WEEK 5: SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

Well welcome back to our fifth week of learning about gastroparesis. This week we are going to focus on the symptoms of the diagnosis. Why not the signs you ask? Well the signs of the disease are non-specific meaning there is no specific indicator for gastroparesis. We talked about this last week too but often gastroparesis is diagnosed by ruling out other disease processes. So we will focus on the symptoms you are feeling that most commonly lead to the diagnosis of gastroparesis. 

The most common symptoms of gastroparesis are

• Heartburn
• Nausea 
• Vomiting
• Feeling full quickly when eating 
• Abdominal bloating 
• Poor appetite and weight loss 
• Poor blood sugar control 

Good news and bad news. Let's start with the good news!! The good news is these are the symptoms at the beginning, middle, and end of the disease. There is no progression- it is, what it is. Bad news is that these symptoms are TERRIBLE. Talk about feeling uncomfortable all the time. And never going out to eat with friends again. Or just being that awkward person that goes out to eat and doesn't order anything. Or you try and eat to be a normal person again and you feel nauseous. Sounds fun doesn't it. Keep your eyes focused on the end. You can recover from this diagnosis. I did!!

These symptoms make sense what you think about what gastroparesis is doing to your body. Gastroparesis means the stomach is not emptying or is emptying really slowly so there is residual food build-up in the GI system. Even if you didn't have gastroparesis and you tried to eat when you were already full you would probably feel sick. That is the life of a person who has gastroparesis. The good news is that since your stomach is almost always full you really never get hungry. Meaning you don't miss food even though you aren't eating anything. 

For me, the onset of gastroparesis began with nausea. Then I noticed I became overly full after only eating a couple bites of food. Not normal for me at all...I am Italian and I love my food :) Abdominal bloating was constant and I began to lose weight fast. After living with gastroparesis for about six months I found that I could eat ice cream and cereal- things that were easy to digest. I would eat ice cream for dinner just for the calories!! Doesn't sound too bad does it! I think in total I lost 35 pounds. The doctor was worried for my weight and I had to stop exercising. Most of the time I didn't have any energy to exercise anyways. 

Well I hope this has been helpful and not too depressing! Gastroparesis is not fun to live with but it is manageable. Keep your head high and do what you can to prevent rapid weight loss and constant nausea. Please let me know if you have any questions or want to hear more about my story. Thanks for joining me on this journey!!

References 

Lewis, Dirksen, Heitkemper, and Bucher. Medical-Surgical Nursing: Assessment and management of Clinical Problems. 9th edition. St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier; 2014.

Hasler, W. L. (2011). Gastroparesis: pathogenesis, diagnosis and management. Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology, 8(8), 438-454. doi:10.1038/nrgastro.2011.116

Morrison, G., & Weston, P. (2015). Gastroparesis associated with diabetes: Symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. Journal Of Diabetes Nursing, 19(1), 12-18.