Episode#7 Navigating the Rocky Path of Medical Complications

Have you ever climbed a mountain? Or hiked steep terrain? Well this is exactly what treating those with eating disorders and the myriad of associated medical complications can feel like as a clinician! Have no fear, your guides are here! Corny but it does rhyme! Yes there are some amazing resources out there that discuss medical complications and several resources will follow below. We also wanted to navigate in session things that can come up and what you might experience or hear your client say to clue you in.    Medical complications in eating disorders are well, just complicated! But if you see them through the lens of malnutrition they begin to become quite clear and interventions become a little more understandable: very similar to navigating your pathway up some steep terrain. What often makes medical complications complicated is that clients often start first with various medical doctors in their specific specialty; often most do not have any training or understanding of eating disorders (eating disorders are generally going to be associated with some level of malnutrition so its best to "rule in" the eating disorder first.) By the time they enter your office, they've gone to 5 different doctors and have been suggested various unhelpful or harmful interventions or oftentimes have been "dismissed" with an unknown cause and IBS. They feel overwhelmed and dismissed. In this podcast you'll learn important interventions to use to help a client navigate INTO a pretty scary situation- eating. Because eating just is uncomfortable, painful and terrifying. Yet the most important behavior to treat. You'll experience loads of resistance so its best to understand and speak their language as you help them navigate up this pathway. We are diving deep into gastroparesis, a pretty common side effect of malnutrition. And then we'll touch on SMA syndrome, a much less common side effect. We'll be discussing common scenarios you'll often hear clients report "in the room," medication interventions and nutrition interventions that are evidence-based and standard of care. Listen to the full EXTENDED episode with Mateus and Jill when you subscribe on Apple Podcast!