I wrote a post previously about my daughter’s stomach illness. As I read it again I realized I didn’t address her diagnose. If you are like me researching online night after night trying to figure out what possibly could be happening, I figured I owed you more information.
She has severe Gastroparesis. Her stomach empties food into her small intestine VERY slowly. Yes, we’ve tried changing her diet. Yes, emotions have an effect on a person’s digestive system. However the bottom line is her stomach doesn’t work like mine. She experiences pain, nausea and vomiting. The severity of her symptoms vary. Some days taking an ondansetron pill helps. Other days she still vomits. She’s learned over the years that certain foods irritate her digestive system more than others. Plain food or soup can be tolerated sometimes when other food can’t be held down. She has had feeding tubes surgically placed and dealt with running “feeds” at night. She’s currently on medication not FDA approved in the USA which has helped enough for her feeding tube to be removed. We know that her body will probably get use to the medicine at some point, and it may stopping working in the future. For now, we are glad to have found a good doctor.
We’ve seen numerous doctors. I encourage you to find one that truly understands Gastroparesis. GI doctors will say they help patients with motility issues, but finding one that has experience specifically with Gastroparesis is important. The Center for Neurogastroenterology and Motility in San Francisco is a great program – http://www.cpmc.org/services/gi/Motility.html