Im really quite tired of this winter, and it seems that every time I book a big girl appointment at the huge hospital that is a haul to get to, it snows! well last week I cancelled one appointment so that we wouldnt have to drive thru the mess, and it got rescheduled for today. Guess what? they are getting up to 18 inches where I am going! eeeek! Bridges are washing out, rivers are over flowing, and tons of emergent stuff going on.

Does anyone else have issues with having to travel thru floods and blizzards and wash outs to get to their appointments? I cant keep cancelling, so we have decided to keep todays appointment. Wish me luck! we are braving the elements to make it.

I'd cancel and reschedule. I don't care how many times I've had to cancel before.....if the weather is that bad I'm staying home!

Stay home, Dej!!!

Too late I am here. Slow going but not horrible. Will be home b4 u know it and won't have to come back till the flowers bloom.

Drive safe, surprised the place is open during the storm!

its a major hospital they stay open for everything. They were short staffed, but fully operational.

GI guy said I have MS related Gastroparesis. DUH! So, we talked about how weird MS can be, and how its rare, but not completely uncommon to have such tummy troubles with an MS patient. He pointed out several lesions on my last MRI that would corrolate to the tummy...blah blah blah....in other words, we dont know, so we are going to blame MS.

They reccomended 3 to 5 days of IVSM. I said I would think about it.

We drove home in the sunshine and were amazed at how much things cleared up in just that short time. The ice covered trees and snow covered rocks along the road were so pretty. The rivers swollen with ice flows breaking down the river, it was really something you would see in a movie. Im home safe.

Dej,
first of all... glad you went, and glad you made it home...
Second...what is that gastro blah...what are the sxs? how did you know something was up?
Third...you've been on such a stress bender lately. I'm not surprised your tummy is upset. Many of us ignore the fact that mind is the builder and the body is the reflection of the mind...
Know that I am praying for peace of mind for you...

gastroparesis. Lets break this down. Gastro means tummy or gastrointestinal. Paresis means paralyzed or stopped.

The sx are that food takes forever (even water) to pass thru your tummy and even the smallest of meals makes you full very quickly. I have to be sure that I have no food for 6 hours before I lay down or I will end up vomiting in the middle of the night. My right stomach feels like someone grabbed my intestine and flipped it over. I have had MRIs, CTscans, gastric emptying tests, Colonoscopies, Endoscopies, ...it could go on and on. For a while they wanted to blame the fact that I take narcotics, but we quickly led to many episodes that happened before I ever knew about narcotics.

They are telling me that MS can affect the intestine in some rare patients (if its rare, im on the list) and that during flares the stomach can simply either forget what to do or the brain doesnt send the proper signal on what to do with the food you recieve. Last year when this happened I spent about a month in the hospital after 3 days of IVSM wrecked me.

It can get dramatically bad, and then clear up and you would never know anything is wrong. Most folks with Gastroparesis have it all the time without relief. MS patients with it, get it during and around flares. I guess there are several published papers on it now. It used to be MS folks would complain about their tummies and the MD would say "cant be, must be something else" now some smart MDs are listening to their patients and recording it for the other MDs to follow.

You get many answers from many MDs. One says MS. the other says NO WAY! and the next guy says "maybe you dont have MS, maybe you have (insert even more rare disease) and then you spend two weeks waiting for results. Its been a rollar coaster ride. This guy I saw is head of the department for a major medical center and specializes in Gastroparesis.

I hate this disease!