What is it, and symptoms?

I have a chronic illness that is called Gastroparesis. This is an illness where the stomach is partially paralyzed, resulting in it not being able to properly digest and send food to my intestine.

This can so lead to manny different symptoms like nausea, vomiting (especially un digested food you ate hours earlier), acid reflux, weight loss, mal nutrition, changing blood sugar levels, abdominal pain, bloating, lack of appetite and feeling very easily full after eating.

Cause?

The most common cause to gastroparesis is if you are diabetes. But tings like abdominal surgery, infections, medications, certain diseases, and autoimmune illnesses can cause you to get gastroparesis.

Severity

You can have mild, moderate and severe gastroparesis, this is determined by how paralyzed your stomach is.

Most people fall inn under mild gastroparesis, and manny will then not even know they have gastroparesis because they don't really experience symptoms. But if they do experience some symptoms, they will usually be able to live completely “normal” with just cutting out certain foods and maybe take a mild medication.

The next is moderate Gastroparesis. Her do people usually experience more symptoms, and manny needs to get a feeding tube placed at som point.

The last is severe Gastroparesis, and here are more intensive measures needed. Some people even need to remove their stomach completely.

Statistic

Gastroparesis is not very common and affects a round 1.8% of the world population, where most people have a milder case. It is also more normal for grown woman to develop gastroparesis than for men or younger girls/women.

That being said, symptoms similar to Gastroparesis are very common and occur in at least ¼ people. This could be symptoms like bloating, acid reflux, lack of appetite etc.

Treatment

When it comes to treatment will this varies based on the severity. But the most common is diet change. The diet can for some be to cut out vine and fast food, and for others to only live on a liquid diet. Movement is an other normal treatment. When you moove your body, you automatically help stimulate the stomach, wich will help the gastro emptying.

There is also lots of different types of medication which can help, for eksampel if you have lots of nausea or acid reflux.

Feeding tubes is often used if the person struggle with getting enough food and the right nutrition. The feeding tube will then be placed to the intestine. This way will not your stomach have to work in order for you to get nutrition.

Surgery is also a type of treatment. This can be as “low invasive” as getting a surgical feeding tube placed, as invasive as removing the entire stomach.

Living with gastroparesis

Gastroparesis is a chronicle illness, meaning you will have to find a way to live with it since you are “stuck” with it for the rest of your life. What your life would look like varies based on the severity. People with mild Gastroparesis normally live a totally “normal” life, but moderate and severe gastroparesis usually have to take in to account, and adjust their life more according to their illness. That being said, with lots of trial and error and hard work, can manny live great lives. But Gastroparesis is a handicap and you need to take care of your health and alway put that first.

Lastly, is gastroparesis deadly? This is a question manny ask, and the answer is yes and no. Gastroparesis as not directly deadly, but the symptoms you get can lead to complications which can lead to death. For eksampel, if you are severely underweight because you can’t get enough nutrition due to Gastroparesis, this can then lead to organ failure and then death. It is therefore super important that you always puts your health first and listen to your body.

This is just an short, general and easy overview of gastroparesis, so if you find it interesting, can you find lots of more information on different helt sites like Majo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, NHS and NIH.