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Pacemaker gives hope to sufferer of gastroparesis
November 10th, 2009 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
Thirty-two-year-old Shimmi Munshi would get sick up to 50 times a day over a four-year period, but doctors were at a loss as to why. She was put on feeding tubes and medication, but the treatments did little to help her. She became sicker and weaker. It wasn’t until the young woman scoured the Internet that she some answers. She immediately diagnosed herself with gastroparesis, or paralysis of the stomach. And found a treatment that would help her live a normal life.
Gastroparesis is a serious condition in which food takes too long to move through the stomach. It can result in pain and disability as well as poor nutrition. Those who suffer are usually treated with medication. But sometimes the medication does not work or can cause serious side effects.
One such treatment is metoclopramide, known in the U.S. by the brand name Reglan. While it can provide relief to some patients, long-term use of metoclopramide has been linked to a serious movement disorder known as Tardive Dyskinesia. Those who suffer from the condition have involuntary movements of their muscles which can include lip smacking, tongue thrusting, eye blinking and bulging, head jerking, facial grimacing, puckering and pursing of the lips, and involuntary movements of the fingers.
Medication wasn’t working for Munshi, but she found relief through the Internet in another from, a gastric pacemaker that is implanted in the stomach that shocks the stomach muscles to contract. After surgery, Munshi says doctors gave her tomato soup, but the patient felt so much better that when she got home she devoured her favorite dish – saag aloo. “Everything tastes great now and I haven’t been sick since,” she says.
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