Gastroparesis
Sounds a bit ghastly, doesn’t it?
Gastroparesis is the diagnosis resulting from that stomach-emptying test I had last week. You know, the one where I ate the radioactive eggs all the while they were talking about how the Russian spy was poisoned with radioactive sushi?
Anyway, turns out that in 90 minutes, those eggs were supposed to be at least half gone from my stomach, but they were only a quarter gone. They were just hanging out in there like everything else does. I just don’t understand why I’m not losing weight since I eat slow and everything digests slow. I can’t possibly be eating all that much to be maintaining this weight.
Anyway, so what that means is that my stomach muscle is weak and it doesn’t squeeze and grind up my food at a regular rate like everyone else. The common causes are diabetes and underactive thyroid. We know I don’t have diabetes, so I think he’s going to send me for yet more blood work for the underactive thyroid. However, in many cases, they just don’t know what causes it. However, the Gastroparesis is probably the cause of my acid reflux, but probably not the cause of my other digestive issues. The GI guy wants to treat the stomach muscle first for a few months and see what happens before moving on to the lower GI areas like the intestines. He said though that probably if the stomach muscle is weak, it’s possible that the other organs have gone all weak too.
So, I’m going to be trying a low dosage of Reglan (5mg) twice a day to start with. If after two weeks, that’s not helping, I’ll increase it to 10mg. If after two more weeks, it’s still not working, I’ll go to three times a day. If after two more weeks, I’ll add a fourth dose at bedtime. The key to Reglan is to take it 20 minutes before a meal. That’ll be tricky. I never quite know when I’m going to eat or be ready to eat or want to eat or be able to eat or whatever.
I guess I need to bring this up with the nutritionists. I see on the website I linked to that some high fiber foods are not recommended, something I’ve always said caused me issues despite doctors telling me to eat more high fiber foods. I’m not too worried about cutting back on vegetable fats and oils as I already do that. When I even think about all of that oil just sitting in my stomach, it makes me feel a little ill.
Again, it’s a relief to be heading in a direction and not just flailing about as I’ve done for so long.
tags: Gastroparesis
You may also enjoy...
10 comments
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
on December 7, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Tamara said:
A diagnosis is always good, especially something that sounds non-life-threatening, so yay!
That is odd about slow digestion vs. weight gain or difficulty losing. Don’t get it. Did you ask about that at all?
on December 23, 2006 at 4:07 pm
Jeffrey Gardner said:
Check out my favorite gastroparesis website
http://digestivedistress.com/
The dietary suggestions from the University of VA dietican on that site are great!
on December 28, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Lara said:
Wow - I wonder if I’d gone to the specialist (had I had the money) if this is what he’d tell me…
At least you’re on some sort of track with this… hope things get back to normal soon!!
on March 30, 2007 at 11:42 pm
m said:
I would love to talk to anyone that has been diagnosed with gastroparesis and has weight gain with it that literally comes on OVERNIGHT. HELP!!!
on April 13, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Nicole said:
I have had gastroparesis for three years. I am 32 years old and i know exactly what you are talking about. I am a size 5 and in a matter of hours i look like i am 7 months pregnant because i ate something.
on April 22, 2007 at 6:31 pm
stephen said:
i’ve ended up here on two separate occasions, different topics–brilliant! i want to know how your gastroparesis ended up, bc your situation sounds identical to mine, which i just learned i have, and further, a doctor mentioned to me that he thinks there’s a connection between tricyclic (effexor) drugs and gastroparesis. do you know of this?
on April 23, 2007 at 10:44 am
n. mallory said:
Actually, I’ve had my gallbladder out and I’m going to see how that goes for a while.
on May 6, 2007 at 12:58 pm
m.sanders said:
I have a pending diagnosis at a university hospital tommorow. I have all the same symptoms as you including the weight gain. I’ve been told by my gastro doc that our erratic eating patterns causes are metabolism to come to a halt. So now when eat your body doesn’t know when it will eat again, so it holds that food as fat in your body.
Even with excersize it is hard to lose weight do to your metabolism. So the only way to perhaps lose weight is to make your eating habits as routine as possible.
on May 12, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Gabriela said:
I’ve learned I have the exact same problem you do. The dr. had given me a package of 4 antibiotics/day for 4 weeks, but that didn’t work my case. Now he prescribed me the Reglan (4 pills/day). I started taking that pill yesterday… But I’m afraid that those pills are going to make me gain wieght. I’ve searched on the net but didn’t find anything…
I hope you all get better!!
on May 14, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Jan said:
My daughter has been vomiting erratically for 2 years now. She will be 16 years old in June. She has also had weight gain. I just couldn’t fingure it out. Why? When she was vomiting for up to 5 days a week. She has been on every medicine available and none have helped in fact in the last 2 years she has gotten worse. We are currently checking into bypass surgery. What do you think? Jan