Personal Narrative: Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome

Life can change in a split second when an unanticipated injury or disease hinders someone’s normal daily life. Modern medicine, physicians and families can only do so much but physical therapy can help recoup the life many of us take for granted. It often isn’t until we lose something that we as humans realize what we had such as the value of our body’s ability to take us through each day. A physical therapist is the person who stays with a patient for the duration of the rehabilitation process. A physical therapist leads the patient through the process of regaining physical strength and helps the patient regain control of their future. Much like many careers that involve interaction with individuals, physical therapy reaches beyond

Enabling people to learn throughout life and being able to prepare themselves for all of its stages is essential especially when it’s in relation to chronic illness and injuries. This has to be taught in school, home, work and communities. Action is required through educational, professional, commercial and voluntary bodies.

How unfortunate it is that my passion for the sport forced me into a two-year journey of severe pain and hardship. In March of 2014, I spent a few weeks on and off in the hospital. My right arm had swollen to twice its size, had turned a deep purple, become ice cold, and felt like a fire ant had gone on a biting spree all over my arm, and was sentenced to bite me for eternity. At first, because of the odd coloring of my arm, the doctors believed that I had a blood clot, but none could be found, and they were stumped. At the end of my first three full days at the hospital, I left with a diagnosis- Reflex Sympathetic

Beginning in April of 2018, I began working with Tori, a 15 year old Caucasian girl. A physician at Duke University referred Tori to the PASS clinic for pain management. For the intake, both Tori and her mother provided information regarding Tori’s current functioning and development. Tori lives at home with her biological parents, brother, and maternal grandmother.

Rademeyer as well as others in the profession can influence the decisions of their patients by helping them to make the right choices in managing their lives on a physical basis, by helping them to modify their jobs, sports and other activities and by helping to ensure they follow the rehabilitation process laid out by their physicians (Rademeyer, 2015). Also by listening and educating the patients she can help patients better manage and control their conditions.

Approximately 2% of children are thought to suffer from cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS), with an increasing number of cases in adults as well. (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2013) It is a chronic disease; the individual will suffer bouts of severe nausea and vomiting, and then go into remission for a period of time. Some of the patients have noticed episodes occurring more frequently at certain times of the year, while others experience it during certain times of the day; especially in the morning.

Cyclic vomiting syndrome is a very serious and sometimes deadly disease. It has many triggers which vary by the person. A cure is unknown at this point, but there are medicines and other things that can help people along this dreadful disease. It has not been introduced to many parts of the world yet. The disease is very hard to understand and a lot of doctors have a hard time opening their mind to what they need to do to help the patients. It has led to me and my family having hospitals as our second home. It is very expensive and it affects everyone around my mom. This disease has changed my life in so many ways and I’d like to share with you how hard it can be.

As I grew dizzier, I scanned the neverending hallway, watching it stretch into oblivion. The groups gathered in scattered clusters throughout the hall. Chronics, those who would be stuck in this town for the rest of their lives, wore forced smiles and the personalities of people they were not. Acutes were less frequent, they stayed hidden and quiet, hoping to remain unnoticed until their time here was done. The Acutes kept to themselves, but still hid behind a guise as harmful as that of the Chronics, masking any differences to their peers. Steadily balancing myself, I wandered the hall aimlessly, until stumbling upon my class. The fluorescent lights singed my eyes and charred them shut. Sitting, I listened to a record play to the class for

As I trudged through the halls of Wolfson Children’s Hospital, I slowly sipped on a white, chalky liquid. My doctor tried to persuade me it would taste identical to the sweet and refreshing Crystal Light drink, but with every swallow, my stomach became more and more queasy, and I was not convinced. This large drink that took me what felt like days to finish was part of the upper gastrointestinal series and just one of the many tests I was subject to on the long journey of being diagnosed with the rare disorder, Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome. This illness kept me up night after night with severe nausea leading to vomiting every ten to fifteen minutes, and ultimately a trip to the emergency room due to severe dehydration. These dreadful hospital

As I arrived at the hospital everything seemed normal, but for some unapparent reason I felt different. Today was the start of my new career in Wyoming, a career that would foreshadow the reputation of my past. I’m here to escape the horrors of Carthage hospital, to start over.

Balance of the human body is the secret to alleviation of internal and external pain and dysfunction. Understanding the possible underlying causes to a specific issue is the most important concept when beginning the task of “rebalancing” the body (i.e. daily activities, past trauma, congenital defects, sleeping patterns etc.). Once you’ve taken into account the possible and definitive subjective negatives, using an objective process of elimination and assessment will confer the ultimate treatment plan and goals. Certain aspects of actual implementation are majorly intuitive, although the basics can be easily explained. In other words, only through practice and experience using this modality can any one person become highly effective. The Table

Therefore, the JOINTS Program would seek to address these impairments with the ultimate outcome being participants’ enhanced ability to self-manage their condition. Through self-management, it is anticipated that participants would achieve the overarching goal of the JOINTS Program, which is to improve function and reduce pain.

Lower body exercises may be very helpful. By increasing leg strength and core muscles, it helps to pump blood back to the heart. (Stewart 727). Exercise in POTS patients can be difficult because of weakness and fatigue (LeGras). By maintaining an exercise program, the heart gets stronger, it pumps more blood with each heartbeat, and the heart rate become slower (LeGras). Some patients have found that compression stockings can be helpful to prevent pooling of blood in the lower extremities (Le Gras). The combination of high fluid intake and high salt diet has also proven to be a beneficial treatment for difficulty focusing, concentration, thinking, and communication that is experienced in POTS patients (“POTS”). Ninety-six percent of POTS patients have reported that they experience the symptoms of impaired cognitive function referred to as brain fog

108 participants were randomly placed into either the control group, where people received usual treatment, or they were placed into the outcome group, where they went through a program referred to as “EXTRA”, which provided education about self-management of pain through different exercise techniques easily doable by the participant. The participant’s progressions were measured at 12 weeks and again at 36 weeks. Results showed a significant between-group difference in the mean change in disability, self-efficacy, non-dominant hand strength, overall function and disease

He is the director of The Rehab Group of Bucks/Montgomery County-a multidisciplinary clinic with an emphasis on chronic pain and wellness. He is a publisher of two papers on rehabilitation of chronic injuries. In general his clinic promotes nutritional and lifestyle changes for the chronic pain patient. Additionally, he has published several articles on finance and wealth, happiness and motivation; and health related issues.