This may turn out to be pretty long, but will try to
shorten as much as possible.
My 15 year old son, has been having stomach issues for a
little over a year now. It mainly started at the
beginning of last school year (2008). Took him to the
doctor, was told he had acid reflux and put on medicine.
Didn't seem to help much and after awhile took him back
to the doctor. Was put on a different medicine- again,
didn't seem to help a whole lot. He missed a lot of
school because of his stomach being upset and also
headaches. By May, we ended up withdrawing him from
school because they said if we did, it would be better
than F's being on his records.
Beginning in June, he started feeling worse. He had
nausea daily, sometimes very severe. Oh, and from January
to June/July, he lost 60 pounds. (He was overweight, so
losing it was not really a bad thing). He never threw up-
just had the nausea. He told me a couple times he didn't
want to throw up- that he had a fear of doing it.
Finally, in July, he had an endoscopy done. The doctor
said he had gastroparesis, which is where your stomach
muscles do not work correctly. I read a lot on the
internet about it and it scared me. It is not a life
threatening condition, but can be very life-changing. You
have to be careful what you eat, and many people who have
it do get sick about everytime they eat. Thankfully,
again, he never did.
He was put on erythromycin, which was supposed to make
his stomach muscles contract. We also tried a few
different herbs that are supposed to be good for the
stomach. For awhile, things just didn't seem to get much
better. For probably about two months, he would not go
anywhere, and was dealing with depression.
I finally found him a different doctor (I haven't cared
for our family doctor for awhile). This doctor ordered
all kinds of tests and asked lots of questions. A stomach
emptying test was done- which came back normal. We went
to Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis and they did
another stomach emptying test, which also came back
normal. His doctor there and also his regular doctor both
questioned whether gastroparesis was a correct diagnosis.
They have ruled that out, and right now we're on waiting
to see if he continues to feel better.
Which he has- for the past couple months he has
continually gotten better. He is back to eating almost
normally (for awhile he lived on saltines, boost, water,
sprite, yogurt and sometimes a little chicken). He is
back to going places like he used to. When he first
started going places again, I always had to take him. He
felt most comfortable with me and wanted me to drive him
places (like youth group) in case he wanted to go home.
These are some of the things he does now:
1. He always takes his huge baggie of stuff with him-
tums, water, sprite, head on- he never leaves the house
without it!
2. He is addicted to chewing gum. He goes through so much
of it! He started chewing gum because we had read that it
helps digest food- so now he chews it almost constantly.
3. He washes his hands a lot. He does not want to get
sick!
4. If he gets to feeling bad or if he has just eaten,
he'll go outside and walk around. He feels better
outside.
5. He wont' eat out at a restaurant. He has finally
started going with us again to restaurants, but he will
take the food home and eat it at home.
6. A couple weekends ago we went to a youth convention. I
drove separately in case he got to feeling bad I could
take him home. If was from Friday evening till Sunday
about noon. He ended up going home on Saturday evening
(my husband came and got him). He had a headache, an