Uhggg...

I feel like crap. Seriously, terribly, horribly, crappy. I called the doctor's office at 10:30am and they said to stop taking my medicine until they got to talk to the doctor. I also asked them to see if he would call in some anti-nausea medicine.

Fast forward to a few minutes ago: I still hadn't heard from the doctor after 3 hours so I called back. Apparently he's in surgery/procedures until like 5:00! Giant piece of crap!!!!! So I get to be ridiculously sick all day. Stupid freaking.... at least my mom has some pull with doctors in Sandusky. She got someone to call in some nausea meds for me... hopefully I'll be feeling a little better soon....

The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.

The above quote is by G.K. Chesterton.

Well, the test results are in and lucky me... I have delayed gastric emptying or Gastroparesis. If you don't know what that is, check out my description in this old post so I don't have to repeat it for everyone else.

The doctor still has no clue WHY my stomach hates me, but it does. He's ordering some blood tests (which if you know me, you know I'm NOT happy about) to try to figure it out. It could be diabetes, a medication I'm taking, or it could have been a particularly evil flu bug. At least they know what I have now right? That means they can treat it right?

Well, yes and no. It's good that they know what I have and they can kinda treat it.... there's really no good treatment for it though and there is no cure. The doctor has prescribed a medication called Reglan for me. I take it 4 times a day- once before each meal and again before bed. It's supposed to speed up my stomach, keep me from refluxing, and decrease nausea. Sounds great! They left this part out:

"a withdrawal reaction (e.g., dizziness, nervousness, headaches) may occur if you suddenly stop this drug."

OK, so I don't stop taking it.... but then there's this:

"Metoclopramide can have nervous system side effects, such as depression, anxiety, sedation, restlessness, and insomnia."

Hmm... disturbing but who says everyone gets these side effects? I'll be fine right? Not according to the 100+ people at www.askapatient.com who gave it an average score of 1.5 out of 5. Here are some of their self-written side effect lists and stories:

"After being on Reglan for 3 years, I experienced severe (suicidal) depression, bloating, edema, weight gain, prolactinemia (extremely high prolactin blood levels which caused my dr. to tell me I had a brain tumor & caused my ovaries to shut down, throwing me into premature menopause at the age of 34!! After going off Reglan, my prolactin levels went back to normal, but my reproductive system was shot!"

"Severe depression suddenly out of the blue. Very suidical,tired yet too jittery and shaky to sleep. Parkinson like symptoms even 3 days after I stopped taking this drug."

"I am generally a happy person but this drug caused severe DEPRESSION. Nothing made me happy even though intelectually I knew I should be happy I was not. Also it caused me to be apathetic."

"complete mental breakdown from nervousness and depression-had to be hospitalized-never have experienced anything like that in my life-was put on zoloft 6 mths to get brain chemistry corrected"

"I would not recomment this medication to anyone for any reason."

OK, So now I'm scared. There were seriously like 2-3 people who gave this drug a score above 2 and even those reviews weren't glowing. I guess I have to decide whether or not this is even worth trying. There is a medication (domperidone) available in Canada that is supposed to work really well and NOT have the side effects... but of course it's not FDA approved so I won't be under a doctor's guidance if I take it.

So now I'm sick, scared, frustrated, and annoyed. There appears to be no end in sight.