Living with Gastroparesis

I was diagnosed with Gastroparersis in fall of 2009. It's been a real struggle for the past few years; especially that last two. My central line was removed in April 2012 which was a relief because of how many times I was hospitilized with sepses(blood infections). For the past year I had sepses 3 times: once from my pick line, and twice from my power port. The last sepses episode in November 2011 landed me in ICU where they removed the port, and J-tube. The doctors weren't sure if I got the blood infection from one or the other so they removed both. After a few days they took me to intervention radiology where they placed a tack line so I could continue my intervenous feeds with TPN. At the begining of 2012 I started eating solid food and gained 30 lbs with in a month from being intervenous feeds on TPN and eating regular food. The doctor adjusted my calorie intake with the TPN as she tappered me off of it. I think the reason I have recovered so quickly is I went to see a specialist in Atlanta at the Piedmont Hospital Dr. Warring where he advised me about upping my dosage of Domperidone and added an antidepressant which this combination would help sitmulate my stomach muscles. He said the last resort would be to get a stomach pacemaker which they do at the Piedmont Hospital. My only concern is if I had complications from the pacemaker I would have to return to Atlanta and there are no doctors that I'm aware of that do the surgery here in Arizona.

My last an final struggle is getting off the pain medicine. My pain doctor put me on one of the strongest pain medicines in the form of a patch. For the past few months I have been winged off the patch. One of my other doctors suggested that it wasn't a good idea with my condition to put me on a Fentanyl patch and it didn't make sense to him. It has been a difficult road getting off the pain medicine. I have been moody, grumpy, and just not myself. I probably have offended people because its been difficult to control my emotions these past few months. But I have a great doctor that has put me on Clonodine Patch which is now helping combat the with draws and has made me feel normal the past few weeks. I'm much happier with the Clonodine. It's taken several months to get off the pain patch. I'm on my last dosage of pain medicine which will only be a few weeks away from getting off of it complete and in the mean while my doctor will keep me on the Clonodine patch for an extra month until the Fentanyl is completely out of my system. My grandpa uses Clonodine for his heart so there are several usages for this medicine.

I will probably struggle with Gastroparersis the rest of my life. At least once a month I feel sick to my stomach  where I throw up and in pain but my mom is a registered nurse. She gives me a shot of Regalan and Zofran which helps to get my stomach running once again. Regalan has lots of side effects and its not recommended to take for long periods of times. I reserve my usage of Regalan for when I'm feeling really sick to my stomach. I find that if its adminstered either IM (through the muscle) or by IV/central line it works better for me.

Now that I have been feeling better its been a lot of fun getting back to my normal life before getting sick. I really fought to get better but it was a battle these past few years being hospitalized on and off for almost a year and half.