I was born with a Stomach of Steel. Not Abs of Steel, mind you, a Stomach of Steel. There’s a big difference! That does not mean my rectus abdominus are firm, tone, and finely sculpted. It does not mean that my obliques look anything like that exercise goddess Jillian Michaels. As hard as I have tried, my poor tummy has never returned to what it used to look like pre-three-times-stinking-C-sections ago. Instead of firm, I got floppy. Where before I had resilience, there now lies flab. Sadly, Abs of Steel is not where this post is going.
What I mean by Stomach of Steel is that I was born with a strong constitution, able to tolerate the vast array of unpleasant odors and scenery that seem to only exist in a hospital or a nursing home. After many years in nursing, I have had green gastric goo spilled on my hair, I've suctioned fairly impressive secretion from trachs, removed a four inch lint from a man’s belly button ( inny of course),and even had blood squirted on my face as an artery burst open after a patient’s heart catherization. That one was a lot of fun! The poor thing was so apologetic and just kept reassuring me that she was not promiscuous and definitely not a drug user. I was more reassured by the fact that she was eighty years old.
If my patient was vomiting, I could sit with them the entire time watching them wretch and heave, and I would not feel the urge to vomit. I could probably eat lunch while a wound was being tended and dressed and I would not be the least bit affected. It was almost as if my stomach was made for the profession of caring for the ill and dying.
So why is it, with my Stomach of Steel, did I have to be cursed with motion sickness? When I was younger, on every vacation we were on, all I remember was me, in the back of our station wagon, curled up in a fetal position, throwing up violently inside of a plastic red beach bucket. When there was nothing left to throw up, I was dry heaving.
Look at some of my vacation pictures when I was younger. I’m not smiling. Why? Because I was always throwing up!
And there was always plenty of advice as to how to go about decreasing the state of my regurgitation. Chew gum, stick your head out the window, sit in the front seat, put a blanket over your head. I’m here to tell you that none of that works! It only makes your family look like they’re kidnapping some teenager, whom they wrapped in a blanket, as she desperately tries to escape out the front window of a station wagon, while frantically chewing her gum.
I remember one vacation where my parents thought it would be shorter to take the hills of Tennessee on the way home as opposed to the main highway. There was no turning the car around. The roads were narrow and windy with busy traffic on both sides. The car kept going back and forth and back and forth and back and…well you understand, and I’m making myself sick as I type this.
So, there I was again, in the back seat, with my face in the bucket. Tennessee was my hell and that bucket was my best friend!
Did you know that there is a link to Migraines and Motion Sickness? A really interesting article on Pub Med states that Migraines in general are linked to some co-morbid (or already existing) conditions such as motion sickness. Nausea, dizziness and headache are common to both of these conditions and migraine sufferers are more prone to motion sickness. Both of these illnesses involve reflexes that communicate in the brainstem and symptoms may share these same neural circuitry.
Therefore disturbances in these brainstem pathways could not only increase the attacks of migraines but it can also increase the propensity to motion sickness. Another article states that Motion sickness occurs in approximately 50% of migraine sufferers.
I'm not saying that everyone that becomes car sick will have migraines. But it's good to know that there is that strong link.If we could better understand the relationship, we may have a better understanding of the physiology of both conditions.
I think my next post shall be about the Positive Effects of Tummy Tucks and Why Insurance Companies Should Pay For Them!
Great references:
