A Lifelong Issue

 I have had problems with my stomach for as long as I can remember.  At first it started with pizza.  Every time we had it for dinner when I was a child, I would get really sick in the middle of the night.  Lactose intolerance wasn’t a diagnosis when I was younger, so I just avoided pizza.  It helped but didn’t solve my stomach issues and the problem continued albeit manageable for the most part.

During my senior year of high school, my stomach issues intensified.  Although dairy was still the main problem, it got to the point that I had a hard time keeping anything down.  It was actually so bad that my mom finally asked me if I was pregnant.  Thankfully, that was not something that I needed to worry about, but that didn’t solve my problems as even the doctor wasn’t able to figure out what was causing the increase in stomach pain and nausea and in the end dismissed it as nothing.

In college the pain and nausea continued, but I chalked it up to bad eating and a lot of partying.  Once Doug and I got married, I was able to control my diet better and felt that avoiding certain foods, especially dairy and broccoli, made a huge difference.  Pregnancy was a challenging time as morning sickness never seemed to go away.  In fact, I could tell I was pregnant before I took a test because of the intense nausea that came with each child.  None of my obstetricians paid much attention to me when I mentioned that I was extremely sick and several completely ignored me when I said that I was still have morning sickness in my seventh month.  Thus, I just learned to live with it.

Fifteen years ago, I was had been manipulated into taking a terrible teaching position at the high school.  I became so sick that I couldn’t even get out of bed.  I had to quit the job and missed a lot of family events during that time period.  That was when Dr. Mulry took action.  He diagnosed me with a stomach ulcer caused by stress.  He got me samples of a medication that my insurance wouldn’t cover and helped me recover.  From that point on he never prescribed me a medication that would be hard on my stomach unless it was absolutely necessary.  I was very thankful for his medical skills.

Unfortunately, two years ago I was diagnosed with familial high cholesterol.  Diet and exercise would help with lower it, but it was going to be challenging to get the numbers down without taking medication.  My current doctor listened to my concerns about taking new medication, but felt differently than Dr. Mulry.  She wanted me to try the strongest medication available first and see how I tolerated it.  That approach helped my cholesterol but this week I was back in her office explaining about the intense pain in my stomach and my inability to each any vegetables, dairy or other hard to digest foods.  She heard me, but still prioritized cholesterol medication.  Finally, when I refused to take it, she instead gave me a prescription for my stomach and a referral to a gastroenterologist.  I left her office feeling extremely frustrated.  

After crying my heart out to Doug after the appointment, I decided that I might as well try the medication for my stomach.  I didn’t have a lot of hope, but figured that I had nothing to lose by being positive.  I have taken it for a few days.  It hasn’t solved the problem, but there are times that my stomach does not hurt as bad as it did.  I guess that’s a start.