I want a new "STOMACH" please!

Ever since junior high I have struggled with bowel and intestinal issues. I had the ever so great “Kaiser Permanente” for health insurance and just got tossed around from one doctor to the next for them to say, nothing is wrong, just relax and calm down. Those of you who know me well, know that I cannot stand it when people tell me to “relax” just makes things worse. I have dealt with the answers they have given me over the years and just came to the conclusion that nothing was wrong with me. I thought I had IBS – Irritable Bowel Syndrome and went to the Doctor AGAIN in July of 2005 to rule out everything else so they could treat me for IBS. Kaiser did two bowel/intestinal tests and again, NOTHING showed up. The Doctors said that there is nothing that they can see wrong, so you have IBS. Here are some drugs and have a nice life! Lil ol me just took their answers and went on with my life with the hopes that the medication would help improve my systems so I could live a more normal life – outside of the bathroom. The next 3 years, nothing changed except my symptoms got worse. I was loosing a lot of weight couldn’t keep any food down (would have to run to the bathroom) which led to explosive diarrhea!!! Sorry for those of you who are grossed out by this topic…but this best describes what I go through on a daily basis. I just dealt with the pain and said screw it, this is my life and I have to deal with it!

I moved to VA in August of 2007 and from September to the end of October my symptoms just got increasingly worse. I became dehydrated and was in and out of urgent care all month. I went back to my Kaiser Dr. here in VA and finally was referred to a Gastrointestinal Doctor to then loosing my job which led to NO HEALTH INSURANCE! So I gave up. My loving fiancé kept encouraging me to go back once I got my new job in February of 2008 and I kept blowing it off. It wasn’t until June that I finally got sick of the pain, nausea, diareahha, and extreme bloating that I went to my GI doctor. Success it was!!!! He immediately ordered an endoscopy and a colonoscopy. I had the endoscopy first the end of May and not much was found except for a few polyups that were normal. I had my colonoscopy on June 26th and they finally found something. The lining of my stomach was inflamed and I had food in my stomach that had been in there since the night before (I had to fast for 12 hours so this food was digesting properly). I was told that my stomach empties too slow which is called Gastro paresis. I had a test a few days ago called “Gastric Emptying” that takes pictures of how long my stomach actually takes to empty the food I had been given to eat. From this test, my GI doctor will be able decide how to treat my problem. Gastro paresis causes, extreme bloating, a feeling of fullness after only eating a few bites, nausea, vomiting….these are all the systems I have and deal with on a day to day basis. Although, I have yet to be officially diagnosed, it is so nice to finally find something actually wrong so that I can be treated and hopefully PAIN FREE! There are some other possibilities of what I may have, one being Diverticulitis – which runs in my family. So, whatever it is, my Doctor is getting to the bottom of it and I will soon know what it is. I go back to my GI Dr next week to find out the results of my test. If it is indeed just Gastro paresis, there are antibiotics and other meds that help speed up the emptying of my stomach. If this doesn’t work, there are other measures to take that are a bit more serious like feeding tubes, surgery which I hope I will never get to. My life is spent worrying if what I eat is going to make me sick and have to run to the bathroom. I’m so tired of always having to make sure there is a bathroom close by. Whatever they find, they will treat and I will have some relief. Kaiser neglected to futher go anymore tests and I’m so glad that I chose to go with a better Health Insurance.

I’m ready to deal with whatever it is that I have. God doesn’t give us anything we can’t handle. I will update more when I find out next week what the results of my test were. There may be more tests…so it may be a waiting game for awhile. All I know is I’m happy that my Dr is concerned and is doing everything he can to find the root of the problem.