Testimonial Category: What is your daily life like living with Gastroparesis?

What is my daily life like living with gastroparesis?

My daily life went from working my tail off 7 days/week to suddenly no energy. No nothing. Just sick. At that pesky little vagus nerve …bradycardia and tachycardia. Also Dysautonomia and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

It has meant I went from working (in my 30s) to being worn out just sitting upright on a couch all day.

I dread activity.

The constant nausea is unbearable but after a couple of years, you accept it as normal as you have forgotten how normal truly feels.

Not being able to eat foods I once loved and sometimes nothing at all.

Days are full of feeble attempts to try to manage the symptoms. It is hoping I do not have to go to the ER for IV fluids only to be lectured by another ER doc about wasting their time or being treated as though a drug addict looking for a fix. (PS, no matter what horrible level of pain I am in, I always always always turn down pain meds in the Hope’s that I am taken seriously)

What is my daily life like living with gastroparesis?

Daily life is physically challenging for me. Each morning I wake up with lack of energy, unrested from restless sleep IF I had any sleep to start off with, along with nausea & a cramping abdomen from trickling a total of 200mL of pedialyte into my small intestines via my feeding tube all night. In the morning I unhook for an hour before rehooking to my feeding tube for my nutrition. During the entire day I carry around a backpack with my tube feeds to receive up to 500 calories of formula. My body won’t accept more without severe symptoms. I try to force a pedialyte popsicle l or 2 times a day as I remain chronically dehydrated even with the feeding tube. Most of my day consist of being home bound under a heating pad. When I do attempt to go out, it is with my family and usually consist of going to a restaurant and watching them eat, a doctor’s visit, or attending a movie. All of which wear me down and take a day or two to recover from. Making plans in advance is always questionable as don’t know how I will be and know there’s a good chance that I may have to cancel.

Nausea, meds, soft breakfast, more nausea. It’s like one big carousel I can’t get off of. I wake up sick, I go to bed sick. There is no in between. I never thought a person could have functioning nausea. I go through my day with a constant stomach ache. The sad part is I have got so used to it, that I can actually function. My life literally centers on how bad my stomach feels.

Waking nauseated and trying to get ahead of it all day, everyday!! It controls my life, so called. ??

What is my daily life like living with gastroparesis?

A guessing game, can be vastly different from day to day, week to week. Very difficult to plan anything or work or just to live. Some days it is an effort to just breathe and sometimes I have few symptoms and I am very grateful. My life is a giant roller coaster with Gastroparesis at the wheel.