I'm often sick lately. Ok, as my girl puts it: "you're always sick!" It's true. I've no control over it. It's from Hell.
What many people don't know is what I am sick with...well, I'm here now to share. What I have is gastroparesis.
"Gastroparesis, also called delayed gastric emptying, is a medical condition consisting of a paresis (partial paralysis) of the stomach, resulting in food remaining in the stomach for a longer period of time than normal. Normally, the stomach contracts to move food down into the small intestine for digestion. The vagus nerve controls these contractions. Gastroparesis may occur when the vagus nerve is damaged and the muscles of the stomach and intestines do not work normally. Food then moves slowly or stops moving through the digestive tract."
Doesn't that sound fun?
Plus it's made worse by all the pain meds I have to take from my chronic back & shoulder pain and also from the car accident in June. Exciting, huh?
I no longer volunteer as I used to, I no longer do anything I used to, actually. I avoid social things often. I avoid shopping, I avoid anything that might leave me far from a bathroom and my meds. As you can imagine, it sucks. It's like being pregnant with horrific morning sickness-except there is never going to be an end.
What can happen? Well, here's a list...
Primary complications of gastroparesis include:
Fluctuations in blood glucose due to unpredictable digestion times-ooh this is SO fun. Not.
General malnutrition due to the symptoms of the disease (which frequently include vomiting and reduced appetite) as well as the dietary changes necessary to manage it
Severe fatigue and weight loss due to calorie deficit-well, unless you develop another fun complication like Cushing's disease, that is...
Intestinal obstruction due to the formation of bezoars (solid masses of undigested food)-not yet, but there's still time!
Bacterial infection due to overgrowth in undigested food: oh, yes. More than once!
There are no safe treatments. So basically I just hang out & suffer. Yes, I am woe is me lately. Because Woe is Me lately. I want my stinking life back.
I just wanted to put it down in black & white for people since its been on going for so so long and many just don't know. If you see me at CVS or Walgreens now, you'll know why I look like death warmed over.
Happy happy joy joy. Go ahead a judge me and my negative attitude. I don't care. But if you tick me off, I'm going to send you gastroparesis vibes. Then you try & barf and be happy. We'll see how it works out.
*end of educational rant*
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