My very good friend was diagnosed with chrnoic idiopathic pancreatitis 4 years ago. He is in the hospital at least 3 weeks out of every month. Lately, his hospitalizaitons have been very frequent. I know he is addicted to the narcotics they use to treat pancreatitis, which is dilaudid. He is in complete denial that he is addicted and I am at my wits end. It is so hard to help him when I know he is drug seeking. He visits all of the hospitals in our valley. There are 5 that he skips around to. My frustration is the doctors. They just keep on giving him the dilaudid. No one is willing to try and help him. The surgeon that claims to have an 85% success rate in performing a sugery that will stop the attacks will not operate on him until his pain tolerance is low. How can his pain tolerance get lowered when all of the hospitals keep on aiding him?

I was reading some things on line about pancreatits, and one fact I came across was that most people don't live past 7 years from diagnosis. Has anyone else ever heard this? Also, do you have any suggestions on how I can deal with the doctors and his addiction.

Thanks