Hi everyone! I'm back with another question. As I explained in my last post, I have a large amount of awful symptoms - many of which are debilitating and as a result, have left me at home all day, everyday, in bed, unable to work - it is highly suspected that I have SLE, as my symptoms match up & others in my family have it. I've been unofficially diagnosed but am unable to get a solid, official diagnosis as I'm not able to receive healthcare at the moment. i do hope to soon, however.
But, after reading some other posts, I saw a mention of issues with the pancreas. A few years ago, maybe three or four, I came down with my first bout of acute pancreatitis. This required weeks long hospitalization, feeding tubes, the whole bit. This then began to happen regularly, ever couple months or so, I'd be back in the hospital with another bout of acute pancreatitis, each time being near death (which was quite scary). After around a dozen hospitalizations (each being a week or two long), it turned into chronic pancreatitis and I'm left with a large chunk of my pancreas being dead. Luckily, it's been mostly okay for a while. My issue is, when this was happening so regularly, I never received an answer to what was causing it. I wasn't doing too much to help at the time and the doctors would just say "I don't know." or "I have no idea, must be just something wrong with your body" - I should mention, when this was happening I was in my early 20's, which made it all the more confusing why I developed chronic pancreatitis. Now that I've discovered SLE and have a possible diagnosis, i am wondering if it is possible that the issues with my pancreas are related. It is unfortunate that my doctors did not care to look into the cause, but rather just feed me pain killers, and now I am hoping to figure it out. I still have some issues with my pancreas, however, they have not been life threatening lately. Is it possible that these things are related? Has anyone else experienced anything like this?
And just as a side note, I've also struggled with problems with my kidneys & am prone to kidney infections and other problems. The doctors also didn't care to look into, or let me know, why a seemingly healthy woman in her early 20's would experience this, either. Could this be related as well?
I try not to let myself attempt to connect everything to SLE, though it can be easy to do, but I continue to be bothered by the fact that I have no cause for these rather important issues. I am also realizing that I must have terrible luck with doctors! Thanks in advance to anyone that can help and share some insight! I appreciate you all so very much ♥♥♥