Why is it a problem ?
Your bile ducts and greater biliary tree are essential in helping your body process food because they allow 'bile' from the 'gall bladder' to drain into an area at the bottom of your stomach, once it has finished breaking down your foods. The by-products of your stomach enters the small intestine, where bile and other bodily juices do their thing, absorb nutrients and break it down further.
PSC related "pain" (aka "Biliary Colic") occurs because bile cannot escape from the narrowed tubes. This causes a back-up effect where your 'biliary tree' (the branches that act as the drainage system for bile to escape the liver) becomes blocked.
The problem with PSC is that not only is it unpredictable and very painful, it progressively (ie: "slowly" and "continually") damages the bile ducts causing scarring and narrowing. Eventually these narrow far enough to cause "Biliary colic" (ie: fancy term for a blockage of bile-flow that causes the mind-numbing pain normally associated with patients who have gall stones).
To give you an idea of the level of suffering, if you've ever known anyone who's had gall-stones, we suffer from that exact type of pain a lot. I've learned to call the big events “attacks”, and smaller ones “gravel” (ie: small stones and mud getting stuck).
At it's worst, we feel like we're going to internally burst something, and no matter what we try ... standing, sitting, lying, pacing the room like a maniac performing zen-like rituals ... no position feels comfortable. And just when you think you can't take anymore, it may magically resolve itself within seconds.
As a man, it's impossible for me to compare, but I have it on good authority from some pregnant ladies that the pain for them was 'as bad' and in some patients 'worse than childbirth'.
These ongoing, sporadic "attacks" or “gravel” can appear as suddenly as 10-15minutes, or they can build slowly to excruciating levels over the course of hours. Almost always, they are completely random in nature, and equally they can often disappear within minutes.
History tells me to be prepared for anything. Once the initial attack has subsided, I might get a few more attacks in the space of days, and then not have any for weeks or months.
Ongoing attacks lead to a general decline in your general health resulting in many consequences such as fevers, infections, jaundice, itching, fatigue, insomnia, vitamin deficiencies, poor absorption of foods ... in other words, a roller-coaster of peaks (feeling well) and troughs (feeling utterly crap) lasting weeks on end.
PSC related "pain" (aka "Biliary Colic") occurs because bile cannot escape from the narrowed tubes. This causes a back-up effect where your 'biliary tree' (the branches that act as the drainage system for bile to escape the liver) becomes blocked.
The problem with PSC is that not only is it unpredictable and very painful, it progressively (ie: "slowly" and "continually") damages the bile ducts causing scarring and narrowing. Eventually these narrow far enough to cause "Biliary colic" (ie: fancy term for a blockage of bile-flow that causes the mind-numbing pain normally associated with patients who have gall stones).
To give you an idea of the level of suffering, if you've ever known anyone who's had gall-stones, we suffer from that exact type of pain a lot. I've learned to call the big events “attacks”, and smaller ones “gravel” (ie: small stones and mud getting stuck).
At it's worst, we feel like we're going to internally burst something, and no matter what we try ... standing, sitting, lying, pacing the room like a maniac performing zen-like rituals ... no position feels comfortable. And just when you think you can't take anymore, it may magically resolve itself within seconds.
As a man, it's impossible for me to compare, but I have it on good authority from some pregnant ladies that the pain for them was 'as bad' and in some patients 'worse than childbirth'.
These ongoing, sporadic "attacks" or “gravel” can appear as suddenly as 10-15minutes, or they can build slowly to excruciating levels over the course of hours. Almost always, they are completely random in nature, and equally they can often disappear within minutes.
History tells me to be prepared for anything. Once the initial attack has subsided, I might get a few more attacks in the space of days, and then not have any for weeks or months.
Ongoing attacks lead to a general decline in your general health resulting in many consequences such as fevers, infections, jaundice, itching, fatigue, insomnia, vitamin deficiencies, poor absorption of foods ... in other words, a roller-coaster of peaks (feeling well) and troughs (feeling utterly crap) lasting weeks on end.