Being Treated Of Pots But Gastroparesis Not Going Away

[CarmelRob]

I've been on a beta blocker now for a month or so and my stomach still isn't working. I don't have any appetite and feel full all the time and when I try to eat I get nauseous. I'm bascially on a liquid diet and get most of my calories through Nestle's Nutren 2.0 and Ross's TwoCal HN. Too much exercise makes my stomach problems worse.

The worst symptom is when I get nervous, listen to loud sounds on T.V. or haven't had a lot of sleep, my stomach starts secreting HUGE amounts of liquids that can be heard across the room like sloshing tidal waves and I get this burning pain. Is this due to a bacterial overgrowth in the stomach or small intestine? I experimented one time by taking two pills of Rifaximin, an antibiotic, which I had left over, and it actually helped but I was too scared to follow through since I don't have a doctor backing me. I'm going to be doing small intestinal bacterial overgrowth breath test from Great Smokies tomorrow.

Has anybody ever had symptoms like this, particularly the enormous stomach/intestinal secretions when under stress?

Thanks a lot

Robert

[cardiactec]

oh i totally know where you are coming from. the swishing, the nausea, the waves, ugh. it is so not fun. feels like the stomach flu almost every day....and yes, stress makes it a TON worse - swish feeling AND nausea. for me i think the nausea is worse, but they both feed off each other really..

im sorry to hear you are going through this. i totally understand. i was just recently diagnosed with gastroparesis by gastric empyting study with a T 1/2 time at three hours, and 40% retained at four hours. i see a GI doc in boston here in a couple weeks to try and get some relief for the nausea....i havent done the breath test.......

were you told that the beta blocker would help your stomach? usually they put you on pro-motility meds if you have gastropareis. i wish the beta blockers helped. i have been taking 180 mg's of beta and it doesnt do anything for the stomach, just my wacked out heart rates.....

[CarmelRob]

oh i totally know where you are coming from. the swishing, the nausea, the waves, ugh. it is so not fun. feels like the stomach flu almost every day....and yes, stress makes it a TON worse - swish feeling AND nausea. for me i think the nausea is worse, but they both feed off each other really..

im sorry to hear you are going through this. i totally understand. i was just recently diagnosed with gastroparesis by gastric empyting study with a T 1/2 time at three hours, and 40% retained at four hours. i see a GI doc in boston here in a couple weeks to try and get some relief for the nausea....i havent done the breath test.......

were you told that the beta blocker would help your stomach? usually they put you on pro-motility meds if you have gastropareis. i wish the beta blockers helped. i have been taking 180 mg's of beta and it doesnt do anything for the stomach, just my wacked out heart rates.....

WOW! You have the swishing also. What could possibly be causing that? The beta-blocker Pindolol is strictly for my hypertensive POTS but since I believe POTS is cauing the gastro-paresis, then theoretically the beta-blocker which is helping the POTS should help the stomach also. I think the specialist Dr. Grubb in one of her studies shows there is a link between POTS and delayed gastric-emptying.

I have a ton of Reglan but am too scared to take it right now because of the side effects. I might have to bite the bullet and take a little. Do you think it could "kick-start" the stomach to work again. There is no 'churning' or 'rumbling' at all, just silence.

[DSM3KIDZ]

I have gastroparesis also. My 1/2 time was 220 minutes and I dealt with the horrible nausea consistently for 2yrs. Cross my fingers but since June I have only had a few bad nausea bouts. At that time I also started Wellbutrin and Flornief. Unfortunately I started them together so it's unknown which one actually helped the stomach but I think treating my POTS helps my stomach.

I never heard a beta blocker helping the stomach though. And I don't get the swishing unless I eat salad. I do know stress makes my stomach alot worse also.

I hope you find some answers. I would give the reglan a try. You can always stop if you don't like the side effects. I never had side effects until recently if I take it my little toe twitches but nothing more.

Hang in there I know how hard it is to deal with stomach issues.

Dayna

[Sunfish]

i have severe gastroparesis to the point of not being able to eat or drink & am on IV nutrition; that is by no means the norm though so please don't get concerned in that regard. but i have been through lots of GP ups & downs over the years. i can't say that i can relate to the exact "swishing" you're describing but my stomach/intestines do make some other assorted wacky sounds at times. i have never been able to correlate external stress though with any of my GP symptoms.

i don't have POTS specifically but do have dysautonomia and am on a beta blocker. i have never heard of a beta blocker helping gastroparesis in any way & there is no way that it physically should do so; that said many people with POTS (or other dysautonomias) experience nausea that has nothing to do with GP and a beta blocker can certainly help that. i know for myself i have several types of nausea...some that is related to difficulties being upright & some that is concretely GP; most times i can tell the difference.

regarding the relationship between POTS & GP & how either/both may relate to taking a beta blocker, here's the catch. while it is definitely correct that POTS (or other dysautonomia) & GP can very well be related (i.e. both can be caused by autonomic neuropathy), it doesn't follow that a beta blocker that may help POTS will also help GP. the reason is this: a beta blocker is not treating all aspects of POTS and/or the underlying cause that would be the reason for the accompanying GP. a beta blocker is largely treating heart rate &/or blood pressure issues; thus they are only treating one component that won't generally have any effect behind the actually mechanism behind the GP. of course that doesn't mean that indirectly feeling better b/c of a beta blocker couldn't help some people with GP feel better overall and/or help with nausea related to blood pooling and/or BP/HR issues. but by no means is a beta blocker generally something that will help GP specifically, regardless of the cause. (as an aside, one med that can have a direct affect on POTS/dysautonomia AND GP/motility is mestinon.)

if you have reglan that has been recommended/prescribed by a doctor and you are currently limited almost exclusively to a liquid diet, there is probably no good argument not to try it unless you have had issues in the past with drugs in the same pharmaceutical class (i.e. phenergan). it helps many, especially in the short term. longer-term it gets trickier in terms of cumulative side-effects but if i were you (and at one point i was in a similar place in terms of my stomach, meds, & diet) i would cross that bridge later. there are a lot of potential side effects from reglan but 99.9% of the time if it causes something wacky to happen in your body initially you can stop it and will be back to your baseline soon thereafter; for this reason you may want to make sure someone is around when you first take it. down the road there are other options, i.e. domperidone or erythromyacin, but reglan, as imperfect as it is, is considered first-line GP treatment & unless you have a specific medical indication against it i don't know of any physicians who would support trying other things without at least giving reglan an initial try.

hope this helps,

melissa

[john redman]

Melissa,

Do you think your neck injury caused your autonomic failure? I have had two neck surgeries!

John

i have severe gastroparesis to the point of not being able to eat or drink & am on IV nutrition; that is by no means the norm though so please don't get concerned in that regard. but i have been through lots of GP ups & downs over the years. i can't say that i can relate to the exact "swishing" you're describing but my stomach/intestines do make some other assorted wacky sounds at times. i have never been able to correlate external stress though with any of my GP symptoms.

i don't have POTS specifically but do have dysautonomia and am on a beta blocker. i have never heard of a beta blocker helping gastroparesis in any way & there is no way that it physically should do so; that said many people with POTS (or other dysautonomias) experience nausea that has nothing to do with GP and a beta blocker can certainly help that. i know for myself i have several types of nausea...some that is related to difficulties being upright & some that is concretely GP; most times i can tell the difference.

regarding the relationship between POTS & GP & how either/both may relate to taking a beta blocker, here's the catch. while it is definitely correct that POTS (or other dysautonomia) & GP can very well be related (i.e. both can be caused by autonomic neuropathy), it doesn't follow that a beta blocker that may help POTS will also help GP. the reason is this: a beta blocker is not treating all aspects of POTS and/or the underlying cause that would be the reason for the accompanying GP. a beta blocker is largely treating heart rate &/or blood pressure issues; thus they are only treating one component that won't generally have any effect behind the actually mechanism behind the GP. of course that doesn't mean that indirectly feeling better b/c of a beta blocker couldn't help some people with GP feel better overall and/or help with nausea related to blood pooling and/or BP/HR issues. but by no means is a beta blocker generally something that will help GP specifically, regardless of the cause. (as an aside, one med that can have a direct affect on POTS/dysautonomia AND GP/motility is mestinon.)

if you have reglan that has been recommended/prescribed by a doctor and you are currently limited almost exclusively to a liquid diet, there is probably no good argument not to try it unless you have had issues in the past with drugs in the same pharmaceutical class (i.e. phenergan). it helps many, especially in the short term. longer-term it gets trickier in terms of cumulative side-effects but if i were you (and at one point i was in a similar place in terms of my stomach, meds, & diet) i would cross that bridge later. there are a lot of potential side effects from reglan but 99.9% of the time if it causes something wacky to happen in your body initially you can stop it and will be back to your baseline soon thereafter; for this reason you may want to make sure someone is around when you first take it. down the road there are other options, i.e. domperidone or erythromyacin, but reglan, as imperfect as it is, is considered first-line GP treatment & unless you have a specific medical indication against it i don't know of any physicians who would support trying other things without at least giving reglan an initial try.

hope this helps,

melissa

[Sunfish]

hi john -

i KNOW that my surgery did NOT cause my autonomic dysfunction but rather - indirectly - the other way around. i had dysautonomia long before my surgery and had to have the surgery as a result of an injury from a fall down a flight of stairs due to syncope.

melissa