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Imagine you are nausea, vomiting, and have stomach cramping. No you don't a stomach bug, this is your daily life causing malnutrition, dehydration and weight loss. You can not take a bite of food or a sip of liquid without getting horribly sick. You have to get your nutrition from artificial means like a PICC line to receive TPN nutrition. PICC line – Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter. TPN – Total Parenteral Nutrition. So imagine again you feel like crap and now you need to be hooked up to and carry around a sort of IV for ten hours a day. I say sort of because it is actually a catheter, a long slender tube inserted in your arm, usually, and runs up into a large vein in your chest near you heart. We won't go into the anxiety over the risk of infection associated with PICC lines.
You are one of the estimated 5 million people in the U.S. with Gastroparesis and Chronic Intestinal Pseudo-Obtruction. And to your dismay these conditions are not understood and not recognize to many doctors. Causing misdiagnosis and drastic deterioration of many patients. Then you come to find out the FDA has greatly ignore these conditions. There are limited medications and what works for one does not work for all. The medications that are available are more so for symptom control then the underlying condition and making the stomach digest food again. Frustrating, isn't it? I am not one of these estimates 5 million but I know one who is and want to raise awareness because as I said before this condition does not get a lot of press. Have you heard of it? You have now.
Thank you for imagining
Be aware
Have I told you lately how lucky I am to have you as my friend...well, this is just another reason why I am blessed by your friendship. Thank you for continuing to help in the fight to raise awareness, it means more than you would ever know - not only for me but for the 4,999,999 others out there too.
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