Adventures with Gastroparesis

The two items above should NEVER occur within the same week!  But it happens and it happened this week.  My Gastroparesis is NOT happy with it and is proving a point.  Stomach cramping, vomiting, fatigue, the whole nine yards of exciting GP fun paid me a visit this week.  Needless to say it was not a fun week and I am hoping beyond hope that the weather has chosen a season & temperature to stick with.  (I’m hoping for fall because it is my favorite!)

I know of others with Gastroparesis that have exceptional flair ups when the weather changes, so I think that there is something to it.  I think that there must be some type of connection.  Someone once told me that it has to do with the barometric pressure and how that pressure affects our internal organs.  I really have no idea if this is true or not, but it seems as good of answer as any.

As I rotated between the bathroom and laying with my heating pad, I had so many different thoughts going through my head.  “Why is this happening to me again, I thought that I was on a good path?”  “Why did some of my ‘friends’ disappear and say hurtful things when I got so sick?”  “Why do people not understand that this is serious & I’m not just being a whiny wimp?” “Why…Why…Why…Why…?”

Then it dawned on my that asking all of these negative questions was not helping matters.  So I wiped my eyes, turned up my heating pad, got doggie kisses from my faithful nurse (aka my doggie Leela) and decided I would focus on the positive.  I started to tell myself “You haven’t had a flair up this bad in months, the changes you have made in your life  are working.”  “Look at all of the amazing friends who have stuck by you & check on you.”  “Look at the amazing man in your life who would do anything to help you.”  “Look at the positivity that you are giving the GP community with a blog that you didn’t think anyone would read.”  “Look at the Personal Best in a Half Marathon earlier this year.”  “Look at the fact that you were able to even complete a half marathon.”  “Look at the fact that you did two half marathons.”  Then I started to turn around.  I started to feel better and more mentally tough.  I started to get my fight back.  I started to say…take that GP…I WILL get off the couch today and I WILL get something done.

As I have said numerous times on this blog, I feel the most important thing during a Gastroparesis flair is to set a goal (no matter how small) and to accomplish it.  Then say…Take that Gastroparesis!  You may have won the battler, but you will NOT win the war!!  So I set a goal of loading the dishwasher (there were all of 5 dishes in the sink) and I did it.  This of course required a nap, but I went to sleep knowing that I did something and the day wasn’t an entire waste!

No matter how good we are doing, Gastroparesis always seems a way to find us.  However, it is so important to focus on anything positive and try hard not to fall into a negative loop!  Of course, this is easier said than done, but it is important to train your brain to make the shift.  It doesn’t come natural and will take some training, but I promise if you work at it that you can retrain your brain!

~Millie