Well, I learned something today. I looked at your forum question and it has been so long since I have had a fecal test, the technology has changed. More or less that is. I tried to get some solid data on your elastase numbers and though I am an insufferable know it all, first doctorate at 18 in genetics etc. it took the sum of my knowledge to wade through the vagaries of fecal elastase tests (FAT), and what their numbers mean. Starting with what your dietician told you, she probably told you as much as you might gather otherwise. I read through three research papers dealing with interpreting data from FAT within certain populations. These populations varied from groups known to be around or below 200 to “the man on the street” comparisons involving people with medical complaints. Your specific answer, when I was tested in 1997, my number was 201, now how is that for borderline?
Weight loss is always a concern, whether you wanted to drop some weight or not. If your eating habits are unchanged from when you were either stable or gaining weight, I would call that worthy of concern. You are taking 8M a day now. When you had your FAT done that gave you a 380, if you were taking a bulking anti-osmotic laxative like Movicol, or just a bulking laxative like MiraLax, your numbers could be artificially high, possibly over 150 points. I went through this rodeo when I was tested. I was constipated but needed to produce a sample. I loaded up on colon prep and had a movement. The sample, it turns out was tainted by my use of the colon prep. I started over with a different strategy and from this I have a good number. Movicol is nearly identical to the colon prep commonly used. A couple of doctors were prescribing the prep to be used just as you use your Movicol. So for cheap, you pay a lot. A colon prep is a little heavier on the electrolytes, both taste like crap, but possibly you would get more dosing from the colon prep powder, mixing with water as you normally would on a cost basis. For what that is worth.
What 201 meant for me was I had entered into the very early stage of pancreatic auto-digestion. You undoubtedly know what this is but the process of auto-digestion where the pancreatic digestive juices don’t leave the pancreas due to the viscous mucus that CF can cause. The pancreatic mucus cells that protect the pancreas from its protein digesting cocktail break down and some of your daily Calorie intake is from literally having a little pancreas for lunch so to speak. For me it is a pain beyond description. A recent post on a different topic, a woman who had children and pancreatitis, chronic and acute places her pancreatic pain on a totally different metric compared to child birth.
How long the process takes before the pancreas is totally insufficient can be very short for some newborns to later onset as we probably are sharing. Late onset can be late childhood to early or late midlife and it can take a year or a decade or more before coming completely PI. I think this is what your curiosity of the FAT number’s significance is all about. You are losing weight, it could be the wrong kind of weight to be losing if you aren’t up on your fat soluble vitamins, all kinds of secondary problems can develop most notably is bone loss because of vitamin D needing to be there to uptake calcium. Otherwise it is osteoporosis time and it is everything it is cracked up to be.
Being 380 is not good. That is the short of it.
If you would like some input on constipation PM me, I just spent 18 months getting semi-regular. In addition to CF, and my PI becoming more pronounced, my pancreas has been on fire for way too long and I take some heavy narcotic analgesics. I have lived long enough to have Parkinson’s Disease which causes constipation plus the medicine I need to take for the Parkinson’s adds insult to injury. I have enough factors contributing to constipation that I have become highly qualified at keeping things moving.
Good Luck
