Thursday, June 23, 2011

Mood- energized
Health- de-energized

There is a surge in the Gastroparesis/Digestive Tract Paralysis Conditions patients brainstorming for ways to raise Awareness! Patients are coming up with so many ideas to get the word out and struggling so hard to get people to listen...

A stranger who stumbles across this blog might think "I thought the patients were all really sick and did not have the energy to do things like that" or "I will care about it when it happens to me, but it can't be that bad".

Yes... the vast majority of the people who are striving to raise Awareness are patients... this is the case in most condition Awareness activities. Yes... they are very ill, struggling to make it through daily tasks and yet they still work hard at trying to get the world to care.

You do not want this to happen to you... believe me, it is not something that you want to suffer with. Imagine never being able to eat your favorite foods again... never enjoying a fresh salad, fresh fruit, a burger... no going out to eat and scanning the menu trying to make your mind up. Instead you will hope that you can get plain mashed potatoes as a stand alone side. You will battle to find a Doctor that knows enough about it to treat you at all (and be frustrated to tears by those who know nothing about it) and watch your friends melt away as they either grow tired of your missing activities or believe that you are faking.

Think it is not a 'big issue'? Here are some numbers for you for comparison-

• 
  
  It is estimated that one out of every 110 children are Autistic


• 
  
  12.2 percent (12.2 out of 100 women) in America will develop Breast Cancer


• 
  
  Approximately 250,000 to 350,000 people in America have MS

Yet... up to 4% of the US population (or one in every 25 people) is affected by Gastroparesis! (http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/563730) That puts the number at around 13 million Americans with Gastroparesis!

Jaw drop yet?

Awareness is just not out there... people know about Autism... they know about Breast Cancer... they know about Multiple Sclerosis but unless you have been diagnosed with it (or a friend or family member has) chances are your reaction to the word is "Gastro-pa-what-sis?" (I am not in any way, shape or form, downplaying the devastating affects of these conditions... I am just using them as examples of how the percentage of those affected and Awareness at large do not always go hand in hand.)

You have a greater chance of having Gastroparesis than being born with green eyes (1-2%).

On the home front-

The pain is still there... stabs of acid dipped knives in my abdomen that like to mix in with the constant squeezing ache that is a daily companion.

I am still falling behind in my liquid intake... 12 ounces total for yesterday and my body is telling me that it is not happy with headaches and reduced urine output (plus my kidneys adding their jabs to remind me that they want more green tea, please). Today I am at about 5 ounces... how I wish I could just sit in a tub of green tea and absorb it through my skin so my balky stomach would not have to try to squeeze it in.

Those saplings are real fighters... still green and thriving despite being in buckets of water... they will go into some major shock when they hit the dry drought soil and I will have to make sure they get watered constantly until they get used to being in the dry South.

My little dog (Loki, my long haired Chihuahua, Service Dog and fellow Gastroparesis sufferer) is doing better with the introduction of a tablespoon of Ensure twice a day in his diet. He was having a very hard shed (undercoat matting), his coat was dulling and he developed 'trembles', all indicators of malnutrition, but after a week of Ensure the trembles are gone, the matting has stopped and his coat blowing out well and it is shining like copper.

My 'trembles' on the other hand are making life a challenge... between that and the sudden muscle jerks (warning, if I hold it, it may fly across the room) I am having a hard time typing or writing (thank goodness for spell check) and sleeping has become a martial arts event (and not in a good way... sheesh, what a dirty mind!)

Tomorrow is another day... and I am hoping for a better one.