Watermelon Stomach

[Nightingales]

Hello.

Recently you have been helping and supporting me through a very difficult time so I thought I would give you an update on the first of my tests for the unexplained anaemia that caused my back surgery to be postponed. The endoscopy revealed vascular inflammation. The most significant was Watermelon stomach, also known as gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE), a rare condition that causes chronic bleeding in the stomach. It can be, wait for it ………an autoimmune condition. Where does my body find these things?

So, I wondered if anyone else had any experience of this. ( Colonoscopy this weekend, wonder what weird and not so wonderful things they will find there.)

Hope all of you are having their best day and again, thank you so much for being there.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

That's greedy - but it makes you a very rare bird!!! And wait for it - guess what, steroids are the first medication mentioned although they don't use it a lot. Sounds as if it might have been a lot worse without PMR. And of course - once you have one autoimmune-related condition, others like to come along to play too. I must ask the nurse endoscopist daughter about it.

Don't know if anyone is interested - but here is reading

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articl....

[Nightingales in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks for the article, very helpful. I am always the odd bird, or should I say unique? I wonder if these rare diseases correlate with psychological tests like Meyers Briggs because I am always in the 5% of the population on those 🥴

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Nightingales]

😂 You never know!!! I don't fit well anywhere either ...

[Manihiki]

my husband has GAVE and had it cauterised three times over two years with great results. He had the autoimmune disease of reiters syndrome thirty years ago. No more anaemia.

[Nightingales in reply to Manihiki]

That’s good to know. Thank you.