Not to compare with the discomfort you went through but I had a dog that got pancreatitus and died from it just over 5 years ago. Very sad story, she was a Shih Tzu and she was only 6. One day I came home from work and she was acting funny like her neck or back was sore and stiff. I took her to 2 different vets several times over the last week or so of her life. She quit eating and drink but neither vet could figure out what was wrong. The one vet took blood tests and sent them away but decided in the meantime that it was probably Lymes disease and shot her full of some steriod medicine. Funny thing was for about 18 hours she got pretty lively and seemed to be better. Then a couple of days later I came out of the bedroom to leave for work and she had thrown up this huge mass that looked like cranberry jelly on the kitchen floor and was laying in the corner. I scooped up the mass into a bag and took her back to the vet. He called the lab and got the results later that day that she indeed had severe pancreatitus and, in fact the steriod treatment was the wrong thing to do and actually made it worse. She died during the overnight hours. The vet took her home with him to try and treat her during the night but she was too weak to recover.
The vet did apologize for the misdiagnoses and treatment. The cost trying to help her was over $1,000 but I still get sad every year around the time she died. I did some online research about pancreatitus in canines and I think I know what I fed her that probably caused he pancreas to become inflamed. The one thing to remember with these small dogs is they can't be fed like a big dog, especially if they aren't use to certain foods.
Enough of my story, glad you are getting better Mr. Fish....
But I have put about 20 pounds back on. 
