Hello all,

I posted earlier asking for advice on fall prevention for my mother. A day after I posted that, I lost access to the internet. I'm back, but the situation has changed. Seemingly overnight my mother began having severe stomach issues which would cause her to vomit. She says it's not a pain per se, but nausea and discomfort. Before these stomach issues, she'd eat almost everything the facility provided and would have family & friends sneak graham crackers and soft cookies. She's since stuck almost exclusively to liquids, and not much at that. She says she WANTS to eat, but can't get her body to. It's been this way for a little over a week.

Has anyone else had family members that experienced a sudden onset of stomach issues? How were they addressed? Is there any other information I should provide?

Thanks

Keep in mind that not every medical problem that someone with HD might experience is caused by HD. I had these same symptoms and it turned out that I had an intestinal infection. I would take your mother to the doctor.

She's being seen by the doctor; the only suggestions he had were a feeding tube or hospice care. She'd previously said that she didn't want a feeding tube, so I'm making sure there aren't any other options before transitioning to hospice.

Linda went thru a year of "morning sickness" - nausea upon getting out bed in the morning, infrequent vomiting, nausea on being moved from one location to another - visits to the primary care provider and a gastro doc, scopes, scans, various anti nausea and vertigo meds plus a visit to the neurologist to see if there was any residual issues from last year's fall and subsequent sub derma. To quote the docs "There isn't mechanically wrong that we can fix". Folks at John Hopkins said they could not relate the nausea to HD but the irregularity of bowel movements could cause some discomfort.

Tried a mild laxative - MiraLax - with her daily protein milk shake. Her bowl movements are on schedule and no more "morning sickness".

Am not smart enough to blame HD, but pHDs lose control of voluntary and involuntary muscles, bowl movement requires both. What was happening, her bowl movements were dependent on mass and gravity. The build up caused the pain and discomfort known locally as "morning sickness".

A year of medical specialists, unnecessary meds, and expensive tests with not one reference to HD in any of the write-ups and results that I saw. It is no wonder the community can not get a handle which medical providers are treating pHDs, what they are treating and how they treat pHDs.