Gastroparesis

So back to my health.

In early May, I started to notice a decrease in my appetite. Nothing major, I just noticed that I was starting to get satisfied with increasingly smaller portions, and those portions would keep me un-hungry for a longer time period than normal.

After I got out of the hospital for the first time this summer, I had almost zero appetite due to almost constant nausea, but as I recovered from surgery, my appetite came back...a little. After I got out of the hospital for the second time this summer (after having been diagnosed as being "hyper-sensitive to the normal contractions of my gallbladder" and put on muscle relaxants as a result), my appetite pretty much went to zero. I would wake up in the morning, know I NEEDED a good breakfast, but everything food-related made me almost want to gag. I would force some breakfast down, and usually couldn't stand the thought of food again till nighttime, at which point I would eat a few bites of...something that didn't make me feel gross.

After a few weeks of life like that and realizing with each follow-up doctors' appointments that I was rapidly loosing weight (I've lost 20 lbs since January), I decided to call my GI to see if perhaps my lack of appetite could be as a result of the medications I was on. He said it was highly unlikely, that the lack of appetite was probably again due to stress, but just to cover all bases, he would order a Gastric-Emptying Study. As many of you know, my organs have been tested inside and out this summer and all tests have come back negative, indicating I'm a normal, healthy girl who's just too over-stressed. So I went to the hospital a little begrudgingly for yet another test that was just going to come out negative...or so I thought.

When I saw the doctor for the results a few days later I found that the test came back positive!! The test revealed that my stomach moves abnormally slowly, hence the lack of appetite. My doctor and I were concerned about the gastroparesis (what my condition is called), but at the same time we were rejoicing that a test FINALLY revealed something about why I feel the way I feel. He said the gastroparesis may even explain away the "gallbladder" pain I've been complaining of. I saw the doctor that day at noon, having eaten a very small breakfast at 8 that morning and had nothing to eat or drink in between that time...he listened to my stomach and rapped on it and said, "Yes, your stomach is very full." Weird, huh?

So he prescribed me a drug that I take before every meal that stimulates my stomach muscles to get working again...after the very first try of the drug the medicine worked....I was hungry again! And the medication has continued to work since!

A few prayer requests: I'm on several medications right now, reglan (for the stomach) and librax (muscle relaxants), among other things the doctors have prescribed. The side effects of the mixture of all these drugs are kind of discouraging, especially as I'm starting school and planning a wedding. I get EXTREMELY drowsy and when that happens, I feel like I can't handle all that I've got on my plate, because I am not alert enough to do anything unless I go take a 1-2 hour nap. Thankfully, today is the first day that I have not felt that incredible drowsiness come on, but I'm thinking that doesn't necessarily indicate that it won't happen again. My doctors think that the drowsiness has mostly to do with the librax, so please pray that when I see my GI again in a few weeks he can start weaning me off the muscle relaxants. Also, for now the reglan is going to be long term, possibly a permanent thing. I don't want to be on it for the rest of my life, it has scary and dangerous side effects, so please pray that there will be revealed to the doctors another alternative or that God will heal my stomach.

Thank you so much for your prayers!!