Skip to main content

That Awkward Moment When My Stomach Decides it Rather Not Digest Things

There is never a dull moment in my life, although I would not mind one. The latest chapter in the saga of "Joan's Body Doesn't Work" my stomach symptoms did not go away like I thought they head.

As the pain and vomiting continued it was clear they had no intentions of going away so my GI ordered a gastric emptying scan. What that entailed was eating radio active eggs and then lying on an x-ray table for 2 hours (Which my joints did not appreciate) while it took pictures of my abdomen every few minutes to see how fast my stomach is digesting food.
At least I got to watch MU during the scan.
I find the fact I get a sticker for radiation exposure ironic.

A few days later my GI called with the results, apparently my stomach is not emptying fast enough. She thinks it was caused by the infection I had and will go away in 8 weeks (even less at this point since that was a few weeks ago). She prescribed a medication called erythromycin which I take about 15 minutes before meals.

For about 2 whole weeks I didn't throw up. Then on Monday morning I vomited after breakfast (which was not a good sign since I usually don't till the night. Of course that night I threw up not once but twice, throwing up all my meds (including the Periactin I take for nausea in hopes of not puking). At that point all hope was lost, I continued to dry heave. I almost went to the ER but I had a huge project due the next day so I called the on call GI at CHOP and she said not to try to retake my pills that night (not that I had any plans of trying) and to take sips of Gatorade every 15 minutes and as long as I was keeping that down I would be okay, but to take my pills one at a time in 15 minute intervals the next day. I managed to survive the night and complete my project as well as keep down all my meds in the morning but I didn't push the whole food thing.

Wednesday I saw my GI, she decided we should do an endoscopy right aster finals are over to get to the bottom of every thing. She gave me a prescription for Zofran to hold me over till than, and I haven;t thrown up since thanks to it. She was also impressed that I haven't lost any more weight, thanks to ensure and the fact I babysit for a dietitian.
New BFF

I thought my joints were doing well on Sulfazalazine but my Rheumatologist was not as impressed. I guess with how screwy my stomach has been I haven't realized how my joints are doing, There was a few different things she mentioned but we decided not to do anything until after the endoscopy because we don't want to rock the boat right before finals. She did give me a steroid paste for mouth ulcers I have been getting but I am hoping not to use it. The only one I have currently is at the way back of my moth so I am afraid I might hit my gag reflex by accident if I try to put anything on it since I can't see it.
Selfie with the Panda outside the Woods Center

I feel like all that was really established this week is my body is a extremely messed up and we are trying to figure out why still.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Swollen Wrist

This morning I woke up to a red painful swollen wrist. My right wrist was not happy or useable for the better part of the morning. Of course my mom wanted to make a rheumatologist appointment for this week but I really did not think it is worth it. Since I am now in the 2 week period before my hip surgery I can not take anything but Tylenol anyway (no voltaren or fancy cream), so there is not a whole lot that can be done. We finally settled on me going to my GP (for the 2nd time in one week as I had a pre-op appointment with him on Monday), and I took a picture so I can show my rheumy at my next appointment. I managed to get an appointment at 11AM because my GP was in the office this Saturday. By the time of the appointment my wrist looked pretty normal, although I had the picture so he could see something was up. He had it x-rayed just to rule out any issues non rheumatology related, and as we both guessed the x-rays came out normal. My Lovely Wrist this Morning I was left wit...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Perfect Body?

Today I am going to write about a taboo subject- body image, and how living with chronic illness/pain has affected it. I get told how great my body is a lot, I am tall and fairly skinny. Not to be egotistic but I look pretty good in a bikini. I should love how I look. I should be confident of my body, after all I just bought a pair of size 2 jeans. Yet I still struggle with loving my body. My New Jeans! In middle school I thought my legs were fat, that was when I had muscles from horseback riding, today I miss my muscular legs. My thighs tend to be two different sizes, the left one is almost always smaller. The reason for this is simple, my left quad has atrophied from months of limping and being on crutches when I was 15/16, at one point it was so bad my doctor measured it and the difference was a good 2 cm in circumference. Today they are almost the same size, and probably look the same to anyone else, but to me they still look different. If you haven't guessed it yet, ...
4 comments
Read more

I Am Still Me

In the past two years it seems like my medical issues have become part of my identity. I am the girl always on crutches or limping, the one who doesn't participate in gym. No one asks where I am if I am not it class, they know I was probably at a doctor's appointment or if I come in a period or two late my friends know my shoulders are probably having a bad day so I had to take a bath to get rid of morning stiffness. I am not sure when it happened but people are now more surprised when I can walk then when I can't.  Sometimes it is really hard for me to move past the medical parts of my life, because it does affect all the others, but it is important that I do. I try to do everything I used to do, which is hard but aside from athletic activities I have done a pretty good job managing. I can't always do everything I want to but I prioritize.  There are a couple things I refuse to let my health affect. Debate is something I don't let get affected, since I have ...
3 comments
Read more