GPs dismissed my daughter as having ‘anxiety’ – now she vomits up to 100 times a day, lost 4st & is running out of time

Comment now

A YOUNG woman whose bowel issues were repeatedly dismissed as anxiety was actually suffering from a life-changing stomach condition.

Ella Rake, 22, has severe gastroparesis – paralysis of the stomach – and vomits up to 100 times a day, leaving her mum terrified the condition will kill her.

Growing up, Ella always had problems with both her bowels and bladder, but she says these were continuously brushed off as anxiety or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

As she got older, things got worse and she suffered from stomach pain, vomiting spells and getting full quickly, but doctors then said it was likely she had an eating disorder.

At 18, however, Ella was finally diagnosed with severe gastroparesis and she now repeatedly vomits every day, is housebound and weighs just over 6st.

Speaking about her terrifying condition, mum Vicky Patmore said: “She is running out of [treatment] options, and I’m terrified she is running out of time too.”

Most read in Health

‘CLIFF EDGE’

I lost 6st on fat jabs… now I’m facing terrifying weight gain ‘timebomb’

NORMAL CHAOS

Woke madness as NHS trust orders doctors & nurses to stop using word ‘normal’

NO SYMPTOMS

I blamed fatigue on being a working mum as ‘silent killer’ wrecked my organs

SPOT TORMENT

My pimple grew to throbbing growth for 19 years – trolls call me Quagmire

The two conditions have left her unable to keep any food down, and she mostly doesn’t eat apart from small portions of melon or egg.

After doctors dismissing her symptoms as anxiety, IBS or an eating disorder, Ella’s bladder stopped working at 16 and she had to get a catheter.

Then at 18, she was finally diagnosed with Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome – a connective tissue disorder – and this led to tests on her stomach and intestines.

It was through these tests that she was diagnosed with gastroparesis.

At the same time as this diagnosis, Ella tragically lost her dad, who was only 48, to a cardiac arrest.

Speaking about this ordeal, she said: “It was a nightmare. Everything was going wrong in my life at the time.

“When I received the diagnosis it was a relief in the sense that I knew what was going on but at the same time when it hit me it was not very good. “

Ella, from Herne Bay, Kent, was given a tube to flush out her bowel through her rectum, but it would just retain the water as it kept getting stuck, she said.

Since then, doctors have given her different medications to try, along with pelvic floor exercises, but nothing has helped.

Doctors also tried a feeding tube, but this would get dislodged when Ella vomited, so she said it became a nightmare.

While the vomiting used to happen a couple times a month, it progressed to a few times a week and now Ella is being sick tens of times a day.

On her worst days she has even been sick 100 times in 24 hours.

Since her diagnosis, Ella has lost 4st and she currently weighs just over 6st.

Her weight, however, can hugely fluctuate depending on whether any food is stuck in her stomach.

Gastroparesis has made her extremely weak and sadly, she is unable to even walk down the stairs on her own on bad days.

Ella is housebound, and often even bedbound, and she faints daily due to her health issues.

Describing her state, she said: “Everything with my health has just gradually gone downhill. It is really scary.

“My weight is dropping. My bones are very visible and I am just very weak all the time.

Check if you have gastroparesis

GASTROPARESIS is where food passes through the stomach slower than it should.

It’s a long-term condition that can be managed with diet changes, medicines and other treatments.

Symptoms of gastroparesis start after eating and may include:

feeling full sooner than usual – you may be unable to finish meals
feeling sick and being sick
tummy pain
heartburn
bloating

If you’ve had these symptoms for a while, you may also be losing weight.

If you experience these symptoms, see your GP.

Call 999 or go to A&E if:

you have sudden and severe tummy pain
your sick has blood in it
your sick is dark brown or black and looks like coffee grounds or soil
your sick looks and smells like poo

Source: NHS

“I do worry how much more my body will take before it gives out. I say to my mum all the time that this is it and I am going to die.

“My main worry is my heart. When I get hooked onto the ECGs and I see the nurses freak out it is really scary to me.

“I lost my dad that way and we have a strong cardiac history throughout my family so it does worry me that this could be what will finish me off.”

Ella wanted to be a vet, but she sadly had to put this dream on hold as she is not well enough to attend university.

Her potassium is consistently dropping, requiring hospital treatment with sometimes up to three days’ worth of intravenous replacement,duringf which she usually is just on a chair in A&E.

Potassium is essential for the heart, and because Ella loses so much when she vomits, she has ended up with life-threatening arrhythmias and cardiac rhythm disturbances.

What’s more, the young woman has faced stomach obstructions and once, she didn’t have a bowel movement for six whole months.

But Ella claims that despite her hundreds of hospital admissions, she has been told medics will not intervene unless her kidneys are failing.

While her body has not got to this stage yet, Ella does have kidney problems, which had caused her to suffer sepsis and acute kidney injury (AKI) multiple times.

She said: “The doctors have been quite good at fighting my corner but the dietitians just don’t want to know.

“I just want to get better for my family’s sake as well. I hate seeing what this is putting them through as well.”

Ella’s mum Vicky has now started a GoFundMe page to try and raise money for private treatment for Ella.