Eating and gut response?

[TheLazy1]

I'm not sure if it's just me but every single meal causes me to have to go #2 within 5 minutes of starting to eat.
Anyone else get this?

Unfortunately this has made me think negatively of food since eating=#2=pain so I either not bother to eat or feel bad when I do.
I Must be going crazy

 

[drew_wymore]

I'm usually the same way but it really depends on what I eat. There was discussion awhile back of something called "dumping syndrome" where you had to go almost immediately after eating.

 

[soupdragon69]

Hi TL1,

Before I was diagnosed with Crohns in Dec 06 I had a whole clatter of tests. I had mentioned the same problem you are now to my gastro cons and he (like Drew says) queried dumping syndrome with me.

I had a "gastric emptying" test which is a nuclear medicine scan. They get you to eat mildly radioactive scrambled eggs and scan you every 30mins for 3hrs. You have to fast before it and can only have water to drink during the test.

My results showed that my stomach contents speed up as they leave my stomach and enter my small bowel. They then slow down for a while and speed up again. He said the speed was very fast and the fact also that it wasnt all the way through made him ponder.

They also did another nuclear med scan where I swallowed a capsule to track my bile salts on another day and that was how they found out I was only absorbing approx 3% instead of something like 27% of my bile salts.

Both problems can contribute to diahorrea and once I had my colonoscopy they found severe crohns ileitis. I have since been diagnosed with severe IBS and can now generally tell the difference between the two.

What did they come up with regarding the running to the loo? Welllll I know certain foods will send me running within mins - eggs being one of them! Another is apples so I avoid both as much as possible with eggs being the harder of the two and I know I can now tolerate small amounts.

They started me on mebevrine (sp?) for gut spasm in relation to my IBS which I take 20mins before meals and I have found I dont go running as long as I take it so it must be having an impact on that front too. I also take an anti sickness tablet called Metoclopramide which slows gastric emptying amongst other things and is used for that reason and not just as an anti sickness.

On the bile salts front I havent had to take anything for it as they said if they could heal the area things would settle on that front.

So its been a multipronged approach for me TL1. I do still have the occasional day where it is really bad to the extent I may need to lie down after eating as am so drained - it seems to literally knock the stuffing out of me - but those days are rare - say once every 4wks as opposed to every single day running after eating. Huge difference.

Maybe a gastric emptying scan would be worth it? It certainly put my mind at rest and helped me titrate things better.

Hope my thoughts help and apologies for the long ramble!

 

[butt-eze]

Wow Jan! It sounds like you have a great group of doctors that are proactive with finding the problem. I've never even heard of those tests.

 

[soupdragon69]

I have been fighting to get a decent diagnosis since my teens and am now almost 39 (march). I am very fortunate that my GP listens to me and the team at the practice just fit me in the minute I ring if I have problems as they say I never ring without having a valid reason even though I hate being there! My GP also put on my notes that I am to have a 20mins and not a 10mins appointment with him every time I go as I have complex health probs and need the time to talk things through - I didnt know he had done this til I was talking to the practice manager and the receptionists one day!

My gastro, asthma and derms cons are all really good and I am so lucky to have found such genuine professionals along with the dietitian and gastro nurses. I just dont know what I would have done without them.

If its any consolation I never heard of the tests til my gastro cons ordered them and I had to go research them lol Have to say though when my gastro cons saw the bile salts results he said he immediately suspected crohns ileitis and he saw them minutes before he did the colonoscopy so had an idea where he would find the ulceration and how bad it was going to be he told me later. He scored me at 7.5 out of 10 to give me an idea how bad things were.

 

[Guest]

hi lazy. i cant really offer advice, but i do know that even before we start to eat, our digestive action starts up just at the thought of food, and sometimes the peristaltic action is way too fast.. so swallowing food just sets off the activity (like a chain reaction). maybe try bulking foods for a while, like mashed potato & pasta - see if that slows things down a bit?

 

[Creepy Lurker]

I've found that eating regularly (4-5 times a day) with *very* small portions helps loads. Isn't ideal for everyone though.

 

[Guest]

I've found that eating regularly (4-5 times a day) with *very* small portions helps loads. Isn't ideal for everyone though.

i do that too, i think its called grazing lol. i'm much happier having a few small nibbles & things during the day, than a large meal anytime. with a big meal, i feel bloated & my digestion feels like its overloaded. on the plus side, its cheaper when i go out to eat because i order children's portions

 

[BWS1982]

I know what you mean

I have this exact issue, and have had it since the start of my flares. My first bite of food sends me in a B line for the bathroom (maybe that's why it's a B line).

I think it's the system preparing for another load of digestion like everyone else said. It makes sense, but it's so annoying....

 

[Kev]

you actually don't have to eat to start the digestive process.. just start salivating.
so, if you see a food ad on telly (TV to my US friends) and it makes your mouth water... Small, frequent meals, masticate thoroughly, take a break mid meal AND talk with your family, significant other, what have you, and it all helps digestion..

 

[Babe123]

i find that i am like that in the morning when i have breakfast i have to go immediatly... it rarley happens at dinner or tea but i find if i eat certain things it happens

x

 

[Kev]

I had that too... but I just associated it with the cuilimintive blood loss pooled in me.... sort of a blood enema all of my own making. Maybe that was a totally false assumption... But my 1st morning dash stopped when the bleeding ceased.

 

[BWS1982]

My dr. has said this is totally rectum-related as far as the urgency, not the eating food part though, even though they're related. If you cure the inflammation in the rectum (through steroid enemas, asacol suppositories, etc...) then it should subside. He recently put me on the Asacol suppositories (way better than the enemas, I HATE THOSE). I'm already seeing a difference with the urgency problems.

 

[Kev]

Wellll, tho effective at one point, I always found that the enema treatment was a very painful method... I literally had to steel myself to perform those each night.

 

[BWS1982]

The enemas were definately a contender for the worst aspect in treatment thus far for me, even worse than the scopes I had done or the prep I had to go through and even much of the pain from the disease itself. There were times I was so inflammed down there I'd eject the enema in and it felt like someone lit me on fire for 10 minutes and I'd cry until I fell asleep. 3 months of those before I was in the hospital and they said with Remicade starting now that the enemas were not needed, thank God. (as if I could keep some of them in there more than a few minutes sometimes anyways)

 

[Kev]

Welll, when I used them... last thing at nite... they caused such intense and often extended cramping.. that I literally HAD to curl up in a fetal position, using a pillow and hot water bottle... and then try to hold on for the next hour to 90 minutes. I now know that they were steroidal enemas, and the steroid concentration was a very hi dosage... So, I don't know if it was the combo of the enema w steroids, the steroids themselves, or just pain from the disease.
I do know that the pain from the treatment was far worse than from the IBD.

 

[TheLazy1]

Thanks for all the info, tonight I started by only eating a little bit of dinner at first then had more a few hours later.
Not any difference tonight though since my gut is really acting up at the moment but I will continue and see how it goes.

Hopefully it will clear up when I get my gut under control, I'm almost counting the days until I can take prednisone - as odd as that sounds.