In 2005, I became sick and was unable to keep much down, was in a lot of pain, super uncomfortable, and downright miserable. In the past, when I had gotten sick I always got over it and was able to get on with my life. This time was different. It never seemed to go away so I went to a General Practitioner. They ran many different tests including urine samples, blood tests, ultrasounds and more. The results of these tests all came back normal. She put me on some medicines to see if that would help, but nothing seemed to work. The doctor could not figure out what was wrong. Not only was I constantly throwing up, but I had major acid whenever I ate anything, and was still struggling.
She referred me to a Gastroenterologist (GI doctor). He tried some different medicines including Reglan and an acid reducer. They seemed to help a little, but still did not do anything to cure the problem. After a few visits with him, there was still no answer as to what was wrong and no improvement in my condition, he suggested we do an Upper Endoscopy. This took place the day after Thanksgiving.
I went to the hospital for that procedure and remember hoping and praying for an answer. I also hoped that whatever the answer, there would be a quick cure so I could get back to a normal life. After the procedure, and after waking up a bit, I read through the papers I'd received. They said that the endoscopy shows a little bit of gastritis and GERD. I thought that was my answer. The GI never contacted me after that and so I assumed I needed to deal with it, because it was not anything major. He didn't seemed too worried so I tried not to be.
During this time, I had been living in Illinois and was away from my family. I returned back to Idaho the following year at the beginning of March. After less than a few hours with my parents, they both knew that there was something wrong. We immediately set an appointment with a GI doctor in my hometown. My appointment took place on April 10, 2006. Within 10 minutes of meeting the doctor, he was pretty sure he knew what was wrong and gave us an unofficial diagnosis and changed me to a liquid diet right then and there. He started me on Zelnorm and decided to go ahead with some testing.
The first test he performed was a Gastric Emptying Scan. I went in and ate some scrambled eggs with radioactive material in them. Then a scanner was placed over my stomach for an hour, while measuring the rate that the food was leaving and moving in the stomach. I did not get the results right away. Later, they called me at work to tell me that my result came back abnormal and they needed to do more tests.
The next test was another upper endoscopy. My dad came with me to the hospital. They had me come in early because I was so dehydrated. While they were putting fluids in my, the doctor decided that after the procedure, I needed to be hospitalized for dehydration and malnutrition. The scope came back normal and the tissue samples they took showed nothing. The next day I had a CT scan of my stomach and numerous other blood tests.
The day I was released from the hospital, I remember the doctor coming in and telling me that I didn't have cancer. He also confirmed and gave the official diagnosis. I was diagnosed with Idiopathic Gastroparesis, which means there is no known cause for the condition. He put me on a soft foods diet, which ended up being a liquid diet.
This was just the beginning of my journey.
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