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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    United States
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    2

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    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

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    United States
    Posts
    1,977

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    It sounds to me that your son does suffer from emetophobia. Some of the things you mentioned are "classic signs" The gum, his care package he brings with him. Eating out is a big thing. I'm better with it now but I would never go out to eat and if I did I would bring my food home to eat. The reason I did this was just in case I was going to vomit I would be home if it happened.
    The big thing you said that stuck out to me was him allways having to sit on the end of an isle. I allways do this. If not I feel trapped. And the trapped feeling makes me nervous then paniced. I think to my self what if I need to vomit and I cant get up. I allways like to sit near a door or a bathroom, just in case.
    All these things sound like stuff that I do.
    Have you looked at the list that is posted on this site with all the common rituals and stuff of emets? I think that also may be helpfull for you. I think it really awsome that you are concerned about your son and trying to understand how he is feeling. I wish when I was younger my Mom would have been more supportive of it. She would just tell me to get over it and that no one likes to vomit. And that was not at all helpfull.

    And by the way I LOVE that head on stuff!!! I use it often. It helps my headaches and I feel like the minty smell of it helps settle my stomach.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    United States
    Posts
    2

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    Quote Originally Posted by kellybeth
    It sounds to me that your son does
    suffer from emetophobia. Some of the things you mentioned
    are "classic signs" The gum, his care package he brings
    with him. Eating out is a big thing. I'm better with it
    now but I would never go out to eat and if I did I would
    bring my food home to eat. The reason I did this was just
    in case I was going to vomit I would be home if it
    happened.
    The big thing you said that stuck out to me was him
    allways having to sit on the end of an isle. I allways do
    this. If not I feel trapped. And the trapped feeling
    makes me nervous then paniced. I think to my self what if
    I need to vomit and I cant get up. I allways like to sit
    near a door or a bathroom, just in case.
    All these things sound like stuff that I do.
    Have you looked at the list that is posted on this site
    with all the common rituals and stuff of emets? I think
    that also may be helpfull for you. I think it really
    awsome that you are concerned about your son and trying
    to understand how he is feeling. I wish when I was
    younger my Mom would have been more supportive of it. She
    would just tell me to get over it and that no one likes
    to vomit. And that was not at all helpfull.

    And by the way I LOVE that head on stuff!!! I use it
    often. It helps my headaches and I feel like the minty
    smell of it helps settle my stomach.
    Well, I printed out the extremely long list of the
    different rituals and things some emets do. I'm going to
    show it to him (it's like 17 pages long!! lol).
    I can kind of understand how he feels in some ways. I
    deal some with stomach issues. I don't have a gall
    bladder and sometimes certain foods just don't sit well.
    So when we go out to eat, I try not to eat a whole lot
    and will take some of my food home. I can't eat when we
    are traveling. If I do, about 15 minutes after we are
    back on the road I'm needing a bathroom because it's like
    the food goes right through me. I also like sitting on or
    at least near the end of an aisle at the movies or
    someplace.
    I still don't know if he may still deal with acid reflux
    or something. He still deals with feeling nauseated
    sometimes after eating. I do know that anxiety makes it
    worse.
    I'm trying to decide if it would be good for him to talk
    to someone. I don't think his is very severe, but I don't
    want it to get any worse.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    United States
    Posts
    795

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    it does sound like he has the early onset of emetophobia, which will probably triggered by some underlying medical condition. I'd highly recommend therapy at this point to nip it in the bud before it gets any worse. Trust this from someone who's suffered 14 years (I'm 20 now)... the older you get the harder it is to get rid of.

 

 

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