Trigger/Content Warning:
Body Image, Weight, Food, Gastrointestinal Disorder
Dear Body,
I try so hard to love you. It hasn’t always been this way, but I’ve been trying and trying and trying.
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Tag Archives: gastroenterology
Gastric Emptying Study Follow-Up
On the 28th of December, I had a gastric emptying study done. Today, the 6th of January, I had my follow-up appointment with my gastroenterologist. It wasn’t quite what I expected…
First of all, let me explain what a gastric emptying study is. While the way they are conducted can vary quite a bit, the premise is the same: eat some food with a radioactive tracer in it, then get scanned periodically to see how fast the food empties from your stomach. For me, I had to eat some radioactive eggs (more like, one very small scrambled egg), then I could eat two pieces of toast with jelly, and I got a shot glass sized amount of water to wash it all down with. After I ate, they scanned me immediately to get a baseline (see what 100% looked like). For the next four hours, I was not allowed to eat or drink anything at all. Yes, four hours; I sat in a pretty, sunny hallway and read a book for four hours, minus the few minutes each scan took. The scanned me again at one hour, at two hours, and at four hours. After I left, they calculated the percentage of food left in my stomach at each scan, then sent the results to my doctor.
The scanning machine; I stood between the two giant paddles while they were scanning me.
Productive Gastroenterology Appointment Today!
Today was my follow-up appointment with my gastroenterologist, and it was an extremely productive appointment! My GI doc is my favorite doctor, by quite a lot. They’re the most awkward subject matter, but they’re always productive and my doc refuses to give up on me. It’s a very refreshing change from how most doctors treat my cases.
Anyway, the follow-up was in regards to my HIDA scan. Continue reading
Time for a HIDA Scan…
My stomach issues have been slowly getting worse and it’s been very disheartening. The delayed gastric emptying has hit ridiculous levels, and the pain and nausea can be incapacitating after I eat.
The absolute worst episode was the weekend my mother-in-law was in town… Of course, when people are in town, we try our best to not let my health mess with our plans. Becky, my MIL, was here from Friday night until midday Sunday. Continue reading
Experimenting With Treatment
Right now, we’re (my GI and I) experimenting with treatment for small intestine bacterial overgrowth – aka SIBO. I am going to be taking Xifaxan for two weeks, and hopefully the delayed gastric emptying will improve. We’re also going the motility improve.
He decided to just do the treatment instead of testing first because he didn’t like how many I’ve been thru already, and apparently the SIBO test isn’t very accurate. Xifaxan isn’t supposed to be absorbed into your system much at all, so there really isn’t supposed to be too many side effects, so I decided to just for it. I figure my daily issues are so miserable, I’d rather just try it and hope it’ll help.
So far, I haven’t been too happy: gassy and lots of bathroom trips. My fatigue is also a little wacky, but my period is also poorly timed again. However, my stomach had been marginally better. Hopefully that means it’s been helping.
Stomach Issues Return
Normally after vacations, due to all the restaurant and junk food, I am horribly stopped up.
For some reason, this time, I now have diarrhea. It’s not “running to the restroom every few hours” bad, but the last three days have all had multiple loose stools. Today is the worst of it so far. But the frequency is way off. I’ve only gone about twice each the last two days, which is weird.
My stomach though feels horrid. It feels like I’ve been hit in the lower abdomen by a baseball bat and my colon has been set on fire. No idea what triggered this.
I do not have a fever.
I’m glad I see my GI on the 31st. Hopefully it doesn’t get any worse, and I really hope it doesn’t last that long…
Nausea and Dysautonomia
Today, Dysautonomia International shared an article to their Facebook about nausea and vomiting, and how the two don’t always go hand in hand and how they tied to the nervous system. The text that accompanied D.I.’s post points out that nausea is a common symptom for dysautonomia patients.
As many of you know, I have been suffering with chronic nausea for years. Lately, it’s been so bad that, at times, I struggle to eat. That’s actually part of why my GI decided to do the colonoscopy. As of my last appointment, he didn’t believe I had primary gastroparesis, but he did say I definitely have what is called “delayed gastric emptying” which is caused by my whole system running slow so it tells my stomach to stop working. Very similar, but different causes. He is thinking he might do more testing though, later, just to be sure.
I am wondering if the reason my nausea is so bad is because it has multiple causes?
Anyway, I found the article extremely interesting and really wanted to share:
Nausea and Vomiting: Not Always in Sync by Pharmacy Times
Gastroenterologist and Neurologist Update
Gastroenterologist
I went to see my gastroenterologist yesterday. I told him everything, including the fact that I’ve been pretty much stuck on a bland diet since Sunday morning (due to the Saturday night incident). (Follow-up about the Saturday night incident.) Turns out that, apparently, when you’re system is backed up it’ll send signals to your brain essentially telling it to not put anything else into your intestinal tract, making you have the urge to vomit. Not really sure why this triggered after the fact for me, but it has. Either way, he thinks it is due to my severely irritable large intestine. Apparently, the pain I have is also due to this. He said that my large intestine is so sensitive I can probably just feel the entire thing all the time, so anytime anything goes through it I can tell. Suddenly, things make so much more sense now.
Chronic Living – Buzzfeed
Living With A Health Problem | Buzzfeed
Here’s a collection of good quotes about living as a young adult with chronic health issues.
GI Appointment: New Medication, More Testing
I went to my gastroenterologist today. The appointment’s purpose was to follow-up on my eosinophilic esophagitis, which is actually doing a lot better on the ranitidine and on the rotation diet. I’m hoping it continues to improve as my allergens die off. We have also been working on doing a thorough clean of our house, which we just haven’t gotten a chance to do since we moved in (we do clean, just not a thorough job around the whole house every time). I am going to go see Dr N tomorrow (allergist) and I’m going to ask for specifics on the testing (like what chemical they tested for the “house dust,” even though he only did food he should know), so hopefully I’ll know exactly what I need to know to better control this EoE thing. Right now, not having throat spasms daily and not having choked in months is a plus! A huge plus!
Finding Life's Silver Sun 