GI Doctors Appointment

About a week after I had been home from the hospital I went and met with a GI specialist about what my different options were and how likely I was to get pancreatitis again. He pretty much told me that he thought it was very unlikely that my pancreatitis was caused by some type of gallstone. Which makes perfect sense to me. Unfortunately he told me that he didn't know what caused it and that he thought we should investigate it further. He told me that he would be surprised if I didn't get pancreatitis again sometime in the future. I was given three different options:

1. I could do nothing and most likely get it again (perhaps multiple times).
2. I could have an endoscopic ultrasound (which is a special little device that would inside and taken some up-close pictures of my ducts and pancreas).
3. I could do an ERCP (a scope that would go inside me but it could get a closer look inside my ducts and if needed the doctors could fix a problem if one was found).

He told me that he thought something was going on in the ducts which was causing the problem. He also told me that he thought if I did the ultrasound I would most likely have to have a scope anyway. His main concern about the scope was that I would have a high chance of getting pancreatitis afterward.

So I went home and talked to Doug about it and we decided that even though I was at risk of getting post-ERCP pancreatitis we decided that it was the best option. If they found the problem they could fix it then and not have to schedule an ERCP anyway like we would if we decided to do the ultrasound. Though I was a little nervous to some degree we scheduled the ERCP for the following Friday March 14. We decided that even if I ended up in the hospital at least we could plan for it. My mom had already told us that if we did the ERCP or ultrasound she was coming to help with Dallin and do whatever we needed. So my mom got tickets for the Thursday before the scope and she would watch Dallin so Doug could be with me at the clinic. Also if I ended up in the hospital she would be able to take care of Dallin so Doug could work on school and spend some time with me at the hospital. We also decided it was best to be able to plan for pancreatitis and have arrangements in place in case I ended up in the hospital. It ended up not being a very fun experience, though.