pregnancy

[Guest guest]

Hi, everyone. Just found out I'm pregnant! I'm thrilled but terrified. My A was

really bad for a few years, not able to eat or drink anything for days at time,

lost 100 pounds, thought I was going to die. No insurance. Found that drinking

hot coffee or tea before eating almost always relaxed my E and was able to put

30 pounds back on in the last year or so. Then a few months ago, I went to the

doctor to get a B12 shot for something unrelated and miraculously, I could

swallow normally with no hot liquid for 4 days! That hadn't happened in over 5

years. So I started taking B12 shots at home and also a sub lingual B complex

pill that included Folic Acid and some other vitamins that are needed for B12 to

work properly. If I take the shot once a week and the pill two times a day, I

can usually eat normally, but every once in awhile I eat too quickly or miss a

pill and my E gets jammed up and I have to start all over with the hot liquid

routine.

Anyway, I was swallowing perfectly normally for the first 3 days after I found

out I was pregnant. The last 2 days I have not been able to eat or drink

anything and I'm freaking out about how this might be affecting the baby, which

at this point is still a tiny zygote. I think I'm only 2-4 weeks along. I made

an emergency appt. with an OBGYN doctor, but I know she will not know what to

do...none of the doctors ever do. I'm thinking IV fluid and maybe they have an

injectable Folate they can give me? I want them to check my iron levels too and

maybe give me a shot of that.

The B12 shot I'm taking at home doesn't seem to work as well as the one they

gave me in the Doc's office, not sure why.

I don't have insurance, but as soon as I get proof of pregnancy I will qualify

for Medicaid. The only doctor around here who knows anything about A died about

a year ago....he used to give me the giant tube down the throat while awake with

no anesthesia once a month or so. It worked at first but the last couple times

did nothing for me. I had one balloon dilation that lasted for about 3 weeks,

but I am wary of this because I've read that it increases scar tissue and makes

surgery more difficult. I had a barium swallow done several years ago, when I

still had insurance, and tried to have a manometry but could not make it through

it because it was extremely painful. That is the furthest I got in the testing,

no more insurance. Will Medicaid refuse to help me with this because it's a

pre-existing condition?

I " m hoping this can all get sorted out with vitamins for the duration of my

pregnancy, and then I will have the Medicare for 60 days after I give birth, so

maybe I could get surgery then. I'm scared to try it while pregnant. I will

probably never have insurance again in my life.

Do any of you have experience with pregnancy during A? Does anyone know if Dr.

Rice has any experience with the pregnancy side of this? Cleveland is a 4 hour

drive from where I am so I could only go up about once a month at the most. I

can't even imagine what that will cost in gas at this point. But like I said, NO

doctors around here even know what A is. They keep trying to tell me I have

heartburn. They look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them I can't even swallow

water.

Any words of encouragement or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Devin