Are Crohn's Disease and Pancreatitis Linked?

My Christmas in the Hospital

I'm sitting here with an IV in my arm. So here's a quick rundown (I stole a computer in the maternity ward, since I just found out that I'm allowed to - but I don't want to hold anyone else up).

Nic took me to the ER Christmas Eve after a wonderful party at my Mimi's because I was experiencing intense pain in my abdomen, felt as if I had to keep going to the bathroom but I couldn't, and fearing that I had an obstruction. That's finally taken care of, but that's not why they have kept me here. It turns out I have pancreatitis. My levels are still elevated, so they will not let me go home. I've been without food since Christmas Eve, since "starvation" is one of the only treatment options for acute pancreatitis until the inflammation goes down. I'm still experiencing symptoms from my Crohn's Disease, but the doctors are putting that on a back seat and focusing only on the immediate danger. They gave me pain killer through an IV when I first arrived, something like morphine - Dilutin (sp?) - and the first time it took away the pain, but the second dose triggered a severe migraine that was worse than anything I have ever experienced to date - so I am going without pain medication as of right now. They can't give me anything by mouth because of the pancreatitis.

Anyway. I hope and pray to be out of here sometime this weekend. We are stuck in PA - even though we live in NY - because we were visiting family. Nic has been out of work the past few days, which is really going to hurt our finances. If I am still here on Sunday, he'll have to go home without me and we'll be spending New Years apart. We can't afford for him to take any more days off - not that we can afford the past couple days either.

It's been a difficult Christmas so far. Nic had to meet his exwife in Virginia to give the kids back, although we had planned on having them for another week. They were upset, and I know it's not exactly fair to anyone who's involved, but there's really nothing else we could do.

We also found out that Nic's Uncle Glenn passed away yesterday morning, which is just another blow.