I saw my attending physician an hour ago and she was very happy with my progression. She ordered me a clear liquid dinner which went down really really well and that means that I get a real breakfast and lunch tomorrow.

If I can tolerate them with mild pain, I will be able to be discharged tomorrow afternoon. She expects me to still be in pain when I eat for the next week, but I am already 75-80% better and am out of the danger zone.

Looks like I’ll be staying in NYC tomorrow night at a hotel. Good news!

After talking to the resident doctor today, my lipase levels are around 1100 and are still elevated. She insisited that I shouldn’t pay too much attention to the levels, though as long as they are going down — it’s more important to see how I feel. Pancreatitis is treated clincally rather than through tests (and I’ve heard that before).

That said, I have felt pretty good today. I got up and walked around a bit, cleaned myself up and shaved. After all that was done I was pretty much pain free, which is a great sign. It’s laying in bed that, for some reason, makes me in a little more discomfort.

The doctors (and the GI that the resident spoke to) follow the same school of thought as all of the other doctors I’ve talked to about pancreatitis in that I should start on clear liquids as soon as I am feeling hungry as that will not impact my recovery. Unfortunately, I am so tainted by my first case of this, and I really felt I was rushed too quickly to eat — and that may or may not have contributed to my lengthy recovery.

So, I asked her if anyone else came in here with pancreatitis if they would start me on clear liquids by now — and she said most likely, depending on how I felt. So, I might try some broth and jello for dinner tonight and see how I feel. I want to give myself a little more time to rest before I rush to eat, but I am definitely starting to get more and more hungry.

The fact that my first recovery took so long and I had such a bad case has really tainted my view of this condition and makes me extremely skeptical of everything.

On the roommate front, the guy next to me has some serious ulcers on his feet. He is extraordinarily overweight and the doctors flat out told him today that he’s more or less on a death sentence if he doesn’t clean up his act. He has 3 holes in his feet that are leaking (and smell absolutely disgusting) and the doctor said it’s not going to get any better unless he starts today to never “eat anything that tastes good again.” Regardless, he doesn’t seem to be paying much attention as he ordered two of every dessert when the nurse came to take his menu tomorrow. He’s definitely a character.