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Disclamer
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The material contained on the 'Bits and Pieces' Web Site should not be considered as accurate medical advice nor as a substitute for your own physician's advice. You are encouraged to consult your own health care professional with questions or concerns you may have regarding your illness and before implementing any advice regardless of the source of that advice. The information contained on this Web Site is simply a sharing of thoughts, ideas, and informational sources. CVSA and "Bits and Pieces" and its creators, can not be held responsible for the accuracy of any of the information presented here.
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Definitions
Let's first try to clarify some very important terms and distinctions. I would like to thank Mr. William Alford for responding to the following questions:
1) the definition of "chronic" and "cyclic" as it pertains to vomiting...
This is my understanding. I hesitate for you to accept it as gospel, given the certainty needed in the group.
Chronic essentially means "continual", or unremitting--if you had chronic vomiting you might vomit, say daily, but without a period of relief or a time of wellness. Cyclic means "periodic", which means that you would have intermissions of relief with NO SYMPTOMS AT ALL until a "cycle" occurred and the vomiting resumed. You could think of "cyclic" vomiting as occuring like a menstrual cycle. The problem with this is that there are triggers that can initiate the vomiting without waiting for the next "period". To confuse the issue, some doctors speak of a disease which won't go away (you do not get
WELL) as chronic, which means that it can be both cyclic and chronic in their eyes.
2) Is CVS a "syndrome" or a "disease"? Can you summarize the difference between "syndrome" and "disease"? I understand that some doctors have a difference of opinion on this. Is that true?
At this time it is called a syndrome. A syndrome is a "collection" of the same symptoms that occur in a large number of patients. They may not have all the EXACT symptoms but fall under the large "umbrella" of symptoms enough to include them in a "group". A disease, on the other hand, is rigidly defined with known disease mechanisms and identifiable diagnostic protocols. An example is Parkingson's DISEASE--it is well recognized and can be tested for, while Chronic Fatigue SYNDROME is again a collection of symptoms that "group" a set of patients together, but which there is no Test that can identify them as suffering from the disease. They must be diagnosed by symptom alone.
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Pregnancy Concerns