Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome (MALS)

Posted by Kari Ulrich, Alumna Mentor @kariulrich, Dec 26, 2016

I am looking for other patients that have been diagnosed with Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome. Although it is caused by compression of the celiac artery many people experience abdominal pain after eating, diarrhea, food avoidance. Usually the first doctors they see are GI doctors. It is a diagnosis that is made after everything else is ruled out. I am curious if anyone else has had surgery?

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Digestive Health Support Group.

I have a CT scan done for a cough and the doctor found the typical hook on the image. So they referred me out and those doctors ran some tests. The LV Ultraaound reflects 70% of velocity flow with experation. So they told me I am only getting 30% blood through my celiac artery. Will my other arteries compensate? They want to do surgery but I am hesitant. Will I still need to do surgery if my velocity is 70% and little to no symptoms? Will the loss of blood flow to that area get worse if I don’t have surgery? Can I live like that without surgery?@kariulrich

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@kariulrich

Any work better than others for you? I have not used nausea bands in years, but would like to try them again. It seems motion sickness gets the best of me in the car, especially on an empty stomach... and well.... lol most of the time my stomach is empty because of the MALS! HA!

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I have only found one type of nausea bands in our drug stores. It’s a good supplement to other treatments. Takes the edge off nausea enough so I could function. Ginger was also important.
Saved Zofran for worst times because of its constipating effect. It really works very well otherwise!

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@astaingegerdm

I have used nausea bands. Elastic wristbands with a small ball- like acupuncture.

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Any work better than others for you? I have not used nausea bands in years, but would like to try them again. It seems motion sickness gets the best of me in the car, especially on an empty stomach... and well.... lol most of the time my stomach is empty because of the MALS! HA!

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@kariulrich

Found this article on Nausea..had a few suggestions that I had not heard of thought this might be helpful to our group: http://theseatedview.com/2018/07/11-tips-to-deal-with-nausea-when-you-have-a-chronic-illness.html

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I have used nausea bands. Elastic wristbands with a small ball- like acupuncture.

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Found this article on Nausea..had a few suggestions that I had not heard of thought this might be helpful to our group: http://theseatedview.com/2018/07/11-tips-to-deal-with-nausea-when-you-have-a-chronic-illness.html

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Hi All

Wishing you all a very happy Festive Season.

Mark

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@racheldmark

@ukmalsman @kariulrich

I am back in NM! To help connect the dots, I asked Lou for his Mayo Clinic user name, @ruudolpho

He is reading your emails and responses along with me, and we are both very touched with all of the information you have given us! I went grocery shopping and picked up more goodies to try. I just served Lou his first bowl of instant mashed potatoes - with butter, coconut/almond milk, and chicken stock - he liked it and he said his pain is very low! This is encouraging.

Is all fiber a big NO-NO? I just bought some baby food of pureed apples and chicken and will hold off on trying it out if it may be an issue.

--Rachel

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Rachel! I did not realize your uncle was @ruudolpho! Lou, I did not put you and Rachel together for some reason. I have been thinking about you so much wondering how you were doing, you are constantly in my thoughts...we have struggled so many times together through the pain and weakness. It is such a honor to have Rachel on here and getting to know her also. My experience with Fiber has been good, with my MALS I get horrific diarrhea and being on tramadol helps that (as constipation is a side effect) it does tend to slow down my gut, I do use Gummy Fiber with D3, it is the only fiber I can tolerate. I get it from amazon, they do sell it at some drug stores https://www.amazon.com/Sundown-Naturals®-Fiber-Vitamin-Gummies/dp/B00DKN8E0M/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1544240861&sr=8-3&keywords=fiber+gummies+with+vitamin+d

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@racheldmark

Hey everyone,

This is a new topic of conversation for me, has anyone tried Ketamine infusion treatment for chronic nerve pain reduction?

A friend of mine had amazing results with depression treatment so I thought I would look into it. I just contacted this local clinic and will let you know what I find out. Reading through the Infusion Clinic of Albuquerque's website has extensive documentation on recent research that looks very promising: infusionclinicabq.com/providers

Thanks,
--Rachel

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Thank you for sharing the link, I have had not read much up on it, but it sure seems like it is helping so many people! Thanks again Rachel!

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@racheldmark

@ukmalsman @kariulrich

I am back in NM! To help connect the dots, I asked Lou for his Mayo Clinic user name, @ruudolpho

He is reading your emails and responses along with me, and we are both very touched with all of the information you have given us! I went grocery shopping and picked up more goodies to try. I just served Lou his first bowl of instant mashed potatoes - with butter, coconut/almond milk, and chicken stock - he liked it and he said his pain is very low! This is encouraging.

Is all fiber a big NO-NO? I just bought some baby food of pureed apples and chicken and will hold off on trying it out if it may be an issue.

--Rachel

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Hi @racheldmark

Fiber is a definite NO at the moment. Fruit in any form is a no at the moment too. No fruit or no veg, fiber, pulses, beans, nuts, seeds.
Veg and fruit that are green have chlorophyll in which we can't digest, even pureed apples may increase his pain. If you can keep his fiber down to a minimal value it should be good for him. I would check the baby food chicken, usually they are whole meals which include veg. Stick to pasta, potato and rice, a little minced chicken for protein. I suggested kids breaded chicken sticks because they are basically made from mashed up chicken reformed into chicken sticks. Stick with the potato for a while to see if the pain gets any better and to allow the fibrous food to get out of his system. Remember take it slowly.

Hi @ruudolpho
Welcome to the website and the MALS family. When you eat do you get pain straight away or after an hour or so. With me the pain would get worse after a couple of hours, some people get pain straight away. When I was doing my research I realized that I was eating the wrong foods twice a day causing a never ending cycle of pain. Drinking water made it worse, from what I researched your bowel pulls in water to aid in digestion. The best way to put it is imagine your gut as a furnace and the flames are the pain you feel, white foods are paper, fast burning little flames, hard to digest foods like fiber and fatty fast foods are like wood and coal burning hotter for longer with bigger flames. Water acts like the accelerant gasoline, on paper it makes little difference, however gasoline on coal/wood your furnace is burning at its peak with huge flames. Great for a healthy person, that's what they need day to day but not so great for MALs sufferers. For MALs sufferers the furnace needs to burn low and steady.

Your first meal is encouraging lets hope it continues.

Mark

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Hey everyone,

This is a new topic of conversation for me, has anyone tried Ketamine infusion treatment for chronic nerve pain reduction?

A friend of mine had amazing results with depression treatment so I thought I would look into it. I just contacted this local clinic and will let you know what I find out. Reading through the Infusion Clinic of Albuquerque's website has extensive documentation on recent research that looks very promising: infusionclinicabq.com/providers

Thanks,
--Rachel

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