Anybody else have a gastro-stimulater?
 

My wife's neuropathy ranges from her feet to her stomach!..Thats what I said...her stomach.

About 15 months ago, (the first of 13 hospital visits since then), she felt like she was full all the time. When she ate, she would eat a little bit and say she was full...then she would stay that way for a couple of days (making my wife go to the hospital is like french kissing a rattlesnake without getting bit!).
Eventually, she would begin vomiting uncontrollably, to the point she would get dehydrated. I would then take her to the hospital where she would spend a week for them to try and figure it out.
Her doctors were good about explaining what it COULD be, but they were not sure. The 11 time she was in the hospital, they decided to take her gall bladder out thinking that was it.....nope.
So they then sent her to California Pacific medical Center in S.F., there they knew more about this because they are 1 of 6 hospitals in the U.S. that treat this symptom. (They said there are only 550 people in the U.S. that have these. Thats how rare it is!).
They said that her stomach would quit working because her neuropathy was damaging the nerves in her stomach, which would cause her stomach to basically quit working. If the stomach doesn't keep things moving, there is only 1 way out for the contents.
The stomach pulsates so many beats per minute to keep stuff moving, hers would quit at times, and thats when these attacks would occur.
They said there was a new gig to help treat it....putting a gastro-stimulator on her stomach (basically, they put a pacemaker on it.)
That was 2 months ago, and it seems to be working. They started out with 5 beats a minute (the lowest setting, highest being 10), then just yesterday, they boosted it up to 6.
It works fine, but since this was put in, she gets this burning, seering pain at the top of her stomach when she eats or drinks. They said it may, can and has taken up to a year for other patience to get through that before all was better.

Any thoughts from somebody who has one also?
Do these symptoms happen to you or did when you first got it?

Thanks for posting this. I have gastroparesis too, do to my neuropathy and it is difficult. I can't take most meds. I can't take any for my stomach. It's good to know they have something out there to make things work!

I am sure your wife will get great relief.

Also I PM'd you.

Not a prob!

Yeah this gastroperisis is one tough customer to deal with. I am her caregiver too, so it makes it that much harder for me to deal with, being I have to see this happening to her.

I will definitely talk to her doc about scleroderma sine.

I have learned so much over the past 7 years, (especially the past 2 1/2 years which have been the worst), I feel I can possibly pass the medical exam here! I have never researched 1 subject, so much, ever. Not even for school! :D

Thanks for the info. I will keep you posted. :)

You're a great hubby!

LOL, mine cleans house.....;)

Me too!..clean house..do dishes (with no dish wahser..I AM the dishwasher :D), laundry, yard work...its a never ending battle...but, for better or worse, sickness and health.

Its all about the :Heart: of your spouse....hard at times, but I know its for her, so I keep on going. :cool: