My high school friend, Nick Ranew, has stage four Brain Cancer. I normally don’t do this but he has three small children and a wife. He is always so sweet to me, and one of the selfless people you’d ever meet. His family has a gofundme set up because they are moving him to hospice. They need money, and you can read why when you go to his gofundme page. I’m still trying to process everything. I’m just still in a state of shock.

This site is dedicated to spread Gastroparesis awareness through new information and news regarding treatment, blog articles, fundraisers, and personal experiences. 

Gastroparesis is a condition in which the muscles in your stomach don't function normally.

Ordinarily, strong muscular contractions propel food through your digestive tract. But in gastroparesis, the muscles in the wall of your stomach work poorly or not at all. This prevents your stomach from emptying properly. Gastroparesis can interfere with digestion, cause nausea and vomiting, and cause problems with blood sugar levels and nutrition.

There is NO CURE for gastroparesis. Making changes to your diet may help you cope with gastroparesis signs and symptoms, but that's not always enough. Gastroparesis medications may offer some relief, but some can cause serious side effects.

With NO AWARENESS, we will have NO RESEARCH, and NO CURE.  Currently, there is no cure for Gastroparesis and the treatments for it involve medications with horrific side effects to extreme surgical procedures that may not help at all.  

Please consider donating to help people with Gastroparesis. Medical bills can be expensive and it's hard to work when you suffer from Gastroparesis.

My Story

In 2012, a friend of mine suggested that I see another GI doctor as I had been having GI issues since high school. I had been blindly following what doctors had been telling me for five years previously, so what would be the harm in getting another opinion? This was the first time I became my own advocate. I started doing research and found a GI doctor covered by my husband's health insurance, close to our house. I made an appointment and started doing research online about my symptoms. I began to take down questions to bring with me to ask the doctor. I didn't get all of my medical records together because there were scattered in so many different places. My doctor in my hometown had hundreds of pages on me alone, my file was the size of a textbook!

I went to the GI doctor and I was vomiting with really bad nausea and abdominal pain.  He told me to go downstairs and that he would admit me through the emergency room.  I was admitted for eight days, total.  During my stay, I had a Gastric Emptying Test done.  I had never had one of these before and I did not really know what the doctor was testing for.  He came into my room and told me that I had Gastroparesis, in March of 2012.  That news changed my life.

When I was discharged, I started doing research on Gastroparesis and could only find two different websites, outside of the Mayo Clinic, that had information.  From then on out, I decided to become an advocate to spread awareness about Gastroparesis.  I started my blog to chronicle my medical history as well as to share information that others might not find elsewhere, and I started Facebook pages and groups.  I am proud to see so many new resources for Gastroparesis online now! You can find a list of resources I have collected, with permission, if you are looking for a Gastroparesis Page, group, Pinterest, Youtube Channel, blogs, etc. here: http://www.emilysstomach.com/2012/12/gastroparesis-resources-online-support.html