I have suffered from what my mom would call a “sensitive stomach” since I was born. Certain foods through childhood would just throw my body into a funk and I would feel absolutely so sick. I had horrible abdominal pain.
In 2015 I had my gallbladder removed and it seemed ever since then everything went down hill. First it was acid reflux, and IBS, and Dumping Syndrome. Which in time wreaked havoc on me and until 2017 I was able to manage a pretty normal life style, and then BAM….. It’s like my entire body was shutting down. I couldn’t eat anything, everything hurt, I couldn’t drink, I lost close to 110 lbs in a little under 8 months and became half the person I once knew.
First it was emergency hydration and electrolytes in the ER, which then became admissions, due to needing so much nutritional support, to the point they decided to put in a J-Tube. The first one 5/2018 put me in the hospital for 32 days , caused unbearable pain, a staph infection ended the tubes life before I ever even began to be able to use it. Subsequently the laparotomy caused adhesions, and a bowel obstruction leading to a second surgery in 10/2018 to repair bowel and lysis adhesions, and an attempt of a 2nd tube on the opposite side of my abdomen. Tube number two felt like a god send, I though it was finally gonna work. And it did . For 2 month until I developed a Pseudomonas infection which caused a massive obstruction leaving me in Mayo Clinic for 9 days on NG suction. At this point it was determined I needed TPN nutrition. I had been inpatient admitted 30 times at this point spent nearly 100 days in the hospital and my life felt completely over. TPN kept me sustained and hospital free for 5 months until May 2019 , when I was admitted for emergency ventral hernia surgery and for the next two following months I was in agony in and out of the hospital and unable to tolerate any activity.
Finally 7/2019 I went in for severe abdominal pain and was unable to take it any longer. My surgeon determined I had adhesions causing pain and needed to have surgery once again and she would resection my scarred bowel and lysis my adhesions. Post surgery I woke up to be told I had a condition called Intussusception which the bowel telescopes inside itself. It’s only found in 5% of humans and mostly infants. This was a massive breaking discovery to my diagnosis as we felt we have found the source of why I have been so ill for so long, My biggest challenge now will be the life long irreversible damage all of these abdominal surgeries have caused,
I am still TPN dependent and can eat some by mouth but Gastroparesis is still my # 1 challenge everyday and It’s just something I will learn to live with and adapt to whatever changes are needed to sustain a happy healthy life.