Re: pregnancy/B vitamins

March 17, 2011

No experience with pregnancy and A (congrats by the way!), but I wanted to

remark that I'm very interested in your B-12 shots.

I was reading a website a while back where a guy found much relief of his

Achalasia with taking high doses of B vitamins. In the forums, some others have

remarked that Vitamin B has helped them with swallowing and/or peristalsis as

well. http://achalasia.net/

I tried it myself but didn't notice much, but I perhaps didn't go far enough

with the vitamin tablets, or long enough, or maybe the exact right ones. The

shots sound really interesting. Did you have to convince your doctor to give you

them, or will they just do it if you ask? Do you have a particular brand and

dosage of the Vitamin B pills you can recommend?

I think I'm going to try the vitamin B some more.

Jenn

>

> 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

>

May 7, 2011

I'm sorry for the delay in the reply, I missed your message somehow. The doc

didn't hesitate to give me the first B12 shot I asked for after I told her I was

vegetarian. My blood levels of B12 showed up within the normal range, but I read

something about how that isn't always accurate. Anyway, like I said before, I

could swallow normally for the first couple days after the first shot, which

hadn't happened in years without drinking hot coffee before eating. I had no

idea this was related to A, I actually asked for the shot because I read that

B12 deficiency has been linked to Alzheimer's disease, and that is what my

mother passed away from. After the first shot at the doc, I just started

ordering the injections from a Canadian pharmacy online where no RX was needed.

A nurse friend gave me the first several and taught my boyfriend how to give

them to me from then on.

It wasn't working quite as well as the shot in the doctor's office. I did some

research and learned that B12 has to have some sister nutrients in able to work

properly, so that is when I tried the pills, which dissolve under the tongue. I

take two every day. You can take 3 but they taste pretty nasty and I dread

letting them melt in my mouth so I haven't been able to make myself add a third

yet. They are Source Naturals Coenzymate B Complex. You can find a picture of

the bottle on Amazon.com . I'm not sure where else you can buy them, I order

from there. I have recently decreased the frequency of the shots (was doing them

once a week) and I think the pills actually help more than the injections. I'm

still doing experimentation with dosage and frequency.

Before the vitamins, I could not swallow anything, even liquid. Nothing would go

down. I was lucky to eat once a week. I lost over 100 pounds and thought I was

going to die. Then I started with the hot liquid, which would open my E for

about 10 minutes so I could shove as much food in as possible before it closed

up. Once I started on the B vitamins, I could drink liquid almost all the time

with no problem, and eat most of the time as well. Every once in awhile I would

still need a coffee, but more like once a week rather than 3 times a day with

every meal.

I have gotten really good at feeling what is going on inside my body at this

point, and before I ever try to eat any food, I drink some water or juice. I

can feel it go into my stomach, so then I know it's safe to eat. If the liquid

gets stuck, I empty out and start over with a hot cappuccino or apple cider.

It's not an easy way to live, but when I look back at how sick and scared and

hungry I was 2 years ago, I can't complain about how my life is now. Also,

standing up to eat helps greatly. I have just let go of the idea of eating out

at a restaurant with friends or having dinner parties. Eating has become much

more a chore than the joy it once was for my former 250 pound pre-achalasian

self.

I highly highly recommend trying the B's. The worst that happens is you waste

$20 on a bottle of vitamins.

> >

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