My Pancreas

So, perhaps it is time to learn about what a pancreas actually is - as this one inside me has been begging for attention lately.  Weird Al released a song only recently about the Pancreas, called oddly enough, "Pancreas."  It's been stuck in my head all week, for obvious reasons.  Here are just a few of the lyrics, which also serve as fun facts about the pancreas:

"My pancreas attracts every other pancreas in the universe

with a force proportional 

to the product of their masses

and inversely proportional

to the distance between them." 

Okay, so perhaps that isn't exactly scientifically solid, but the rest of the song does have some fun facts about the pancreas which happen to be true.  But here's a more "official" entry on the subject:

The pancreas is a gland organ in the digestive and endocrine system of vertebrates.  It is both an endocrine gland producing several important hormones, including insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin, and a digestive organ, secreting pancreatic juice containing digestive enzymes that assist the absorption of the nutrients and the digestion in the small intestine.  These enzymes help to further break down the carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids in the chyme.


I can see a couple of pretty important things in there.  Here's a fun fact:  when I eat, it hurts the back of my left shoulder blade.  This has something to do with the pancreas becoming activated, although I'm not entirely sure why.  That was one of the mysteries of my illness - why was my entire framework rattled so?  It felt like my ribcage was doing all it could to stay together at one point, and that muscles were locking down, trying to hold everything in one piece.

They did a good job, obviously, because I'm still here.  God designed these bodies pretty well, you have to admit.  It's too bad we live in such a fallen world.

I should be out of the hospital soon, which will be a happy day of course.  Reunited with Madison!