I have had stomach problems my entire life, but with age, I started having more. A few years ago, I started to get really nauseous while eating. Literally, I had to stop eating, or I would throw up. The acid reflux was unbearable, and I would throw up clear acid at times.
One day, I ate something, and the pain in my stomach brought me to tears. All I could do was curl up and pass out. I had done this a few times and finally I said, this isn’t right. I went to the doctor, and he referred me to a gastroenterologist. After many tests and one that included eating radioactive eggs and toast to see how I digested foods and how long it took, they discovered I have gastroparesis, along with a few other issues. With gastroparesis, stomach emptying is delayed. Whereas for a normal person it may take a little while to digest, it takes me a day or so. With this disease, you can have bezoars form, which is food that doesn’t digest and will rot, which can be very deadly.
Over the past couple of years, my disease has gotten worse. I can no longer eat meat really. If I do, it is only a small amount of chicken or ground beef. Foods that I once could eat I can’t bear to eat anymore because, once consumed, the pain is unbearable. My nausea is pretty much daily and lasts almost all day. I am unable to eat a full meal now, and sometimes, I just don’t eat. I have a lot of headaches because of this. I have been more depressed and emotional.
There is so much I could go on about, but I would be here a while. Many of my fellow GPers in my support group have it much worse. Some are even on feeding tubes. I haven’t gotten that bad, but they way things are going, I could see myself there one day, which is a little hard to swallow. This disease has no cure, and we fight a daily battle. This is a deadly disease because some just can’t eat, so they lose weight until basically their bodies can’t hang on because there are no nutrients for their bodies to feed on. I know I am always so tired because I don’t eat enough. That is just some of the life of a person with gastroparesis.
The saying for gastroparesis is “Starving for a cure.”So please take a moment and Google this, and help us bring awareness, so that hopefully one day they will find us a cure.
Jennifer
Arkansas
Submitted 03/02/2018
This story is intended to convey a personal experience and, because every person’s experience is unique, should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional healthcare advice.
