I know i haven't blogged in a while. I have been living in a nightmare with my stomach. I thought I was having bowel obstructions. I had all the signs and symptoms, distended stomach, no output in ostomy, nausea/vomiting, crampy/sharp pains. I was admitted in September for a week with what was thought a small bowel obstruction. Wrong!
Last month every week I had the same symptoms at least once if not twice a week for 4 weeks. My GI ran test for pancreatitist while my surgeon ran test for adhesions. Upon the 4th week and 6th time and excruciating pain I called the on call surgeon who direct admitted me. She ran a ct scan that is ran only on Crohns patients. By this time I have had enough radiation to light up a room! Still showed no narrowing and no adhesions. Now they are focusing on my stomach.
Gastroparesis, well I have been treated for it for the past 2 years. However, it is no longer working. Gastroparesis is a condition in which the spontaneous movement of the muscles (motility) in your stomach does not function normally. Ordinarily, strong muscular contractions propel food through your digestive tract. But in gastroparesis, your stomach's motility works poorly or not at all.
My surgeon met with my care team, and they decided to have the Motility Team see me. They decided I was a good candidate for a gastric pacemaker. However, it takes 6-8 months to be seen. But, since my GI is part of the Motility Clinic team, I was seen 2 weeks ago and already have a small list of test I have to have done prior to having the temporary gastric pacemaker implanted.
Insurance companies don't like paying for it because they say it's still experimental so I could wait up to a year. They place a temporary in to see if you will even benefit from it or not. But, I don't have to mess with the insurance company, they do all the appeals. But, one would think looking at my hospilizations due to the Gastroparesis it would be much cheaper to approve the gastric pacemaker.
I have learned so much more with having crohns disease. I have had issues occur that are permanent due to surgeries bc of crohns disease. But we all know there are risk with everything we do. I never knew what Gastroparesis was until I started having issues, I never knew what Crohns disease was until I was diagnosed, then I was diagnosed with a neurogenic bladder (I knew what that was). We experience so much with this disease that some people would think we were a hypochondriac.
Last month every week I had the same symptoms at least once if not twice a week for 4 weeks. My GI ran test for pancreatitist while my surgeon ran test for adhesions. Upon the 4th week and 6th time and excruciating pain I called the on call surgeon who direct admitted me. She ran a ct scan that is ran only on Crohns patients. By this time I have had enough radiation to light up a room! Still showed no narrowing and no adhesions. Now they are focusing on my stomach.
Gastroparesis, well I have been treated for it for the past 2 years. However, it is no longer working. Gastroparesis is a condition in which the spontaneous movement of the muscles (motility) in your stomach does not function normally. Ordinarily, strong muscular contractions propel food through your digestive tract. But in gastroparesis, your stomach's motility works poorly or not at all.
My surgeon met with my care team, and they decided to have the Motility Team see me. They decided I was a good candidate for a gastric pacemaker. However, it takes 6-8 months to be seen. But, since my GI is part of the Motility Clinic team, I was seen 2 weeks ago and already have a small list of test I have to have done prior to having the temporary gastric pacemaker implanted.
Insurance companies don't like paying for it because they say it's still experimental so I could wait up to a year. They place a temporary in to see if you will even benefit from it or not. But, I don't have to mess with the insurance company, they do all the appeals. But, one would think looking at my hospilizations due to the Gastroparesis it would be much cheaper to approve the gastric pacemaker.
I have learned so much more with having crohns disease. I have had issues occur that are permanent due to surgeries bc of crohns disease. But we all know there are risk with everything we do. I never knew what Gastroparesis was until I started having issues, I never knew what Crohns disease was until I was diagnosed, then I was diagnosed with a neurogenic bladder (I knew what that was). We experience so much with this disease that some people would think we were a hypochondriac.