Gastroparesis -- severe bloating and distention with SERIOUS

Hi, I'm new here too.


I've had GP for about five years now and also have a feeding tube because of another condition in my small intestine.

I recommend that you get an inhaler for the breathing problem. It opens up your airway and helps calm you down at the same time. The inhaler I have is the Advantix. Usually you can get a sample one for a month's worth for free from your doctor.

If you go to a good gastroentorologis, i cant imagine them responding that your condition is 'just gas' as you feer they may say. I too have developed what the doctor now believes is gastroparesis after being hospitalized twice with a partial blockage of my small bowel, most likely due to what i ate and my 'slow stomach' condition (gastroparesis). Right now the doctor has just put me on the apparently most commonly used medication for this Reglan. Have you tried this? Also, there are so many tests to do to see if you have other conditions associated with your symptoms so you need to have a very good doctor that listens to you and gives you options. Finally, diet is very important. Along with finding a medical solution you have to start a diet with less fiber...thats right less! The doctor in the hospital flippantly told me up your fiber & water. Now that i find out from a specialist what i most likely have, seems the doctor in the hospital gave me the exact wrong advice. My humble advice for you: Keep reading as many articles on your condition, get to a great specialist and be knowledgeable & educate yourself so the doctor does not rush you with quick but ineffective ideas to solve you problem.

Hi ... I am new here too
I know exactly what you go through. I have gastroparesis too. I was diagnosed in 2005. I can't stand the bloating either. It IS like being pregnant. I am taking reglan, and so far it isn't doing any good. I am going to a big hospital in July in hopes of getting some help. I can't work because of this and having IBS on top of it. So I will be applying for disability. I am quite angry at doctors because nothing can be done. It is terrible that people like us have to live like this! I have became isolated because of it. I can't do anything anymore. I hope you find something that helps. Me too. I have been to my GI doctor so many times, and he said there are no medications other that this. He said there is not much that can be done unless if this hospital I am going too can help. I am really PRAYING that they can help. Good luck.

Hi lagirl1966,



Was wondering if you had found an answer to your problems? The reason I'm asking is that my Dad has been suffering from the exact same symptoms for 4 years. We took a trip to the ER yesterday for the breathing difficulty. One of several. All of the docs over the years have said there is no help...but my Dad is suffering so. It's terrible and very scary not to be able to breath due to the gas expanding which in turn doesn't allow his lungs to expand to breath. He has used all of the gas reducing products known to man...with no relief. We are desparate for an answer. He is 75 and giving up.



thanks,

Seeker

Hi lagirl1966,



Was wondering if you had found an answer to your problems? The reason I'm asking is that my Dad has been suffering from the exact same symptoms for 4 years. We took a trip to the ER yesterday for the breathing difficulty. One of several. All of the docs over the years have said there is no help...but my Dad is suffering so. It's terrible and very scary not to be able to breath due to the gas expanding which in turn doesn't allow his lungs to expand to breath. He has used all of the gas reducing products known to man...with no relief. We are desparate for an answer. He is 75 and giving up.



Thanks!

Hi lagirl1966,

Was wondering if you had found an answer to your problems? The reason I'm asking is that my Dad has been suffering from the exact same symptoms for 4 years. We took a trip to the ER yesterday for the breathing difficulty. One of several. All of the docs over the years have said there is no help...but my Dad is suffering so. It's terrible and very scary not to be able to breath due to the gas expanding which in turn doesn't allow his lungs to expand to breath. He has used all of the gas reducing products known to man...with no relief. We are desparate for an answer. He is 75 and giving up.

Thanks!

have you thought of allergies?

If you have pets in your household it could also be worms. Another thing it could be is bacteria in the stomach or the intestines! Good luck!!

Hi guys, I'm also here! I've been dx with gastroparesis for 10 years now. I vomit every morning (just like being pregnant), and have excessive GERD and bloating. In the beginning it was soo bad, I went from 140lbs to 98 lbs when the I elected to have a feeding tube. It sounds horrible, but it saved my life. I had a j-tube for 4 years, and combined with alot of medication, rest, and less stress - I was able to maintain my weight. It's 6 years later, and I've since been diagnosed with Lupus, which the dr's think was the original cause of the gastroparesis. I just didn't exhibit other symptoms of Lupus until later, so they didn't think to test for it right away. I take 15mg of Reglan 4 times daily. It takes this dose to control the gastroparesis, but it works. Hope this is helpful!
bostongirl

Hi I have gastroparesis. I was just diagnosed recently by accident actually. I had to have my appendix removed and the surgeon looked at my cat scan and said my stomach was huge. I vomited up things I ate from 3 days before after my surgery. The constrast solution that I had to drink for the cat scan to show my appendix did not even go through my system in time for the cat scan. The constrast solution is supposed to show up within a couple of hours in your instestines. Finally after 4 days in the hospital and alot of sickness they did an x-ray guess what the contrast solution was just now showing up in my intestines. Anyways the doctor told me after the surgery that I had gastroparesis. I knew something was wrong because when I became pregnant I started getting these attacks, my abdomen would discend and I would have severe stomach pain, the most severe pain, and I would throw up profusely. My regular md thought maybe I was having gallbladder problems but couldn't understand why it hurt where my stomach was. I went months thinking something really horrible was wrong with me, and during the attacks I sometimes wondered if I was going to die. My stomach discended so much I thought it would explode. I belched constantly. I am so glad I finally know what has been wrong and though its not a good diagnosis at least it is not cancer or something like that. I have been on reglan and it has worked so far. I hope this helps someone like me figure out what is wrong with them. Just remember do not let the doctor dismiss these symptoms as gallbladder. It could be your gallbladder but gallbladder pain is usually on your right side.

Hi there,

I have been having issues with my stomach for about four years now. I was diagnosed with gastroparesis just in November, and thank God they finally did! I was throwing up every morning, with severe stomach bloating, enough to change one or two pant sizes from day to day. When I did get diagnosed, they also told me the reason any food or liquid was setting it off recently was because of bezoars. Bezoars are like hardened balls of undigestible fibre and food that occur when people have moderate to severe gastroparesis. I had them removed during a gastroscopy and I have been a hundred times better since. But to stop myself from getting bezoars again, I have a pretty strict diet that I follow, and some foods that I won't touch with a twenty foot pole. I'll never eat normally again, but hopefully I won't get again to the point where you are. You should go to emergency, because there's a possibility that you could severely damage your bowel or stomach, like I did. I was misdiagnosed with IBS, and so they told me to increase my dietary fiber, when I should have been staying away from it. As a result I also now have bilous gastritis and esophagitis and am on four types of medication. Go to the ER, specify that you have gastroparesis and need to see a specialist, and they'll bump you up the list.

It specifies the issue foods, and gives three levels of diet for this kind of thing. I found it extremely helpful.

Hello.It doesn't look like this discussion sees much activity but I thought I should share my experience with gastroparesis since I seem to have had it much longer that any other poster. I was diagnosed in 1992. At first I could not eat at all. My stomach was completely dead. The MD's ordered an upper GI and yelled at me for eating before the exam and I told them I hadn't eaten more than a bite or two a day for over a month! My stomach was completely full of rotting food. Fortunately a new drug for reflux came on the market called "propulsid" or "cisapride". This pill has the side effect of making your stomach contract erratically. But at least it gave you motility of a sort. This made 90% of my symptoms go away taking 10mg 3 times a day. Unfortunately propulsid can put a strain on your heart and doctors were dispensing them like tic tacs to the elderly for indigestion and over 300 deaths were recorded in one year. The final straw came when a physician gave propulsid to a 5 or 6 month old infant for reflux. As I said this pill puts a strain on your heart. Healthy people had no problems but when you give it to 90 year old patients with prior histories of heart disease and infants whose hearts are very fragile....well they can die. I suffered not a single side effect. My heart is as strong as when I was a teenager and I'm nearing 50 now. Because of the death of the infant, propulsid was taken off the market in the US. If you have a healthy heart, no history of heart related disease then GET THIS PILL! IT WILL GIVE YOU YOUR LIFE BACK! I have been unable to get it since it was taken from the market. and though Reglan will work in a pinch; I am highly sensitive to it and suffer anxiety and panic attacks within a minute of getting it through an IV. And the attacks last for hours. After using propulsid from the day it came on the market to the day they took it off; I seem to have retained some permanent benefit from it. A gastric emptying study showed 80% of the food they gave me was still in my stomach after 4 hours. So I have 20% use of my stomach. Since they took my propulsid away I have developed irritable bowel syndrome and SEVERE reflux (my teeth are being dissolved away as I sleep and the acid rises from my stomach). I was always extremely thin 5 foot 6 and 105 lbs soaking wet and I ate like a horse. Thin was just my body type. Since they took my meds away I can barely manage 1 meal a day. I have absolutely no appetite all day. The mere thought of eating makes me so nauseated I am unable to speak and will gag if I smell food. Then all of a sudden I will get shaky and feel extremely painful sensations of starvation and have an uncontrollable urge to gorge. I eat 1 normal sized meal and my stomach bloats to the point where I can't wear pants. My wife says I look like I'm ready to give birth. I have gone from 105lbs to 180lbs from a 28 inch waist to a 42 inch plus since they took the propulsid away. I feel like the guy from alien just before the creature burst from his chest. I have difficulty breathing after eating as my stomach is pushing up into my ribcage. I have to sleep on my side because I can't breath lying on my back or stomach and any pressure on my stomach will cause me to regurgitate. I have to live my entire life around the toilet. The diarrhea is unchecked by all my doctors and out of control. I am disabled and work part time on a schoolbus with no access to a bathroom for hours every day. I am forced to take 6-10 imodium daily as a preventative measure just so I can sit on a bus for 2 hours without messing myself. It's illegal to stop the bus for bathroom breaks if there are children on board. When I am home I am in the bathroom 6-8 times a day for at least a half hour each time. Many times I leave the bathroom and have to run back in before I've even taken 10 steps. Because of this I feel weak and drained and can barely move. All my doctor will tell me is "it's all about the diet". Well no it isn't. It's all about my stomach being paralyzed and diet does play a part but after 17 years I think I know what foods will affect me the least. I say that because ALL foods affects us. Anything you put in your stomach will affect you, even if it's just a small glass of water. It's only the severity of the reaction that changes! So PLEASE bring back propulsid. Just because the doctors abused it and dispensed it to high risk patients is no reason to take it away from EVERYONE!. Giving propulsid to an infant, the elderly or patients with heart disease is like feeding people with high cholesterol sticks of butter covered in salt! Or giving massive doses of aspirin to someone with a bleeding ulcer! But if you give it to someone with a healthy heart you will cure him of almost all of his or her gastroparesis symptoms and let them have an almost normal life again. Just have them checked on a regular basis for high blood pressure or any other signs of cardiac trouble. When I was taking propulsid I ate whatever I wanted and had almost no effects from ANY food. Now that I'm untreated for years now...I'm afraid to eat in public. I'm afraid to eat after lunchtime because I have work in the morning and the diarrhea can last all day from 1 meal. I'm afraid to go to work in case I vomit or have an accident. I'm afraid to speak because the nausea makes me gag when I talk. I can't wear a shirt buttoned at the top or wear a tie or have anything touch my neck because of the gagging and nausea it causes. I feel weak and sickly all the time. I am disgusted by my appearance. I look like one of those starving Ethiopians with the skinny limbs and bloated stomach. People mock me and tell me I should lose weight and go on a diet......how do you cut back from 1 small meal a day? Tell me that! Tell me how I am supposed to eat 5 or 6 small meals a day when the mere smell of food will make me vomit or gag? I'm sick of getting lip service from doctors who don't seem to give a damn about anything but rerunning the same tests over and over again just so they can say they are "doing their best". Well your best isn't good enough especially when there is a pill that will take this all away but your just too afraid of a lawsuit to prescribe it.

Hello,

I was diagnosed with gastroparesis back in '07. I went through the full battery of tests and even had my gall bladder removed in '06 before they finally sent me to a gastroenterologist who found it. I have had a lot of problems too, mostly all that I have read here. Plus I have been told by every doctor that pregnancy is a no no. Which is true since I conceived accidently and miscarried within two weeks twice. My question is since I am not supposed to get pregnant will the doctor consider tying my tubes or sterilizing me? Birth control makes me nauseous sometimes too and some of them I can't handle. I was just wondering if anyone has asked their doctor about this or not. I go back to a gastro doctor in a couple of weeks since my condition has worsened and was going to ask him but I wanted to find out if anyone had already had this experience? I am 26 so it is not 'normal' for someone of my age with no children to get a procedure done so I can not have children. Help with this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. :-)

kryista wrote:

Hello,

I was diagnosed with gastroparesis back in '07. I went through the full battery of tests and even had my gall bladder removed in '06 before they finally sent me to a gastroenterologist who found it. I have had a lot of problems too, mostly all that I have read here. Plus I have been told by every doctor that pregnancy is a no no. Which is true since I conceived accidently and miscarried within two weeks twice. My question is since I am not supposed to get pregnant will the doctor consider tying my tubes or sterilizing me? Birth control makes me nauseous sometimes too and some of them I can't handle. I was just wondering if anyone has asked their doctor about this or not. I go back to a gastro doctor in a couple of weeks since my condition has worsened and was going to ask him but I wanted to find out if anyone had already had this experience? I am 26 so it is not 'normal' for someone of my age with no children to get a procedure done so I can not have children. Help with this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. :-)

I am 43 and have this severe. It is the eggy burps that kill me. I miss food as I am Italian,. I am weak and lifeless most the time and the bathroom is where I spend most my time. Doctors say you can not have the runs like me and food in me for days that I throw up???? Well I DO have both and most the time I am pooping out one end and vomiting out the other in a bag. The food is whole both ends and smells like death! Anyone know about stomach bipass????? I am losing hope!!!! Angela from Oregon ***this post is edited by moderator *** *** e-mail addresses not allowed***