I know what it is like to live with stomach problems. I have been battling chronic nausea since I was a child. Even then all the doctor could say about my problem was that I had food sensitivities, or I had a nervous stomach. My mother told me when all was said and done that I would have to learn to deal with it, preferably in silence. And so I did, often sitting through class so sick to my stomach that I could barley concentrate on school work.
Until I was 25, my chronic nausea was only an inconvenience that hit me once in a while, usually when my stomach decided that it did not want to deal with what I had eaten earlier in the day . But with in a week of my youngest sons birth, I began to vomit every time I drank a soda pop. Doctor told me I had an ulcer, with out running any test and treated me accordingly with Maalox. I most have drank gallons of the nasty stuff before I finally accepted the reality that evidently I did not have an ulcer. So I stopped drinking soda pop.
When I was 31, my nausea had become a chronic issue that woke me up each morning, and that is also when the pain stated. My doctor at the time decided that I was having a gallbladder attack and I was hospitalized. Four days latter and tons of test ran, I was finally presented with a very sound diagnoses, I was a hypochondriac. Evidently, I was told, I was not getting enough attention and home.
Not wanting the my family to even begin to think that I was a mental case, I crawled back into my world of silence keeping my illness to myself. But that is a very hard thing to do, when your husband keeps finding you on the bathroom floor with out the ability to get up. It was soon discovered that I was having an occasional problem with low blood pressure, on top of the chronic nausea and internal pain that would not go away.
When I was 3,5 I went through a 9 months of hell. The pain had gotten so bad I could barely function. Tired of seeing me in so much agony, my hubby forced me to see a GP. He did all the talking and stood beside me through out even test that the GP asked for. I had specialist after specialist running test after test, to see if they could find the cause. It was a gastrologist the discovered that my stomach was taking up to 17 hours to digest on single meal. But when all was said and done, he could not tell me why, as a result, I was left untreated.
Left in the dark did not set well with my so I went to the hospital library and began a search for a name for the reason that my stomach was not digestive my food in a proper manor. The name that came up was Gastroparesis. But having a name for the condition did me little good, I still had to wing it in order to find a way to help myself. So stopped eating regular meals and began to eat one food item at a time, removing every food item that caused me problems. I soon discovered the beef was a no! no! for me. It is one of the hardest meats for any one to digest, and for me it refused to even consider digestion at all. As result, with in a short time I would either begin to vomit or have such bad cramps that would last for up to 12 hours as my body tried to a get rid of what it had decided it could no longer deal with.
During this period in which my daily calories had dropped to an average 500 a day, I gained weight. In 6 months I went from 125lbs to 195lbs. I got so tired of hearing my doctors tell me I needed to go on a diet in order to feel better, that I finally stop seeking their help. That decision did not last long, when an automobile accident, sent me to the hospital. I left the hospital a few hours later despite not being able to use my right leg.
What worthless doctors, I told myself , how could they discharge me knowing that my right legs was all but useless. I spent the next few week undergoing chiropractic treatment. In finally got back the use of my right leg that had evidently been slightly knocked out of the socket. But there was nothing that could be done when it came to the damage in the last four discs in my lowers spine. The next ten years I would find myself not only battling internal pain and chronic nausea but chronic muscle pain through out my body until I had almost lost the total use of my legs. And all that the doctors could come up with is that I had Fibromylagia .
Finally when I was 47 I was diagnosed with one of the rarest forms of Crohn’s Disease. Gastroduandnal Crohn’s disease., in other words Crohn’s disease of the upper intestinal system. The same Gastro Specialist would also inform me that I have Gastroparesis. A few years back I was diagnosed with Lupus. When all was finally said and done, I have had Lupus all my life. The large majority of people with Crohn’s disease also have Lupus. Most people with Gastroduandnal Crohn’s disease, also have Gastroparesis.
Having a name for my chronic stomach issues and my inability to eat what others consider a normal day reality in their lives, did not gain me any kind medical treatment. Even after knowing what was causing my problems, the doctors could not get past their own conception of what causes people to gain weight. Their assumption was that If I was not losing weight they my problem was not as serious as I keep telling them. Even the fact that I was anemic change nothing.
So I returned to my world of silence and began to do my own research. Coming to believe that I was the best doctor that I was going to ever have, I choose the path of less resistance and decided to change the direction of my own conception about food.
Today, although I know that the morning nausea is not gone, I have learned to control it by using baby formal shakes, that I drink through out the night. I also control the nausea through out the day, by the food choices I make. Choosing natural organic foods instead of over processed food item choosing nutritional values over calories. Choosing to say no to preservatives and dyes, and other food items that are hard to digest like potato peels, broccoli, choosing fish and eggs as a protein source.
I have learned that there are things that you can do to make yourself feel better, if you are willing to change the direction of your thinking.
Today, although I am physically challenged I am a home school teacher. Health activities, Ordained Minister and Motivational councilor and writer..
