I have had suspected GP episodes in the past so I have been taking mental notes. Two nights ago I had another, which included three hours of severe pain.
The first episode happened when I was up at a remote cabin. I felt a need to use the outhouse, so I got out of the sleeping bag and as I left the cabin I felt nauseous and puked in the grass. I very soon afterwards experienced some diarrhea before I got to the outhouse, which was inconvenient.
More recently, I have had two episodes at home where I got nauseous after dinner. Once I threw up and another time I got over it, after which I was totally fine.
Up until this point, I never had any associated pain. But two nights ago, I had two Hawaiian pizza slices and one beer. Then about bed time I experienced some serious back pains. Later on it was evident that I was having intestinal cramps which were bad. After throwing up, I spent the next few hours trying to reduce the pain by sitting, lying on the couch and walking around. Nothing much worked but eventually it subsided just enough that I could lie in bed. I was so tired that I eventually fell asleep, which was merciful. I woke up fine in the morning. I was worried I might have low glucose in the morning but that was "normal".
I've had discussions with another fellow who experiences these (and much more) at a different site and I am convinced that I sometimes experience gastroparesis also. My wife doesn't believe it, thinking it was the flu or some such. In all of these cases, I have been fine stomach-wise after it is over, so I discount the flu. Apparently GP is prevalent with diabetes, with which I struggle (and am IC because of).
There seems to be some common elements to these episodes:
- They occur after dinner (the largest meal), so wisdom suggests eating smaller meals
- At least twice, there were 1-2 beers involved.
- I had no lasting stomach effects afterwards (like the flu would entail)
So now I am resolved to start keeping a log. After the last episode (that I don't want to repeat), I need to log these for the benefit of the doctor(s) and for myself. There is some good information here
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/gastroparesis/ about the disease.
I generally don't drink but because of my kidney stone history, the nursing staff encouraged me to have a beer now and then to flush the kidneys out. My take away from all this is that I will have to time it better if I continue with this and keep to smaller meals.