The pancreas is also called the "hidden organ" because of its location deep within the abdomen, behind your stomach. It's essential to your digestive process but its location makes it difficult to discover when there's a health issue with it.

After enjoying a day of flying, Ken Jacobs thought we was going to just sit down and watch a movie---but that was not the case. "I was sitting down and all of a sudden I started feeling pain in my back. Then all of a sudden it moved to my stomach. And this started about 9:30 at night. And the pain just kept worse and worse."

Surgeon Jose Manibo explains, "These gallstones can also travel near the ducts of the pancreas causing what we call gallstone pancreatitis. Pancreatitis can also be a pretty severe condition and so normally when we have patients present with gallstone pancreatitis we also recommend surgery and taking out their gallbladder. It can go from mild to very severe cases very quickly."

Dr. Manibo says that pancreatitis can be acute - appearing suddenly and lasting for a few days - or it can be chronic, developing over many years. Both can lead to serious complications and symptoms can include mild to severe abdominal pain, often with nausea, vomiting and fever. "Some patients may have pancreatitis and be out of the hospital in three days, some patients have pancreatitis and they're on a ventilator, in the intensive care unit for weeks or months."

And because pancreatitis can be so serious, this is just another reason to see your doctor if you have intense, persistent abdominal pain.

It's important to diagnose pancreatitis early before severe and irreversible damage to your pancreas occurs.