Monday, August 28, 2017

Starting NEW Treatments for POTS?

Well I didn't really have nutrition issues (GO ME!! 🙌) turned out I was/am in an autoimmune flare up. I have multiple autoimmune conditions. (Meaning my immune system attacks my body. Commonly known of autoimmune diseases would be, "Lupus" or "Rheumatoid Arthritis". Just to name a few for examples.) So, Dysautonomia International released in July that they were having good results with IVIG therapy in POTS patients that also had Sjögren's Syndrome. I have both... So Neurology cleared me and we are starting IVIG therapy. I am a candidate. Though we don't know if it will help The Dysautonomia... It has been sent through Home Heath and I will infuse through my port. Rheumatology felt this treatment will help ALL my autoimmune conditions across the board and make me feel better. (So ya gotta help something! Fingers crossed) There are no guarantees obviously but we have to try! For now the time being... since my Sjögren's seems so severe, they are putting me back on my old Immuno suppression pills, Imuran. They worked before and we only stoped them because some random lazy hospitalist didn't know what to do with me when I had unresolved fevers for over a month, with no conclusion as to why I fevered. (Rheumatologist was livid they never called him in while I was at his hospital and several more hospitals later for that matter. I simply was "crazy" yes they tried sticking me in a psych ward because I had fevers that didn't have answers. So we missed valuable testing time then and basically my doctors decided to see what happened with stopping my Immuno suppression and it's biting me in the butt now. (A year later) My body has had time to attack itself again.) During Rheumatology appointment I was complaining my lungs felt dry and found out my "medication side effects" (making me feel like I was suffocating.) is actually a symptom of Sjögren's. This is because my lungs are dry. Yes dry. I'm okay but it's not comfortable for sure. Luckily it varies up and down on severity. So I am back on those "poison pills" as I have always called them for now. Right as flu season hits. That makes me SO nervous. Because now I am medically fragile. My immune system is being wiped out so it doesn't attack my body but that also means I will get sick at the drop of the hat with any virus. I already get secondary infections from steroids that I use. To top that off any sort of bodily trauma especially a virus can set my Dysatuonomia off and make me severely worse. Even permanently. So please, I am begging if you are sick or have been around someone sick (contagious or possibly) no offense but STAY AWAY from me! It's serious. But I will choose faith. And just keep trying. (I have hopes the IVIG once started works well and then I can go off Immuno suppression medication. We will see.) I also had a lovely skin cancer removed last week that I never would have guessed! I went in for one thing and left with another (my luck) So get your skin checks even in your twenties because it actually does happen! Not just to medically interesting folks like me... And I am fortunate and blessed I went in and it was caught. Now I can keep an eye on things. It's melanoma related. But not a melanoma. And I am now high risk of developing melanoma in the future. It is called a complex nevus. But luckily I can keep an eye on things and just take good care of everything! That's my lovely health update. I have some exciting health improvement news I hope to share at the end of the week but I think I'll keep it a secret for today! One day at a time. Literally Lovies -Chelle 

Monday, August 14, 2017

Eating tips with Gastroparesis

I just wanted to share some eating with Gastroparesis tips. I just really stumbled upon and I think are super helpful for me today. Maybe someone else can use them 😊 (all out of the book "Living (Well!) with Gastroparesis" by, Crystal Zarborowski Salterlli CHC) I love her books! She is a nutritionist who has Gastroparesis herself. Seriously she taught me to eat again with GP.... Now I have noticed a huge decrease in function lately. I am tired all the time, Sleeping 12 plus hours per day, I'm peeing more, I know I am incredibly moody, I keep having spells of feeling in a funky spaced out world, and it's like my brain isn't even working. So of course my first thought, "Why & when did I feel this way last?" When I was struggling with anemia back in January or so. (When I was weening off formula). Well I have been studying up on my GP nutrition and diet. I have a lot of things I notice now that I need to work on. I'm doing well but as most with GP it's a constant battle to get a balanced diet. I'm not so sure I'm anemic but I think I am not getting my good fatty omegas in. Aka your fatty acids. We need them! Signs of deficiency according to my handy dandy GP book is " excessive thirst, frequent urination, dry hair, & skin." -pg 85. (I have recently developed every single one of these symptoms. I mean I've been whinning over being so thirsty. I'm so glad I popped this book out today.) and I don't eat any of the foods that have the Omegas in them. (So I've got to fix this). I am always hungry even when I am full. Even sickly full! (Well I knew this one but forgot). You absorb your nutrition in the small intestine. So if you have GP and you are Starving even when eating or after eating.... Have a little bit of fruit juice! It will absorb faster and seep down in to give your blood sugar a kick up and make your body quit signaling that it is starving. (While the other food is taking its own sweet time as we know sitting in that tummy not absorbing at a normal pace. Which is why the body tells you to eat is the food isn't going down and being absorbed. This leaves me hungry and full at the same time. Stinking belly!) I definitely am dipping low blood sugar despite eating regularly.  Funny before I got this book out last week, I was up all night eating junky foods. I was just hungry as a hippo. And I ate crap food because it was late and I didn't care to be honest. Quick and easy. We know the double edge sword with GP... junk foods are the easiest to digest but are empty calories. They don't offer nutrition. (I also thought, "my nutrition must be great I gained a few pounds the past two weeks." But that's probably all empty junky food calories. So weight gain isn't a good nutritional measure in this case... Also I said it in the past. I will say it again. Weight does not measure your nutrition!) I started having juice since I was incredibly thristy and I quit eating late at night. So it goes to show how tricky eating and living with GP really can be. It's a mind game. I thought I was so stressed but now that I am putting the puzzle together... I was and am actually struggling to get a good rounded diet with a paralyzed stomach and it's effecting my body. Some thing all Gastroparesis sufferers live with. Even when we can eat by mouth there are complications. (See we are all #starvingforacure it's not just a catch phrase.)  So I am not calorie counting or freaking out but I will be monitoring my daily intake of omegas, proteins, & I realized my formula had vitamin K and my Orgain doesn't have vitamin K (only  big nutritional difference between them.) I also do not eat greens because use I can not break them down. I also started last week setting alarms because as I tend to get side tracked or busy. I forget to eat. That could be from being tube fed for so long... Just something I never had to think of I hooked up to feeds once a day and that was I. So even still I am constantly learning to stop and eat. And I think the alarms will help my body get a proper schedule. So I will just work on these goals and see. I know living with Gastroparesis is work and confusing. I know how stressful eating with GP is! But my advice is to listen to your body. It will tell you when something is wrong. (Mine has really been telling me that something is off.) Then think it through. Then simply do the best you can and seek medical help If needed. That's what they are for! (That's where I was headed before my studies.) I do highly suggest this book! It's full of information  and explains not just GP itself...  but how to eat, what is good trial foods, recipes, & it explains the nutritional end. Which seriously no one had ever explained these things to me like this book. And I had been living with GP for years and thought I knew all there was to know. Go check her out!http://livingwithgastroparesis.com/  It's been so helpful to me. And I loved being able to pull it out to check on a few things that I was suspicious of!  -Chelle