   Dr. Daniel Mckiever began squeezing IV bags of fluid into me until I was stable enough to be moved to CCU.  When I arrived in CCU, I begged the nurse (what little I could talk) to please let my husband stay with me. I couldn’t even ring the call bell if I needed assistance.  I still had no control of my hands.  I spent the next 3 weeks in CCU.  While there my kidney’s and bowels shut down and my heart function had decreased greatly.  I had to be sedated with pain medicine due to the tremendous pain.  I could not have made it through the first few weeks without my wonderful husband (Jeremy), my parents, my sister and brother in law, inlaws and sisters in law, and of course WONDERFUL doctors and Jesus Christ.  My baby Maggie was allowed to spend two weeks in the hospital so that she could be close to me while I was so sick and my family didn’t have to travel from the hospital to home.   My very kind and loving nurses(with the doctors’ permission) would unhook me from pain meds, heart machines, etc. and took me by wheel chair twice to see her in the nursery.  The pain was so INTENSE that I almost felt resentful towards her and could not hold her without horrible pain.

After being released from CCU and having MANY MANY test run the doctors agreed that I should be transported to UAB in Birmingham, Al.  I spent several weeks there and was finally discharged to go home after many test, exploratory surgeries, stints, etc.   I came home on strong pain medicine and got to spend about two days at home before the pain hit again and I was sent right back to Anderson’s  hospital .

To make a long story short I spent the next 18 months in and out of the hospital, only coming home for no more than three days at a time.  I have now had 13 surgeries including, feeding tube, exploratory, pic lines, medaports, small intestines partly removed due to a blockage, gallbladder removed, pseudocystes drained and left open for months due to the severity and size of them.  I missed Maggie’s first year of life, only seeing her when she was brought to the hospital to see me or my few short days at home between hospital visits.

It was pure agony staying in the hospital away from my child and family.  I often cried wondering If I would ever survive this horrible disease.  What had I ever done in life to deserve such agony and pain.  I was so hungry all of the time but couldn’t keep anything down.  I had a feeding tube for close to 12 months and got down to 78 pounds.   I didn’t have enough energy to walk by myself without falling.  When I was able to return home for short periods of time I had to be babysat due to the frequent falls and lack of energy.  I could not even shower myself much less take care of my child and be a great wife.  The long lonely hours in the hospital took its toll on me.  I began to become greatly depressed and often did not want to live.  I begged God to take the pain away or just to let me die.  When it was discovered that I had a very bad blockage, I was told that I would need a colostomy.  I was at the hospital alone, when Dr. Billups came in to tell me.  Dr. Billups called my husband and then had me sedated because people could hear me screaming down the hallways.  Dr. Billups stayed with me until my husband arrived.  I was taken straight into surgery where Dr. Billups was able to remove part of my small intestines and I didn’t need the colostomy after all.  After that major surgery I was once again placed in CCU.  I was kept unconscious due to the severity of the pain.  I had to be restrained due to the constant pulling out my ng tube and ventilator.  I remember being restrained, it was almost like a nightmare.

After the intestine surgery I spent the next three months straight in the hospital recovering.  I had no desire to eat and was constantly losing weight alone with throwing up.  The pain was so intense that I was once again hooked on pain medicine and could not make it through the day without it.  The doctors agreed that unless I could gain weight I would stay.  I fought and eventually made it to a weight where they would release me for Maggie’s first birthday.  The pancreatitis flare were coming fewer and farther between but then I had the issue of open wounds from pseudocysts that caused horrible back pain  and close to 104 fever and chills.  The doctors tried to drain the cysts in the x-ray department, but they had to be opened up to drain.  I was left with the risk of gaining a high infection, and I also had to learn to pack my wounds several times a day.

I have now been diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis and have been without attacks for more than a year.  I have gone back to work but still live with the regret of missing Maggie’s first year.  I still have stomach pains from all of the scare tissue.  I do not consider myself a hero of any kind.  I was not a kind person while going through this.  I fought because I had a wonderful life to get back to.  I was greatly depressed and it felt like the pain would never end and often wondered “why me.”

I can honestly say that I have the best family in the world.  I have a husband who never left my side along with multiple other family members.  I had the best doctors that money could buy, who also give their hearts to their patients and never gave up hope on me (when the doctors believed that I would never make it. I had the worse case of pancreatitis that any of them had ever seen).  I want to say thank you for not giving up on me to these wonderful doctors:(from Jeff Anderson Regional Medical Center) Dr. Daniel Mckiever, Dr. Timothy Ivey, Dr. Billups, Dr. Greg Thaggard, Dr. Ryhatt, Dr. Boyd.  These doctors gave up their time with their families for me and I now consider each of them personal family members.  I also had some of the best nurses that pushed and encouraged me daily (Jeff Anderson Regional Medical Center): Carla Miller, Donna Campbell and Latoya Barron, Phylis Cain, Bettye Clark, these are just a few but many were there with me and acted as a rock and gave encouragement to myself and my family.

I would like to offer these few words of encouragement to anyone who is currently undergoing pancreas problems- you are not alone in this fight and will never be.  God never puts us through more than we can handle and never will.  Lean on other people who also suffer from this horrible disease and your family.