Help Heal Her: Chronic illness has taken over

Have you ever heard of gastroparesis? It means that the stomach cannot digest food properly due to partial paralysis. I have gastroparesis. This means that I get full off a couple bites of food, if I can even work up an appetite, and it takes my body a long time to digest, which causes distention and severe abdominal pain. I am nauseous 24/7 and I throw up nearly every day, this causes my weight to rapidly fluctuate, and at the moment, I’m going down quickly. One night in September when I was 16 (I’m nearly 23 now) I felt like I got the stomach flu, and I have not felt better since then. My family, many doctors, surgeons and I have exhausted every effort to help me feel better. I’ve had an organ removed, feeding tubes up my nose and down my throat into my intestine, changed my diet a million times, got injections inside of my stomach, had every test under the sun done to me multiple times, taken lots of medications that don’t even pertain to my illness, and was completely traumatized. Everyone just wanted to provide me with relief, but nothing has helped. I even had 2 gastric pacemakers implanted to shock my stomach and make it move, but none of that has worked. I haven’t had relief in 7 years, and I never thought I could UNTIL I heard about the Spero Clinic. Dr. Katinka practices in Fayetteville, Arkansas with her father and sister. She has gained a reputation of taking on hopeless and severe patient cases and has gained international attention due to her unprecedented success rates in these cases. She treats patients from all over the world, using her Neurologic Recovery Program, the emphasis of which is Neurologic Rehabilitation and restoring balance to the Autonomic Nervous System. - thesperoclinic.com I met a young lady during the trial period of my first pacemaker, and she had gastroparesis (plus other disabilities) and was testing the pacemaker as well before we could be approved for implants. The gastric stimulator doesn’t help me much, if I’m honest, but it does help me a bit. However, it did not help her. She was in a wheelchair with a feeding tube and port, so so sick. After following through with the 3 months of Dr. Katinka’s intensive medical treatment, she’s out of the wheelchair, eating on her own, and running around like a regular teenager. I’ve been encouraged to go for about 2 years by her family and mine, but I never felt like it was realistic. I’m an adult with a job, bills, and a life. How could I up and leave for 3 months and change everything I do? After unintentionally losing 20lbs in 5 weeks, and slowly starving into nothing, I made the decision with my family to get this help for myself no matter what. Mostly living off glucose tablets and half a chocolate Boost a day just isn’t cutting it. Imagine living with the stomach flu every single day. I don’t want to be sick anymore. My parents are going to extensive measures (even taking out their 401k/retirement fund) to help me be able to do this. I am so grateful for my family and my friends who have supported me along this rough journey. The Spero Clinic does not take insurance, so it will be costing around $40,000 for the 3 month intensive neuromuscular therapy. I will be there 9 hours a day, 4 days a week. I will not be able to work, which makes me sad because I like to feel like I have a purpose even though I’m always sick. My pacemaker will be turned off and I will be taken off all 8 of my medications. Needless to say, I’m going to feel horrible in the beginning, but what matters is the end result. Again, the success rate at Spero Clinic, and the testimonies I’ve seen (online and in person) are really giving me hope. I gave up hope a long time ago, but that is no longer the path I’m going to take. I’m going to move to the middle of nowhere on my own, in a state I’ve never even crossed through. I’m going to have my life flipped upside down. This is going to be really difficult physically and mentally. I am scared, but I am way more excited and extremely hopeful for this treatment to make my stomach work again. THIS MONEY WILL BE SPENT STRICTLY ON MEDICAL BILLS! If somehow I have any excess past paying the Spero Clinic, it will be going to my other hospital bills that I have not paid off yet. Thank you so much for reading! Please SHARE and RESEARCH! Educating yourself on certain things that affect certain people, will help you to be a more compassionate person and make those people feel accepted. This does not just pertain to disabilities! If you can, please donate, if not, please share Thanks again, Jenni