Wellness

[CrazyKittyLvr2]

Gastric antral vascular ectasia.  My sister has been in hospital since Sunday with extremely low blood volume.  Had 2 units of blood because of her blood being so low. She has been anemic for awhile.  

She has a history of ulcers and they suspected she had a bleeding ulcer.  Did an endoscopy and said she has "watermelon stomach".  My response was, what the heck is that. Actually, my comment was more....colorful.

As I understand it small blood vessels in the stomach bleed and causes visible red stripes like on a watermelon.  They cauterizied the bleeding vessels and she should come home tomorrow.

Has anyone else heard of this?

[Kachina624]

@CrazyKittyLvr2. No, I always thought "watermelon stomach" was referred to as pregnant.

[2blonde]

That is a new one on me as well.  I would have guessed it made reference to a  person's outward appearance, rather than the inside!

[debfau]

When you do a search on Google for Watermelon Stomach - here is what comes up:

GAVE (Gastric Antral Vascular Ectasia), also known as “Watermelon Stomach”, is a condition in which the blood vessels in the lining of the stomach become fragile and become prone to rupture and bleeding. The stomach lining exhibits the characteristic stripes of a watermelon when viewed by endoscopy.

[CrazyKittyLvr2]

@Kachina624  Lol.  We knew that wasn't it, all those parts were removed decades ago.

[CrazyKittyLvr2]

I'm just glad they found out what ailed her.  She said all she wanted to do was sleep and had 0 energy.

The ER Dr. said it was no wonder with the amount of blood she lost.  He said we don't want to talk about what would have happened had she not gone when she did.

[1Snickers]

@CrazyKittyLvr2  I'm glad your sister went to the hospital and they found the problem. She's so lucky they can help her! I'd never heard of it.

[Travone]

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@CrazyKittyLvr2 wrote:

I'm just glad they found out what ailed her.  She said all she wanted to do was sleep and had 0 energy.

The ER Dr. said it was no wonder with the amount of blood she lost.  He said we don't want to talk about what would have happened had she not gone when she did.

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@CrazyKittyLvr2   Was she expelling the blood?  Is that why she went to the hospital?

[chrystaltree]

Hope your sister has a speedy recovery.  I never heard of this, after 30 years of reviewing medical records, I've seen almost everything.  But this was new to me.  At first I thought "watermelon" referred to the size of the abdomen but it describes the appearance of the lining of the stomach when they do the endoscopy.  Very interesting  indeed.

[CrazyKittyLvr2]

@Travone  As she as anemic they suspected bleeding somewhere but couldn't find it. She just had no appetite, her stomach hurt when she ate and had diarreha. Sunday she was so weak she couldn't get herself off the couch.

As it turns out there was microscopic blood in her stool, but she never saw blood from anywhere. Her hemoglobin went up some after transfusions and then staring going down. They did the endoscopy half expecting a bleeding ulcer but it was the bleeding blood vessels instead.

Weirdest thing I've heard of in a long time. The Dr. said if let go she would have gone to sleep and that would have been it.

When she went into ER usually you wait forever unless your arm is half off.  They took one look at her, put her in a wheelchair and started tests.