A mum who suffers from a rare disease which makes her vomit up to 60 times a day says people assume she is bulimic.
Shimmi Munshi, 40, has been diagnosed with a severe form of gastroparesis.
The condition stops food moving through the body because her stomach muscles and bladder are dysfunctional, causing severe stomach pain and nausea.
Gastroparesis is a long-term chronic condition where the stomach can’t empty itself in the normal way.
Food passes through the stomach more slowly than usual.
Shimmi, from Bolton, Lancashire, has a device in her stomach and each buttock to improve digestion and the flow of urine through her bladder.
After doctors failed to diagnose the cause of her sickness – which first started in 2005 – she was bedridden for a year and lost two stone.
Consultants referred her to three psychologists to rule out that she has an eating disorder, the manager at a large energy supplier said.
She claims one psychologist questioned whether she was “an oscar-winning actress lying about having an eating disorder”.
She visits St James Hospital in Leeds every four weeks to have the machinery adjusted and takes 12 tablets every day, which includes painkillers, anti-sickness medication, nerve relaxants and antibiotics.
Shimmi, who has a 20-year-old son named Ameen, said: “People assumed – and still assume – I have bulimia because of the illness.
“My bladder doesn’t work so I’ve had stimulators implanted in each buttock and wires attached to my spine to help the function of my bladder. My bowel does not work and I am on medication for this.
“They call me a bionic woman because of the machines I have inside me.
“I can feel its undercurrents every day and my stomach starts moving as if there’s a baby inside.
“The thing people don’t understand is that I look very healthy but I have to throw up throughout the day – even at work.
“All my colleagues are surprised that I don’t complain but you just have to get on with it.
“Currently there is no cure for this illness, people suffer in silence because it is difficult to comprehend how someone can be sick without it being an eating disorder.
“On the outside you can look well but inside your body is falling apart.
“Only the people who have this know the pain and suffering they have to go through.”
Stomach muscles are controlled by the vagus nerve which contract to break up food and move it through the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, which connects the mouth the anus.
The movement of muscles in the GI tract, along with the release of hormones and enzymes, allows for the digestion of food.
Gastroparesis can occur when the vagus nerve is damaged by illness or injury and the stomach muscles stop working normally.
Food then moves slowly from the stomach to the small intestine or stops moving altogether.
ENDS
