- Share This Post
- submit
- 36
-
Sparkle (0)
I bought one of these 7-day pill boxes today...and felt like the oldest 34-year old in history.
Then I came home and proceeded to fill it up, and felt 50 times older.
This is my life right now. 12 pills a day, not including those I only take 'when symptoms' arise or vitamins.
12 pills every. single. day.
Am I feeling better? Yes. Am I feeling like myself? No.
I'm feeling medicated and a ghost of me. A foggy ghost. After 5 days in the hospital and what felt like 300 tests, the doctors are finally in some agreement as to what's wrong with my body.
Gastroparesis.
Diverticulosis.
Gall stones.
Severe reflux.
Those are the big ones. There some other little minor things but those are the answers to the million dollar, tubes up both ends of me, nuclear sandwich eating, xray'd until I glowed, questions.
So what are we doing for my broken belly? Medication. Tons and tons of medication. They tell me it will be temporary. They tell me I should be popping these pills for 8-12 months. They tell me this all can be fixed. Maybe.
Right now I'm too foggy to care. But at least I have my handy dandy pill holder to remind me. And my brand newly downloaded iPhone pill app. Alarms are set to remind me to take my meds. They go off 4 times a day. They make my life easier but they also make me want to cry.
But I refuse to cry. REFUSE. So instead what do I do? I get this 34-year old body a brand new tattoo and I threw a kegger at my house. I'm also plotting a trip to Vegas for my birthday if you'd like to come along.
Admittedly there are others out there coping with their issues much more constructively than myself.
@thatwoman tweets "National Invisible Chronic Illness Week! If you have one-blog it so we can all learn." She also has some great resources over at her Tummy Troubles blog.
JoAllison writes about her gastroparesis diagnosis as well, and blogs about the foods she can and can not tolerate:
I've largely been okay physically in this month that I haven't posted. I had about 4 days of a bad time (GERD breakthrough, bloating, constipation, pain, general yuckiness) but I went back on a liquid & yogurt/pudding/ pureed soup diet for about a week & increased the mirilax and it went away, thank the Lord.
Over at "The Road I'm On" there is a comprehensive overview of gastroparesis and all it entails.
Me? I tweeted about my party, because it took my mind off what that ONE beer I had would do to my stomach. Like I said, not nearly as constructive.
But there goes my phone alarm. Telling me it's time to wrap up this post, and take two more pills. All part of my new life as someone with a chronic illness.
Contributing editor Erin Kotecki Vest also blogs at Queen of Spain blog, where she dreams of drinking beer and eating fried foods while debating politics with friends.
