Please only complete this poll if you... - Chronic Pancreati...
Please only complete this poll if you have been diagnosed with EPI. Which symptom(s) of EPI due to your CP do you consider bothersome?
All these things in theory can be controlled with enough Creon and generally are but sometimes my guts just play up for no obvious reason.
Usually I have unusually slow gut transit (and have been dxed with this) but sometimes I have the opposite problem and nothing stays in me long enough for the Creon to work properly.
I would also add the issue of malabsorption and having to take a tablet like esomeprazole so the creon doesn't disintegrate (and cause indigestion, nausea, vomiting, stomach paralysis and duodenal strictures) before it is meant to start digesting the food.
Do you really think that proton pump inhibitors can help in EPI? If you have some succes with them,please let me know. My GI insist that i have to take them, but at my best knowledge they are very dangerous... Best wishies
Hey Jesus5
It depends on the kind of symptoms you are having to deal with. I developed severe indigestion and the symptoms mentioned above and the food I was consuming was not moving down my intestine from the stomach as it should. It would sit in my stomach for hours together.
Many times when I experience bloating and indigestion symptoms, my doctor suggests that I take one 40 mg esomeprazole 15-20 minutes before food so that the creon does not disintegrate too quickly due to the stomach acids.
So it is a question of whether doing this 2-3 days in a row relieves me of my symptoms to a great extent, and if so, then the issue is that the digestive enzymes that should get to work are not doing so adequately and I have to adjust the environment so they function better if my creon dosage is adequate and there are no other serious stomach/digestion/pain related issues.
So for me, it is about experimenting, waiting a little to see how it works and then taking the PPI at the minimum dosage required only on days I feel any of the above symptoms making an appearance. If creon isn't working properly then it would lead to a host of issues as above and of course malabsorption and eventual body pain and deficiencies of vitamins and minerals.
Discuss your current and occasional symptoms with your doctor, ask for a blood panel to rule out risks of malabsorption, infections etc and see if PPI is needed and what would be the minimum trial dose that he/she asks you to experiment with.
Regards
