Living With Gastroparesis

Day 5 with Domperidone

2009-12-04T13:58:00.003-05:00

Morning: I woke up this morning extremely nauseous. I tried to vomit, hoping it would make me feel better, but all I could do was dry heave. Probably because I didn't have much to eat yesterday, so there was nothing left to come up. I took Nexium and left for work.

Breakfast: Although I had no appetite, I figured I could force down something soft. I ate a cup of pear halves in lite syrup. Yum!

About 3 hours after that, I threw up. Actual chunks of pears. Gross. Also, lots of foamy clear liquid. I drink water all day long, and downed probably 15 oz. of water by that time. So, maybe I was throwing up my water...?

Even after throwing up, my stomach doesn't feel good. But the good news is, I'm not nauseous anymore. I still have no appetite, though.

Check back for more later...

Domperidone: Day 4

2009-12-03T20:06:00.002-05:00

Morning: I took Nexium and felt pretty okay.

Breakfast: none because I had no appetite

My stomach doesn't feel good.

Lunch: I took a Domperidone, waited about 40 minutes, and had Wisconsin cheese soup in a bread bowl with water to drink. Again, I didn't eat much of the actual bowl part. The bowl top + soup filled me up, even though it was probably only about 1 c. of food.

My stomach didn't feel good.

Dinner: I took a Domperidone, waited about 30 minutes, and ate a mini cheeseburger + small fries from Wendy's, along with water.

My stomach felt pretty terrible after I got done eating. I couldn't even eat my Frosty. :(

Domperidone: Day 1

2009-11-30T16:45:00.001-05:00

Okay, first a little history. Today is NOT actually my first day trying Domperidone. I got it about a month ago and tried it. It seemed to help a tiny bit, but not really much. Kinda like the Reglan when I first tried it--before they increased the dosage. Other than only helping a tiny bit, it seemed to give me a ton of pain in my right jaw. It got so bad that I had to stop taking the medicine, let my jaw heal, and go see my dentist. The dentist is ordering me a bite splint. Now that it's on order, I decided to try my luck at the Domperidone again. So, here I am, Day 1. I will be documenting my symptoms as much as possible.

Morning: I woke up with nausea, but I forced myself not to vomit. I took my Nexium (for acid reflux) and went on my merry way.

Breakfast: I didn't have breakfast. I had no appetite and I was nauseous.

Lunch: I took a Domperidone, waited 30 minutes, and forced myself to eat a bowl of soup + a little bread. Really, it was "soup in a bread bowl" but I didn't eat the whole bowl. Just the top and a little bit of the inside that came out with the soup. I just wasn't hungry. The Domperidone isn't looking good.

Dinner: I had absolutely no appetite and I was afraid to take the domperidone again, so all I ate was some popcorn.

Not So Hungry

2009-10-09T19:01:00.003-04:00

The last couple of days have been tolerable without Reglan (the miracle medicine that made it so I was hungry and could eat anything I wanted). I've eaten mostly grains, though. Lots of cereal, breadsticks, and popcorn. Those things seem to go down really easily.

I did have a chicken caesar salad pita and some cheese soup one day, but I couldn't finish the whole pita like I normally could when taking Reglan. This time I ate about half of it before I felt full. It was delicious, though!

The one thing I haven't had lately is red meat. I love red meat! But it just doesn't sound good. It sounds "heavy" if that makes sense. Like I wouldn't be able to eat much of it. Maybe some day soon I'll try it.

I still haven't ordered the Domperidone from Canada, yet. I've found a couple of online pharmacies that sell it for about 20 bucks, but I don't know if they're reputable and will actually send me the medicine or just take my money. I'm a little nervous about ordering a prescription medicine online. There's just something that seems a bit weird about it.

Getting the Right Meds: Take 2

2009-10-06T17:54:00.003-04:00

Okay, so my GI specialist wrote me a prescription for Domperidone, but that medication is not FDA-approved, yet. That means it's not available in the U.S.

The specialist gave me a flyer for October Health Inc, which is a Canadian company that will mail the medication to me with my valid prescription. Awesome!

But.

The problem? It'll cost me 13 (13!!) times more than my old prescription that could be filled in the U.S. That's ridiculous.

But, if I want to eat, I suppose I'll have to give in, mail them my $65 and hope it works.

A Day Without Reglan is Like A Day Without... well, Food.

2009-10-06T17:47:00.005-04:00

My stomach has felt blah today. Not so hot. I took my stomach medication and then had Frosted Flakes for breakfast (yum).

For lunch, I forced myself to eat a banana even though I wasn't hungry AT. ALL. Seriously, a banana? That's not much of a lunch. But that's all I could stomach.

There's just sort-of an uncomfortable feeling in my gut. Not quite nauseous, not quite hungry.

For dinner, I ate a couple of Taco Bell's crunchy tacos with just meat, cheese, and a tiny bit of lettuce. Lettuce is apparently something that's hard to digest for someone with GP, so the smaller the amount of lettuce, the better.

Miracle Drug

2009-10-06T09:28:00.003-04:00

I went in for my stomach biopsy yesterday and the GI specialist took me off the Reglan medication. It was causing some central nervous system symptoms (involuntary swinging jaw and chewing motions) and apparently those can become permanent if you take the medicine long-term.

I've now been off the medicine for a day and I woke up with the swinging jaw symptom still there, so we'll see if it goes away.

The bad news is that the Reglan is what actually made it so I felt like eating. It had been a miracle drug for the past 2 months. Humph.

Yesterday I didn't take the Reglan and all I had to eat was a bagel with cream cheese, a couple glasses of apple juice, lots of water, and a bowl of Frosted Flakes with milk. Not a very healthy day.

Here's hoping that today will be better! I woke up this morning with my stomach feeling like poo. I took my other stomach medicine and we'll see what happens.

Overwhelmed

2009-10-04T12:28:00.003-04:00

You know, it was almost easier when I thought I had to go gluten-free. Now I have to figure out what foods have low fiber and low fat. I'm worried about getting all the vitamins I'm supposed to have, lowering my cholesterol to a healthy level, and losing weight all at once.

It all seems a bit overwhelming and I don't really know where to start. I've been reading as much as I can online about gastroparesis, but I have yet to find a comprehensive list of foods that are OKAY to eat. GP really seems to be an under-researched condition, so there isn't a ton of info on it.

So far, I know that the following main dish foods are okay:
-chicken (yay!)
-fish (yay!)
-pasta with NO tomato peels
-lean ground beef
-refined breads (aka NOT whole grain)

Honestly, when I lived alone, that is totally what my diet consisted of. I ate a bunch of mac n cheese, bread, fish sticks, spaghetti with Prego's Traditional sauce, soft/soggy cereals, canned peaches, and chicken.

Maybe I just need to go back to eating that crap to feel better. So much for trying to eat more veggies and red meat! All it got me was a stomach ache.

Gearing Up For a Biopsy

2009-10-04T12:21:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow I go to the hospital for a stomach biopsy.

The plan is to see if I currently have any of the H. Pylori bacteria that was found in my blood test over the summer. They had me on antibiotics this summer in an attempt to get rid of it (but I was allergic to the first round, and threw up so much on the second round that we had to stop), so we'll see if it worked. He figured doing a biopsy to look for the bacteria would be smarter than simply trying a bunch of antibiotics on me without knowing if it's (still) in there.

I'm mostly okay with this. I'm honestly not worried about a thing. If they don't find it in there, then I guess my stomach symptom of "gnawing pain" is just something I will have to learn to live with.

This gnawing pain could be a symptom of GP (gastroparesis) instead, and that would just suck because that would mean I'll always feel this way.

Secretly, I'm hoping that I have the bacteria in there, that they will give me some good antibiotics, and that I will feel much better afterwards!

Foods to Avoid

2009-09-24T18:43:00.007-04:00

Apparently, people with gastroparesis (GP) have a hard time digesting foods that are high in fiber. This means that I have to go against the whole "eat whole grains and high fiber foods" health kick that's going on these days. But what, exactly, is high in fiber? What do I need to avoid? Here's what I've found so far...

Foods I need to try to avoid (This is only the beginning of my attempt to make a list of foods to avoid. I'm sure it'll get updated a buhzillion times, so please be patient with me, and feel free to let me know of any others I've missed.):
1. certain fruits: apples (I've been generally able to tolerate only golden delicious up til now), berries (the only ones I've ever been able to really enjoy are strawberries and blueberries anyway), coconuts, oranges, and persimmons (I haven't been able to eat any of those in years, so no loss there!)
2. certain veggies: all raw veggies, brussel sprouts, green beans, green peas, lettuce, potato peels, and saeurkraut (well, good news! I already don't eat any of those. No loss there, either.)
3. breakfast foods: bran, whole grain cereals (that's okay because I love cereal and I'm okay with eating the ones that are junky and not good for you), oatmeal (I've never liked oatmeal.)
4. nuts and seeds (I've never eaten these, so no loss here, either.)
5. beans/lentils: baked beans, lentils, dried beans and soy beans (again, I've never been a bean eater, either, so no loss here.)
6. meats: fibrous meats such as steak, roast, and chops

What have I learned from all of this? This isn't going to be hard at all. Mostly because I've naturally avoided many of these high-fiber foods all my life. Probably because they made me feel bad. I've only recently (over the past 5 years or so) branched out and tried new foods in an attempt to get healthier, but as we can all see now, my attempts were met with feeling icky. And now we know why.

And the best part about all of this?
I NO LONGER HAVE TO FEEL BAD ABOUT NOT EATING VEGGIES.

What IS Gastroparesis (GP)?

2009-09-24T18:20:00.000-04:00

I've been doing some reading online. And as I also pointed out on GF Girl, everything you read on the internet is true. So here's what I've found out.

"Gastroparesis is the medical term for delayed stomach emptying. During the process of digestion, the stomach must contract to empty itself of food and liquid. Normally, it contracts about three times a minute. This empties the stomach within 90-120 minutes after eating. If contractions are sluggish or less frequent, stomach emptying is delayed." - quoted from here

This GP diagnosis explains several symptoms I've been dealing with for a very long time, including:
- nausea
- vomiting (sometimes whole food, hours after eating... sorry, that's gross)
- feeling full after just a few bites
- bloating
- loss of appetite
- malnutrition (my cholesterol is bad, apparently)
- acid reflux

I've read that foods that are high in fiber and/or fat are harder to digest. This includes raw veggies. Guess who has never liked raw veggies? This also includes beans and nuts. Guess who doesn't like beans or nuts? Yup. Apparently my body told me years ago that it didn't like these foods, and this is likely why.

The Diagnosis

2009-09-24T17:07:00.001-04:00

Welcome to my new blog. Please feel free to join me as I try to figure out what gastroparesis is, first of all, and then what it means for me.

You may have seen my previous blog over at GF Girl, or you might not have. If you're interested in seeing what being gluten-free for 30 days was like, please feel free to read it. After trying the gluten-free diet and still not feeling 100%, I went to my family doctor this summer. She tested for several things, including H Pylori. (Read my reactions to my positive blood test result here and here.) A couple failed rounds of antibiotics later, and the doctor doesn't think we've gotten rid of the nasty thing. Instead of trying more antibiotics, she put me on some other medications to help with the nausea and vomiting, and sent me off to see a GI a specialist. In the meantime, the meds she prescribed worked wonders. I was able to eat whatever I wanted and felt better than I had in a long, long time. Hooray!

At the GI specialist appointment, I learned that I need to have a biopsy of my stomach in a couple weeks, to see if I currently have any of the H. Pylori bacteria in my stomach.

He also said that he thinks I might have slow stomach emptying (called "gastroparesis" or GP). What do you do for this? Well, apparently you take medication that I already recently started taking, thanks to my wonderful family doc. And you can change your diet to try to feel better, too.

So yeah, the specialist said that I will likely be on this cocktail of medications (now 6 pills a day--yikes) for the foreseeable future. He also suggested working on my blood sugar (which was recently found to be elevated) and eating 6 smaller meals a day rather than 3 big meals each day.

That was all I was told about GP from the specialist. I only learned that it had a name after googling "slow stomach emptying" and finding out that it's called gastroparesis. I'm obviously new to this whole GP thing, so all comments and tips are welcome!