Hey Vrae,

Dang girl.. I'm so sorry to learn of your lunch and then ER trip, that had to have been one scary. Glad to hear the ER seems to have treated you with respect and did a thorough evaluation with appropriate referrals. I hope you are able to get into the GI specialist quickly.

I don't know anything about GERD or PUD but I am intimately familiar with gastroparesis and can offer a few tips that have help me deal with it. Very small meals like even just a few bites at a time or nothing bigger in total volume of more than a half of a cup. Chew, Chew, Chew.. this is very important since our stomach no longer has the ability to break things up and move them along.. so you can't chew to much. Avoid drinking anything including water with meals.. and try to have your last sip 30-45 min. before/after meal time. Grazing throughout the day instead of eating "meals" works much better for me.. although it makes it difficult to eat with others Even a sandwich for me is cut into quarters, so it generally takes me 2-3 hours to finish a normal size sandwich. Avoiding high fat foods, meat and pork products, salads, uncooked vegetables, corn and products made with corn has helped me tremendously. When things are really bad I switch to a pureed diet for a few days, sticking with the same principle of no more than a 1/2 cup total volume at one time max. If you are vomiting a lot, then you will really benefit by epsom salt soaks to improve your magnesium levels. You will also want to watch your potassium and sodium levels when frequent vomiting episodes occur as this will only increase problems. I hate gatorade but that is a good source of electrolytes if you can tolerate small amounts of it. A couple of saltine crackers twice a day will give you plenty of potassium and may help reduce reflux when taking meds. Sorry for rambling..

I hope some of the above is helpful to you and most importantly I hope and pray you are able to get these GI issues under control quickly.

You are blessed (as am I) to have a wonderful and supportive husband. I am sorry to hear about his father and hope that his remaining time is filled with fond memories, family & friends!

Have a better day,
Tessa