On Friday, I went for an appointment with my consultant gastroenterologist at SJMC.
In light of my 2 recent ‘downtime’ due to my stomach (and also a recent spat of tummy aches), I decided to go through a regiment of tests to see if there is a bigger problem that I wasn’t aware of. Better to be on the safe side you know?
Now, I’ve done all of these tests before (except the last one), so I wasn’t really nervous about the whole thing.
First, I had to go give blood for a thorough blood test, and as usual, they had a bit of a problem finding my vein.
Second, a urine test (I unfortunately emptied my bladder JUST BEFORE the test, and could only hand in my sample a few hours later..).
Third, an ultrasound test. And no – it’s not only for pregnant women.
How do the doctors know what is what in there?
Fourth, an endoscopy. This is where I’m partially sedated, and a multifunction tube with a video camera is inserted down my esophagus to have a view of my stomach. This was a pretty important test as I needed to know if I was developing stomach ulcers. They also took samples of my stomach lining to test for the H. Pylori bacteria.
The interior of my stomach cavity 
Fifth, a flexible sigmoidoscopy. I’m not going to go into details – save for the fact that I have a video exploring the internals of my large intestine. Which I shall not put up here.
Drove back home after the whole experience for a much needed nice nap on my soft cool bed 
Conclusion : Nothing majorly wrong with me at the moment. This will probably be the last time in a LOONG time that I will need to undergo any of these tests again.
Because I now FINALLY have a name for my condition (after 15 years of suffering).
It’s an affliction that hits apparently a lot more people than initially expected, with pockets of victims located all over the world.
There is no known cause for CVS. There is also no known conclusive cure for it. It is extremely hard to diagnose because there is no clear test that can identify it. Doctors have to be aware of CVS, look at the patient’s medical history, find a pattern, examine the symptoms, and slowly eliminate all other possible causes of nausea and vomiting in order to diagnose it.
There are help groups, support forums, and associations that helps sufferers share their experiences.
When experts don’t even know whats wrong with you, your friends have no answers, and your family doesn’t know what to do – you can’t help but feel that you’re a freak in some way. It’s the cause for my underweight problem, and has been a blow to my self esteem (though I try not to let that prevent me from doing the things I want to do in life).
For the first time now however, I no longer feel alone.
S-Kay on August 21, 2007
Har? CVS? Not Idiot..idio something meh? =P
Stomach damn cool weh…look almost exactly like the lipatan of pig intestines. Hahahha.
tcfoo on August 21, 2007
hehe..
it was idiopathic compulsive vomiting before this.
idiopathic = no known cause
as for the tummy, well thats it in a ‘deflated’ state, those folds can actually expand by quite a bit. It’s a screen capture of the video actually – but I think this is gross enough for most of you guys
FoOie’s Haven » Camping in Singapore on September 2, 2008
[...] shit happened cause I got another round of CVS [...]