Check out my new post on my new blog:
https://anomalyadventures.com/
Please make sure to follow the new blog on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/anomalyadventures
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Please follow my new blog at: http://www.anomalyadventures.com
New post is up: https://anomalyadventures.com/2016/09/10/therapeutic-writing/
It talks about the therapeutic value of writing and that there are some interesting topics coming.
Check out my latest post on Endometriosis Surgery and how the mental battle with Gastroparesis resurfaced.
~Millie
Hey everyone. Sorry that it has been so long since I have last written. However, I do still read all of the comments that come through and try to respond as much as I can. (Even if it is super delayed. Will you believe me if I say that the GP elves take me hostage? No? Well, it was worth a try!)
It still boggles my mind how a little blog that was made as nothing more than a creative outlet for everything I went/go through with Gastroparesis has developed such a following. There are still new likes and followers each week. I’m glad that my writings have helped so many people not feel alone.
Lately, I have been battling my Endometriosis more than my Gastroparesis. I have also really missed writing and having the creative outlet. As such, I decided to create a new blog that is a catch all of everything. There will still be Gastroparesis stories, but there will be many other things as well.
Please hop on over and check it out. http://www.anomalyadventures.com
Happy Tummies!
~Millie
Hello Everyone!
Yes, I am FINALLY making good on my word to start writing again. Gastroparesis awareness is something that I am passionate about but I admit that I needed to step away for a little while. It can get frustrating and tiring fighting and advocating for something that is so difficult for people to understand. Another reason that I stepped away for awhile was to plan my wedding! Yes, that is actually me and my husband on our wedding day in the photo posted above.
As anyone with Gastroparesis knows, there is only so much that can be accomplished at a time without a good old fashioned nap! Naps are a glorious thing for anyone, but it is even more glorious when you have a chronic illness. In fact, naps become a downright necessity. (Sorry for that tangent!) Given that we were planning a wedding and making a TON of decorations, something had to give in order for me to survive. My health has been holding up well, but when I tank, I tank HARD! I still have times where it is like someone switches a light switch off. One moment I will be fine and the next moment I can barely walk from exhaustion. Add some stress to the mix and it is a recipe for disaster.
In addition to our wedding, we also hosted a big family picnic the night before. We had A LOT of relatives traveling long distances to attend and we wanted to see them as much as possible. To be honest, the picnic was more stressful than the wedding. I had been pushing myself pretty hard in the weeks leading up to the wedding and at some point during the picnic the light switch turned off. I was exhausted, dizzy and couldn’t really eat anything. I felt like a zombie at a couple of points.
Thankfully, I made it to bed early and felt better the morning of the wedding. (I’ll admit some Zofran definitely helped!) My 2 bridesmaids and my mother really kept the vibe calm and relaxed. I’m so thankful to them and how well the understand that Gastroparesis is so random.
I will say that Gastroparesis actually played a role in making our wedding day magical. It was an outdoor wedding with the reception in a pavilion. We had yard games and s’mores planned. Shortly into the reception we were greeted with a torrential downpour. We laughed it off and kept the party going. So much of a chronic illness is, as the saying goes, learning to dance in the rain. Well, we literally danced in the rain! A chronic illness like Gastroparesis teaches you to just roll with the punches and make the best of any situation. You learn very quickly that you can let things that you can’t control dictate your mood. Only you can dictate your mood. Yeah, sure, have a moment to think “this really stinks” but then let that moment pass and remember that where there is rain you will find a rainbow!
I found the rainbow that is my husband and I hope that you find your rainbow too!
~ Millie
I haven’t written in awhile because I have taken some time to once again focus on myself. I’m beginning to find that it is important to once and awhile give yourself a time out to focus on yourself. It seems that I appreciate this even more since battling Gastroparesis.
Over the past few months, I have continued to focus on my food selections and exercising. I am happy to report that it is paying dividends, not only for my physical strength but my mental strength as well. I’m really starting to feel like I am getting my life back and am here to say that there is hope. So NEVER NEVER NEVER GIVE UP!
Over the past few months I have taken time to reflect on where I am now and compare that to where I was last year (especially last spring). I can’t even believe the differences. In fact, you probably wouldn’t even know I was the same person. I feel like I’m being given a second chance in life and intend to make the most of it. Part of that includes letting everyone with Gastroparesis know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. It takes A LOT of trial and error. A LOT of hard work. A LOT of NEVER NEVER NEVER GIVING UP! But I am living proof that it CAN get better.
Yesterday, I ran a 5K with my best time since high school. I’ve also been focusing on strength training, and today I was able to deadlift 135 pounds. So it is possible to come back from Gastroparesis. Yes, I still have bad days but the bad days are getting fewer and farther between.
I’ve also started to become at peace with how some people chose to treat me while I was at death’s door. They are the people who have to live life treating people that way and saying the types of things they said. I am only torturing myself more by hanging on to the hurt. I finally realized that letting go of the hurt is not letting them off the hook but freeing myself from the last bit of pain that they have caused me. Good riddance to them and am happy to now have myself surrounded by people who survived the storm with me because if they can help me through the horror days of when Gastroparesis was at its worst then they can help me through anything.
So keep your chin up and keep fighting, because there are better days ahead!
Also, stay tuned. This time away has developed some ideas brewing in my head, I just have to figure out how to implement them.
Love you all and thanks for following this blog, even though I took another hiatus!
~Millie
So you hear all these things about these amazing super foods that are so great for you. Which for a “normal” person is probably true, but when you have Gastroparesis you have no idea what you are getting yourself into. One of the super foods that we keep hearing so much about is avocado.
Well a few weeks ago, on my adventure to becoming gluten and refined sugar free, I found a great recipe for buffalo shrimp with a side of avocado. I have had all of the ingredients of the buffalo shrimp before and knew that it would be safe. THANKFULLY I can still have hot sauce. I really don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t have my hot sauce. I’ve given up coffee, sugary treats, bread, pasta so I think I can keep at least one thing! The shrimp is also okay, but not something I would eat all the time. It’s a nice change up about once per month as a special little treat. So the only untested item on the menu was the avocado. (Insert an ominous piano sound from a cheesy movie.)
Normally I am extremely diligent at researching the nutritious facts of everything that I eat to look for warning signs. However, the avocado is a super food and a fruit so it should be fine. For whatever reason, the fat content never even crossed my mind. Let me just say that thank goodness I only ate two small slices (probably no more than a quarter cup). Within five minutes, I experienced the worst stomach cramping of my life. Having Gastroparesis means that I have experienced my fair share of stomach cramps, so these being the worst is saying something. I couldn’t even stand up straight. I immediately said that we are going to the Emergency Room now. Usually I spend half the night writhing in pain before I admit that I need to go to the Emergency Room. Not this time. I wanted to get there ASAP.
This is where I need to derail from the avocado situation and discuss my experience in the Emergency Room waiting room. Waiting rooms are always an interesting experience, but I have never wanted to vomit on someone so bad in all my life (with the exception of my third grade teacher but that is a story for another day). My fiance and I are in the waiting room. I am in yoga pants, an old shirt, slippers, glasses, uncombed hair in a ponytail, doubled over in pain in the ever so comfortable chair. I am also constantly getting up to excuse myself to the restroom to vomit. The older woman (about 60ish) across from us was dressed to the nines along with her husband who was also dressed quite nicely for being in an ER at 9 pm on a Thursday. This woman kept looking at me as if I was a drug addict going through the detox shakes. After one of my trips to the restroom, she rolled her eyes, gave me a disgusted look, and turned sideways in her seat so that she wouldn’t have to look at me. HELLO?! Sorry that I didn’t get the memo to wear my Sunday finest to the ER while I am vomiting and feel like my stomach is going through a ringer washing machine! She was so rude that I seriously contemplated vomiting on her fancy boots, but I really needed to see a doctor an couldn’t get thrown out.
Now…back to the avocado. I kept my fiesty Irish roots in check and was eventually taken back to a room. Thankfully the doctors in this ER are familiar with Gastroparesis, so I didn’t have to go through the hour explanation of what it is. The doctor recommended some morphine and nausea medicine and an IV of fluids. Believe it or not, the morphine did absolutely nothing for the pain that these two slices of avocado were inflicting on me. All it did was make me ask for my dog and ask where she was. My poor fiance was sitting in what appeared to be the most uncomfortable hospital chair of all time and I was asking for my dog! (On another side note, we had to ask for a chair for him since there wasn’t one in the room. He was initially standing for awhile.) Eventually the doctor ordered some special medicine for me for muscle spasms. It had to be delivered to the Emergency Room so that took quite awhile, but it worked.
So after about 4 hours in the Emergency Room, we were on hour way home. And now every time I see or hear about avocados, this is what I see:
Avocados might be a super food for most but it is super pain for me!
~Millie
