GASTROPAREIS COMPLICATIONS!

[marie313]

I am a 20 year old female of Middle Eastern descent. Exactly on my 17th birthday I was eating dinner before I planned on going out and celebrating. Instantly my stomach bloated incredibly (take a look at my pics to see before and after pictures) and I was in such severe...  [More]   pain I could not even walk. My mom told me it was probably just gas, but three and a half years later after EVERY single time I eat or drink ANY amount of anything my stomach bloats to the extent to where I can't even walk, I have horrible nausea and nothing seems to have worked. I have had many tests done- countless blood tests (which showed a B12 deficiency and H. Pylori which hasn't responded to antibiotics so it's still present over three years after the initial finding of it), gastric emptying studies, two colonoscopies, endoscopies, manometry, x rays, cat scans, ultrasounds...and much more. All the doctors say that I have severe gastroparesis and IBS. When looking at the symptoms of GP I agree that I have many, but one of the key elements I do not have is early fullness. I feel like I don't get full unless I literally binge. I have been on countless medications (Reglan, Zofran, Zelnorm, Domperidone - to name a few) and nothing has helped. I vomit after eating, or even drinking water which does give me an acute sense of relief since the pressure is gone. I have tried everything, including new emerging therapies such as botox and the Gastric pacemaker. The gastric pacemaker caused so many more problems that I ended up having to get it removed. The doctors diagnosed me with idiopathic gastroparesis since they can't seem to find a reason why I had an abrupt onset of this disease. I have been a vegetarian since I was 4 years old but this showed no significance. Before the onset of GP I was an athlete that played sports year round. By 16 years old I had three knee surgeries so not being able to work out I had gained a lot of weight. After recovering from my knee surgeries I began working out again and lost roughly 65 pounds within a year and a half (this put me as smaller than before my surgeries). I didn't lose this weight in an unhealthy way either, I was just eating better and able to work out. I have recently graduated from college and am planning to go onto law school, but I am desperate to find a new cure so my life can finally improve. My life is a living hell knowing that even in this summer heat I can't even drink a glass of water without being in severe pain. They have ruled out Crohn's (which my uncle has), along with other conditions. I'm just so sick of being in the hospital having to receive hydration and not being able to live a normal life! PLEASE HELP!

[boron]

From pictures, it seems like your lower abdomen is bloated. Bloating is always from bacteria. Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) occurs when bacteria come from the colon into small intestine or overgrow due to slow peristalsis in small intestine.

It is a breath test, they give you a carbohydrate suspension to drink, bacteria ingest them and produce gas, which enters the blood and then lungs and it is measured in your expired air. This is something what doctord don't think on. There's another breath test for colonic candida overgrowth.

So, it is one breath test for H. pylori, and I think another one could be done for both SIBO and candida.

If SIBO is confirmed, treatment is with antibiotics. If overgrowth of organisms is detected in the colon, they may again be bacteria (stool test maybe), or candida. Candida cannot really be confirmed with a stool test, but only with colonoscopy/biopsy. This is maybe not even needed, since if candida is suspected, you can have a low-carb diet trial
http://www.allhealthsite.com/40/intestinal-candida-overgrowth/#candida-diet

and if you respond well, you can continue with full anti-candida treatment, as described.

[CalGal]

if you've had pancreatitis 3 time in the last year, you need to have the whole of your biliary tract examined in more detail. Just because you've had an ultrasound of the gallbladder it does not mean 'all is well.' You may want to consider an MRCP to check for changes in the biliary tract. In addition, you want them to re-examine the ultrasound, if possible, for the presence of sludge. Sludge can be very difficult to pick up unless you have a very experienced person reading it. Sludge can exit the GB, enter the common bile duct and cause irritation. That irritation, or the sludge, can cause spasms of the common bile duct or the sphincter of oddi (the muscular opening to the duodenum) and it can result in a backup of bile and pancreatic fluids. The outcome in some cases is pancreatitis.

Hepatospleenomegaly may or may not be tied in, but your docs aren't apparently doing all they can do to check out what's going on. I know it's hard to push your docs, but it really seems that something more needs to be done. I hope you're going to consider working with a specialist in liver/pancreatic and biliary function because a 'regular GI' person may really not be able to understand what's going on.

[marie313]

Thank you for your ideas! Oddly enough, during my research I had thought that maybe I had celiac disease. So I went ahead and did the diet, but nothing changed except a decrease in my weight and my GI doctor ruled that out.

They have also checked my gallbladder and a couple times when I was in the ER they thought I had gallstones but that all came back negative.

Within the past year I've had pancreatitis three times, the last time being back in March, so I'm not sure if probiotics are even an option for me?

I'm not sure if there's any significance to this but throughout the past three and a half years of dealing with this they have also noticed hepatosplenomegaly (enlarged liver and spleen) on different occasions along with low potassium levels (they attributed the low potassium levels to a diuretic they have me on).

I really just don't know what to do. It seems that everytime when I am referred to a new GI doctor, half of them think I have an eating disorder because of my dramatic weight loss, and the other half simply don't know what to do or think I am exaggerating my symptoms. If you look at my pictures that I have linked to my profile you can see the extreme bloating that I have, and one doctor even went as far as to ask if it was really even me in the picture! Thank God I have a tattoo on my hip that you could see in the pictures so he knew I actually wasn't lying.

Thanks for your response though, I appreciate it!

[CalGal]

This may sound like a completely 'out there' suggestion, but it may be something to consider if you've completely given up. First, try probiotics if you decide to try therapy again for the H. pylori. Several studies are showing that both probiotics and lactoferrin seem to help in the process.

Second, stay on the probiotics and make it a good brand. Some are very effective and can generally 'help' in a fair number of conditions. No, at this point there are no studies that say that probiotics help in gastroparesis, but they're of value overall and in my mind I wouldn't rule out the possibility they might help. If you're not immunosuppressed and you don't have pancreatitis they'll do no harm. Look for a high CFU form of probiotic in capsule form - not yogurt.

Have you had your gallbladder checked? There are some who find there is a tie-in between gastroparesis and gallbladder issues.

And third, as a very last resort, give a celiac diet a try for about a month. That means taking out any and ALL wheat, rye and barley out of your diet. It could also mean taking out oats, too, because of the cross-contamination problems. While most people think that celiac is stomach pain and diarrhea, it can also cause a slowed-down digestive system. Although not typically to the point that could be considered gastroparesis, who knows what's possible. Check to see if anyone in your family has gluten-problems, but even if they don't you might still want to consider it.

[marie313]

Thank you for your response! They have tried me on four different combinations of antibiotics and nothing seems to treat it. During my last cat scan they said that I had an abdominal wall infection too, but once again their treatment plan didn't work. It's like every doctor or ER I go into with complications are able to tell me what is wrong with me, but never seem to know how to treat it correctly. I'm just feeling so discouraged that anything will ever get better!

P.S. I was so eager to write my post that I accidentally misspelled Gastroparesis in the title. Whoops!

[boron]

You have confirmed H. pylori infection. Treat it, I don't know how, ask doctors for appropriate combination of antibiotics.

Bloating is from gas, and this is from bacteria. If it is not H. pylori, then there are bacteria in small or large intestine. "Acute relief" after puking speaks for gastric problem, so for H. pylori.