My struggle with abdominal distention
An all too-familiar symptom of every GI patient- usually the first thing that goes wrong, but the last thing anyone wants to admit.
Abdominal distention (as a girl, nonetheless) is one of those things that makes my self esteem PLUMIT. There’s not much worse than that “I can’t zip my pants” feeling, especially when I don’t even eat!?!?
There have been days of waking up, seeing my stomach, and spending half the day in my room feeling sorry for myself. I loathe my body, and am filled with anger and embarrassment that my stomach is in such an “unattractive” state. Plus, it’s not like everyone can relate. Most people have intestinal tracts that just push right along without thinking twice!
Early on, these “pity myself days” were more like pity myself WEEKS, where nothing else crossed my mind besides my stomach discomfort and size. I’m not saying all of those feelings are in the past and don’t exist anymore, but I have trained my mind to handle it in a more mature way.
I remember that there is nothing I can do to prevent it from happening, or fix it when it happens, so this is just what i’m stuck with until it goes away on it’s own.
I’m a sick kid with the body of a sick kid, and symptoms like these are part of the hand i’ve been dealt.
My abdomen already looks a little funky, weather i’m distended or flat as a pancake, so what should I care if it’s a little rounder?
I wouldn’t say I have ‘baby fever’, but the idea of being pregnant and having my stomach being acceptably huge with no judgement sounds pretty sweet! Haha. Until then, I just treat bad distention days as days to wear my stretchy pants or flow dresses and lay on the couch. I’m training myself to be ok with being sick sometimes.
