Lower abdominal pain months after AP attack
I was first admitted to the hospital towards the end of January this year, originally for suspected gallstones which were confirmed by an ultrasound scan. Unfortunately, during my hospital stay, as I was about ready to be discharged, this developed into a pancreatitis attack; undoubtedly the most excruciating pain I've ever experienced. I remember thinking I was going to die as I lay there screaming and pleading for doctors to help me.
The pancreatitis attack was confirmed by the emergency CT scan that I was taken in for. I don't remember what my lipase levels were, but I do remember my white blood cell count being >45,000.
I was released from hospital a few days later, which in hindsight I think was quite negligent by the consultant, as I had not had an intermittent CT scan following the pancreatitis attack to assess how much damage had been done. I was at home for a week, clearly still suffering. I could barely keep food down and remained in a lot of pain. I was re-admitted to the hospital by a different consultant during a follow-up appointment where he could tell I was still unwell.
Sadly, I remained in hospital for a further 2 and a half months, including 2 and a half weeks in ICU. I ended up in ICU because a CT scan found I had two 10cm pseudocysts, one at the head of my pancreas, and one at the tail, but we had to wait until the collections became hardened so that they could be drained. It took nearly a month for them to be ready to be drained, but during this time my lungs had filled with fluid, and one of the pseudocysts was pushing all of my organs upwards. I ended up becoming very breathless, and my SpO2 had began to dip into the lower 90s. At this point the procedure to drain the pseudocysts became an emergency. I was anaesthetised and had a stent placed, and then I was intubated for 2 days.
Fast forward to now - my hospital discharge letter confirms necrotising acute pancreatitis. During my hospital stay I lost 60lbs in total in 3 months. I'm clearly much weaker than when I went in and have lost a lot of muscle mass, and I'm still dealing with symptoms nearly 4 months out from my attack. My resting heartrate has gone from 65-75 to 100-110, but my main issue is I am having constant lower abdominal pain, that seems to radiate from the centre. I'm concerned as of course this isn't where the pancreas is located, but I've also heard it could be deferred pain. It seems to come in waves, but when it's present I can barely walk and have to lean over forwards to alleviate some of the pain. Has anyone else experienced this/know what it could be? Is this just a part of recovery? I know my case was quite severe, but surely after 4 months symptoms should have cleared up by now...