"The Stress and Anxiety that comes with gastro issues"
I've been suffering from gastro issues for over a year now. It started with acid reflux (troublesome but bearable). Then came the difficultly to swallow. Food would get stuck in my throat whenever I tried to eat, water wouldn't clear it and it would cause a lot of pain until eventually the food slowly went down. The same started to happen with liquids then even my own saliva! Before I knew it I couldn't eat or drink anything without it getting stuck or 'choking' on it. I had to adapt to drinking every drink through a straw with tiny sips at a time.
As soon as this started I went to my GP, concerned knowing something wasn't right but she wouldn't refer me to see anyone as I wasn't loosing any weight. It wasn't until 4 months later when I began rapidly loosing weight that she referred me to a Dietician and a Gastroenterologist.
I saw the Dietician pretty quickly (probably about two weeks later) who decided to prescribe me nutritional supplement shakes. They tasted nice but they didn't help as I was still loosing weight so they introduced an extra supplement- which unfortunately still didn't work and I continued to loose weight.
I finally saw the Gastroenterologist about 3 months after my referral who decided to run several tests including a barium swallow, endoscopy, gastric emptying study, 24 hour PH monitoring study and more but all have come back negative apart from showing acid reflux (which we already knew).
Over the months that it's taken to complete these tests and recieve the results my initial symptoms have worsened and I've developed more symptoms but we're still no closer to finding out exactly what is wrong. I'm still loosing weight so I'm significantly under weight now.
All of this has had a profound affect on my mental health in ways I'd never imagined. I constantly feel stressed and my anxiety is worse than it's ever been. Food and nutrition is constantly on my mind, forever planning the next "meal" and calorie counting to see if I'm meeting my Dietician's target (which I rarely can). This never ending "noise" inside of your head is exhausting and certainly starts to wear you after a while.
However I've found comfort in those who are going through similar situations, people who understand, people I can talk to about the seemly never ending grind. They give me hope for a better future. Having Bravery Bottles in my life has also helped me cope, giving me a way to reward myself and acknowledge my achievements and victories over those small battles which otherwise would go unnoticed.
