Two weeks ago I travelled almost 700 kilometers for an appointment to see my GI specialist who specializes in gastroparesis. Dr. Andrews is an Amazing doctor and I highly recommend him! He is easy to talk to and very caring, he is sincere and genuinely concerned, he answers every question and gives his honest opinion on what's best for me. I trust my health in his hands!
I had sent Dr. Andrews a medical report to fill out a few weeks before the appointment so he had it ready when I saw him. The medical report was for a federal disability program here in Canada. He gave a lot of information on my case and on how Gastroparesis effects my everyday life. He included all the paperwork from my last few hospital stays, which was a ton of paperwork due to my 4 1/2 month long hospital stay. He also included blood work results. With the medical report and my part of the application, it turned out to be a lot of information on gastroparesis, so hopefully I am approved and that it doesn't take too long to find out...I'll keep you all posted :)
I got Dr. Andrews to write up a new and updated Care Plan for me for when I go into the ER and/or hospital. It's a guideline for the doctors to follow on how to treat my Diabetic GP, what medications to give, how much and how often. It helps A LOT because so many doctors have no clue about GP and how to treat it. More often then not I am having to teach the doctors and nurses about GP. I have two care plans, one from Dr. Andrews now and one from my Endocrinologist. The one from my endo has info on what to do if my sugars are low and I am unable to keep anything down to bring it back up. She states that I am not to have any juice because the acidity can make the nausea worse, which it does. I am to have glucose tabs (they dissolve in my mouth) or if those don't work I am to get an injection with dextrose to bring the sugars up. She also has on my care plan to give pain medication subcutaneously because getting an IV is extremely difficult, it can take hours, and if they do get one it doesn't last long. Getting it subcutaneously I can get the medication immediately. Plus subcutaneous injections last longer then getting the pain medication through an IV. My endocrinologist has a lot of pull at the hospital I usually go to, so having a care plan from her usually gets things done properly and efficiently. But also having one from Dr. Andrews, the GP specialist will also help especially at other hospitals. Having two is definitely not a bad thing and it can only help! It really helps ease the stress of going into the ER and not knowing what doctor I am going to get and if they will give me the proper medication and doses or not.
Dr. Andrews was overall happy with my current medications. Both him and my family doctor agreed that I should not take Busopan (an anti-spasmatic medication that relaxes the muscles in the stomach and it is used for nausea and vomiting) along with Domparidone because Domparidone is a motility medication that gets the muscles in the stomach moving so basically both medications cancel each other out. I obviously want the stomach to move so discontinuing the Busopan I am on board with. I was only on the Buscopan daily for 3-4 months so we'll see if things start moving a bit faster being off of it. I am also lowering my dosages of Cesamet (Nabilone) and Zofran (Ondansetron) as my nausea decreases.
I asked when is the best time to get a feeding tube? I was unable to eat for over 5 months this past winter and was on TPN (total parental nutrition) for about 5 weeks total. There were talks about getting a feeding tube placed but I didn't want to get it done without Dr. Andrews opinion. Unfortunately he was out of the country at the time and was unavailable. I didn't want to get it done without his opinion and the GI doctor I had at the time looking after my case, was reluctant to proceed with the feeding tube when Dr. Andrews was gone. Now that he is back I got his opinion and he suggests that if I go through an episode like I did this winter then I should get a j-tube placed instead of getting TPN through a picc line. TPN has a lot of risk of infection compared to a j-tube and getting nutrients through a j-tube, which goes directly into the small intestine, is a more natural way of receiving nutrition versus getting it through a picc line that goes through your veins. The small intestine absorbs the nutrients more effectively rather than through the blood stream. I am and always have been afraid of getting a feeding tube but if it's safer than TPN and I am going through an episode like that again, then I am on board with that decision, as scary as it may be! :)
I asked about getting another Gastric Emptying Study done to maybe see any improvements in my digestion times even though I am doing good now compared to my last one 5 years ago while I was sick so I imagine going through an episode versus not will make a difference in the results. Dr.Andrews said that we already know I have Gastroparesis so there's really no new information we can learn from doing another one. When I was at the Mayo Clinic in 2008, they recommended I get a nerve test done annually to check for more nerve damage throughout my body. I have never had one done and it's 5 years later, so I asked about getting one done and I got the same answer, we already know I have nerve damage and we probably won't learn anything new. Plus it's a pretty costly test.
All in all it was a very good appointment! The next one will be a conference call so I won't have to drive 7 hours to see him...so happy about that as travelling can be very difficult depending on how I am feeling :)
Hope everyone's having a good tummy day! :)
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