Delayed Gastric Emptying Without Constipation

[roxie]

I'm seeing a new dr & he wants to do a gastric emptying study.

For a long time I've thought I had gastroparesis bc I had terrible chronic constipation and stomach problems.

Then I stopped dairy & now I can go to the bathroom, sometimes i go too much (sorry) but o still get bloated, nauseas, & have gas pains just not as severe.

Can you have delayed gastric emptying without constipation??

[Tzipora]

Hi,

I'm new here and fairly new to the whole POTS thing but I have been battling severe gastroparesis for quite some time. Actually mine is so severe that I'm dependent on IV nutrition (TPN). So admittedly I'm more experienced with the really bad levels of the disease but anyway...

Yes, you absolutely can have some degree of gastroparesis without constipation. In fact if it's just your stomach that is slow and your small intestines and colon are fine, then you actually probably wouldn't have that much constipation especially if your gastroparesis was in the milder/moderate range. When more than just your stomach is slow then you're more likely to have more constipation and to a worse degree. And my own personal theory too is that people with Gastroparesis often end up with more constipation problems after diagnosis because of the dietary changes people with GP are required to make, most notably staying away from fiber.

I am intrigued that stopping dairy actually reversed your constipation since from what I know dairy generally causes diarrhea in people with problems with it (I've been lactose intolerant since birth) but definitely given the symptoms you still have and given that you have POTS, having the gastric empty scan would be well worth it. My other thought would be getting tested for Celiac disease 9gluten intolerance) since your symptoms also sound a lot like Celiac (which can lead to dairy intolerance). And honestly from what I've seen talking to a lot of people with Gastroparesis, everyone is different. There doesn't really seem to be a standard way that gastroparesis even looks and the level of symptoms people have often doesn't directly correlate to how well or how poorly their stomach empties either. So it's very individual.

Obviously I'm no doctor or anything but I' definitely think you should have the gastric empty scan done. It's pretty much the only way you'll ever know if you have gastroparesis anyway. Also, it's really not that bad of a test. You eat radioactive eggs and have an Xray every 20-30 minutes or so. One more thing, if you have the gastric empty scan done, make sure it's the 4 hour scan and not the 2 hour. The 4 hour scan is much more accurate in diagnosing gastroparesis.

[janiedelite]

If you're going to get the gastric emptying scan, I suggest getting scanned in the small and large intestine as well. My stomach actually empties faster than normal but my small intestine is slow as molasses.

[roxie]

I really don't know what kind they are doing, they did tell me at least 2-3 hrs and it has to be after 4:30. Sound familiar?

Tzipora- I've been lactose intolerant my whole life too, there were a dairy products I could have though like yogurt and I consistently had things like lactose milk. I learned about the dairy thing on here and the importance of absolutely no dairy, even the hidden kind, because how hard milk protein is to digest. Not just the  lactose.

I did research & the symptoms lined up with mine and so I tried it & it helped the constipation.

 My stomach isn't 100% though. I still have a lot of nausea & bloating

[Dizzysillyak]

Did you try giving up gluten yet ? I ask because I'm fairly certain that my latest episode of gastroparesis

is from gluten exposure.

I'm not sure if it's related but I read that we have opioid receptors in our guts and since

gluten and dairy can act as opiods, maybe these can cause loss of peristasis. Hydrocodone stopped my digestion totally last

week and I read it was due to the codeine affecting our gut opioid receptors.

Btw, I used natural calm with my meals to get things going again. It felt like i had a knot in my stomach

everytime I ate and this, plus giving up foods with skins helped. And not that I recommend this, but I've been using

helios dairy kefir for two weeks and it's working even better. I'm allergic to casein but decided to try thus anyway to reset my gut bacteria. The mag citrate worked great but it made my stools too loose

Tc .. D