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From: tom@dunnavant.com
My first incident was in 1975, soon followed by brain scan, tread mill ect... and for the next ten years they occured once or twice a year.
By the time i was 15, i began to notice expecturant vomiting... often three to four hours after eating... many trips to doctors and speciallist usally were followed by blank stares from the doctors and staff. More than one heart doc told me to get out of his office because, having run 12 mintues on the tread mill produced on results, and i was wasting their time.
But the vomiting incidents got worse... often 50 or more times per day. After a while, i got used to them and the incidents were usually no more than a spoon full. Oddly, it seemed my stomach would find small hard unchewed pieces of ... lets say Ham Rind, or instance and i would spit that up....and i noticed drinking a frozen alcohol drink would surely bring on the vvs thing.
Then, one day while having a upper GI, the radiologist took an odd picture. And my gastro guy said i had an "Organic Axial Volulusm" in other words my stomach (the organ) was twisting (volulusm) on its axis. After a round of drugs that didnt help and caused some wierd side effects like preventing me from sweating, finally they decided to operate... (hey... i am having a mini episoed right now).
Via laproscoep, they did a stomach pecist... they tacked my stomach to the virtical muscles in my stomach and also did a toupe on my hyianal hernia at the same time. After the surgury, i had to learn to swallow again, the vomiting was ended completely.... i can no longer burp or vomit, and the bad episods have almost ended unless....
I drink beer, that causes pressure to build in my stomach and then here comes a vvs, or i drink even one good swallow of a frozen margaretts... seems it is the Cold, Citrus and Alcohol combination that triggers the large events i get now.
Except for the embarassment my wife gets when they occur, and the change of clothes i need to do due to the excessive sweating, i have learned to live with the problem and now, stay completely away from alcohol. Instead i drink gallons of tea... and am the DDriver for all social functions with my friends.
Yes, i have had secondary injuries... cracked my head more than once, and the palor of my skin during and after an event does have a way of putting a damper on social events, but my friends have stuck by me and now understand.... They realize there is no reason to call 911 and will survive.
I have accepted the fact that this is how i am. And actually enjoy the "feeling" as is drift out of this world into another, while intially the events take the wind out of my sails, within 30 mintues i am totally refreshed. My doctor says these wont kill me, but although i am far from ready to go, drifting away this way would be an almost preasurelable experience.
Because of these experiences, i approach life completely differently than i did before, i am diffinately a type A, have a job with a lot of stress and also operate a small real estate development company. I have found that Zoloft may be helping and i do take zanex once or twice a week.
I can usually tell when these are sneaking up on me and can retire to a private site to have my little sinking spell. I have lots of support in my family and social circle and it was great to find this web site for discussion.
My opinion is that you can have this malody in your life and also live life to the fullest.... cept... not a good idea to attempt to win any beer drinking contests.