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You don’t need either disease, trust me on this

You’re lying on the sofa. You have a bloated and distended stomach. You’re uncomfortable and in pain from constipation. You have no appetite, but you know you need to eat, so you try to eat the soup your husband warmed up for you. You eat a spoonful and vomit it into the bucket next to you on the floor.

Knowing what to do, but not doing it will lead to a trip to the hospital

You’re depressed, and all you want to do is sleep, but your concerned husband keeps waking you up. It won’t be long before he calls 911 again. The frustrating thing for your husband is that you could have prevented it.

And that’s how the past three or four days have been for me. I’m at my wit’s end. I’m feeling powerless, so I’m writing to clear my head and share information that will help people.

I wrote about gastroparesis before. While my wife is in the hospital I thought I would do more research. The thought occurred that Diabetes and Gastroparesis together are hard to treat.

Two competing diseases warring in your body

My wife has no appetite, but she tries to eat because she doesn’t want her sugar to drop. When the gastroparesis is bad, she vomits chunks by the bucketful. I’m running back and forth from the bathroom. I’m dumping and cleaning a bucket of foul-smelling vomit.

It’s hard to watch someone go through it

Gastroparesis prevents food from being digested and from moving through the intestine. Food sits too long in the stomach. One-third of gastroparesis cases are Diabetes related.

My wife needs to control her glucose level; to do that, she needs to eat properly. Small meals throughout the day are best. The past few days, she hasn’t eaten enough. She doesn’t confide in me as she should, so she gets depressed and sleeps a lot.

When I wake her, a lot of times she won’t eat

She sleeps too much and doesn’t eat or drink as she should. I try to wake her, and she doesn’t want to wake up. And when she eats and blows chunks.

She sleeps too much and doesn’t eat or drink enough. When I wake her to see if she’s okay, she will ask for food and hardly touch it. Bottles of water will be untouched on the table by the sofa.

The symptoms can be controlled up to a point, but she has to try

Gastroparesis and Diabetes are serious conditions, but the diabetic can control the symptoms. She can do that by eating and drinking the way she should. She’s not doing that, and it’s killing me.

Before she went to the hospital Saturday night, she yelled for me constantly. I would wake up from a dead sleep to heat some food for her or help her get to the bathroom.

Heat the soup and watch it get cold because she wouldn’t eat it

I would sit with her to make sure she was comfortable. She would go back to sleep. I would go back to bed only to have to get up a few minutes later. We would go back to sleep sometimes for an hour or more, but she still would call for me to help her with something.

I had to get on her about trying to go to the bathroom by herself. She tried to and woke me up screaming because she fell and hit the floor. Thank God she didn’t hit her head.

As I write this, she’s still in the hospital

She’s still in the hospital. I should be getting some rest, but I’m having trouble sleeping. I have been awake since two or three this morning. I’m worried about my wife, but I don’t know what else I can do to help her. It depends on her.

I can’t heal her depression and lack of interest in taking care of herself. She doesn’t listen to me when she’s feeling good and she sure as Hell doesn’t listen to me when she’s sick.

She will go weeks and months doing the right thing, and then the cycle of 911 calls will start again. I love my wife, and I take my vows seriously. I will be here for her regardless, but I wish I knew what else I could do to help her.

Final Thought:

Gastroparesis happens as a result of mismanaged diabetes. The symptoms are all-consuming and painful to go through. The symptoms are painful for the spouse and loved ones to witness.

Gastroparesis is preventable. You don’t have to lie there in pain and discomfort. Eat the way you’re supposed to. Drink plenty of water because you don’t want to go through what my wife is going through.

You also don’t want to put your spouse through what I’m going through now. It’s hard to look after my health because I’m so concerned for my wife. It’s a lose-lose situation, but I don’t know what to do about it.

Do the right thing for yourself and your spouse.

Lawson Wallace is a freelance writer who focuses on Resumes, cover letters, blog posts, and emails. He can be reached at lawsonwallace writes@outlook.com