The top picture is me 3 weeks and the next picture is me in the hospital when I was 10. At age 6 I got diagnosed with pancreatitis, I am now 19 and needing a big surgery called tp-ait. I got my first ambulance ride with 6 nurses and doctors from picu. My mom rode in the front and we went to Greenville hospital not knowing exactly what was going on. As the nurses were settling me in to picu, my mom and dad were talking to the doctor in another room. When you have pancreatitis they do blood work and my lipase was over 25000. Normal lipase is under 160, I had acute severe pancreatitis. I stayed in picu you for 2 weeks but was not getting better.After doing more test They  found a pseudocyst on my pancreas, I had to have my first surgery at age 6. They went in and connected the cyst to the back of my stomach to drain and took my gallbladder out. I wasn't able to eat after, so I Got my first nj tube, And tube is a tube that goes in my nose and past my stomach, that feeds me. This is where it started my adventure to chronic pancreatitis.  I was in and out of the hospital with eating issues and pain from my pancreas. I was getting pancreatitis several years  from 2006-2020.
 Doctors did not understand why I kept getting it. In 2010 I had pancreatitis for 8 months back to back. I was in the hospital for almost the whole year. This was over the local hospitals heads, so this is when I got sent to musc for the first time. I can't remember exact dates because I been sick so many times. I have had stents placed in my pancreas because the ducts inside came closed. In musc I found out I had sphincter of odd dysfunction, another problem with my pancreas. I left musc and the Greenville doctors sent me to ohio in hopes for fresh eyes and help. We found no help in ohio. Over the years I was sent to wake forest, ohio and musc twice more. Chronic pancreatitis is rare in a child and they weren't sure what to do with me. So I was just  in and out hospital visits and lots of nj tubes.  In 2010 when we went to musc, my mom parked into a parking garage and she had her car stolen. It was found 2 years later in parts, she never got it back. For school I have had to be homebound because of medical issues and when I was healthy enough I would go to school. I was proud of myself I finished high school with A honor roll and for me that was something to be proud. I graduated woodruff high school in 2018. I was excited to pick my college out and continue with schooling. I visited Converse college and knew that was my school. I decide to have my major as Deaf ed. This gives me the opportunity to become a elementary teacher or a Teacher of the Deaf. I have been on the deans list twice since I started college.
I am a sophomore at converse college. I had pancreatitis in 2017 and was not sure when the next bout would be. Well January 2020 in the middle of the night my pancreas decide to say hello but it was different this time. The pain was severe like the past but just felt  different. My mom took me to the er and after many test we were thrown out a new word, I had necrotizing pancreatitis. What does that mean, My pancreas decided to start to digest itself. I was put in the hospital for a week. I got to meet a doctor that knew all about pancreas problems. We found out after reading past hospital notes this is not the first time my pancreas was digesting itself. The doctor told me it was time to go back to musc and learn about the tp-ait. He was wonderful. Him and musc were talking the whole week I was in the hospital. I was told it would be a couple months before I went. My pancreas needed a break and I needed another nj tube. I got out of the hospital and wanted to continue going in college and after talking It with my doctors, I went back, with my mom with me for driving and any problems that comes up. I get very tired easy, and in pain off and on. That week we started going back to college, we got a phone call from Charleston hospital I was going to see them in 2 weeks. The plan was to go and meet the pancreas team and get tons of testing done and see if I was a candidate for the surgery tp-ait. My family came with me and we went for bunch of testing last Wednesday and meet my surgeon that day. My pancreas is very sick, it is dying and it is poisoning me. My two options  from here on out were, 1) let me continue to get necrotizing pancreatitis and over time I would need surgery to get out the dead chunks of my pancreas, but as it is dying it can cause sepsis and make me very sick and I get nothing out of the pancreas. Or plan 2) I go have the tp-ait, Let me see if I can explain this. I would be put to sleep and have my pancreas removed and it would go to another part of the hospital to let them digest my pancreas and get out the live islets. All well the doctor is taking out my spleen and rerouting my digestive pipes for my stomach. Then they put me in icu, I never am awake but my parents get to see me. Once they have the islets I would go back and they would put them back into my liver to there new home. I then would be started to waking up. This is a major surgery and it will last 10 hours or so.
After talking with my team and my family I have decided to go ahead and have the tp-ait but because we not sure how long before I have pancreatitis again I will be having the surgery march 23 2020. Each pancreatitis I have kills islets. I have had over 20 bouts of pancreatitis from 2006- 2020. Why 20000 dollars, My family and I will have to stay in Charleston for about a month. They will need food and gas. I will have make multiple trips here after the surgery. I will be a diabetic after surgery until my islets wakes up and does as much work as they will. My parents medical insurance does not pay for all the surgery, So I need help paying for it. I will have many expenses after the surgery and I will have to be on several different medicines. If things look like I need to up the amount I will but this is a start. So please help me Have a better quality of life and Help me evict  my pancreas.