Today marks the final day of G-PACT’s “Digestive Tract Paralysis” Awareness week, but that does not mean that Awareness ends for another year…
Yesterday was a reminder of just how far we have to go to raise Awareness in the Medical profession for me.
I had my first appointment with the Gastroenterologist at VCU… and it was a nightmare. “We do not treat gastroparesis… there is one drug available in Canada called ‘Domperidone’ but it is not available in the US’”
When consider that this is a TEACHING HOSPITAL you can see why this floored me.
This is what is being taught to Medical Students, then they go out into the world and continue thinking this… and we are the ones to suffer from their lack of Awareness and knowledge.
The fight is so very hard and those fighting to raise Awareness often just do not have the energy to fight harder… that is why we need healthy people… those not affected… to help us fight this battle for Awareness.
The Breast Cancer Awareness campaign works so well because friends and family fight just as hard to raise Awareness, they do not expect those suffering to carry the weight but instead they step up and hold walks, auctions and rallies.
We need your help. Plain and simple.
It is a matter of psychology… when a person with a disease tries to raise Awareness of their condition it can be seen as attention seeking and almost selfish. People shy away and tend to avoid that person because they do not want to get the ‘lecture about the disease’ again… BUT, when a friend or family member is trying to raise Awareness about a condition of their loved ones they are seen as selfless and loving and people are willing to listen because they like the idea of being associated with a selfless person.
Awareness will raise a thousand fold if the friends and family were as involved in raising Awareness as those suffering… I guarantee it.
Domperidone is available in the US. Maybe it is not labeled as a prokinetic drug here, but we use it in horses to help with milk production, especially those that have been on fescue. Women are also given the drug to help bring in their milk. Maybe your doctor doesn't know these things.
ReplyDeleteI bet your vet school large animal pharmacy has some....
It is avaliable in vet med, but there is no FDA approved product for humans. I've brought up this several times to our group and congressmen. Penny R. authored this post and either didn't know about the equine product or did and didn't mention it.
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