Wow! Thanks! I'll check this out for sure.
No...I'm not a big fan of taking stuff. I was having blood in stools, CT scan, blah, blah, blah...but my stomach is always a mess, it seems, especially when BG's off, what upsets it the most is going from high to low. I really hope she can see a GI doc. A prescription of something is just masking the symptom, ya know. Also, she's probably always hungry cause her BG's are off. I'm rarely hungry when my blood sugars are stable.
Like the others, I'm saying a gastro to help you out. In the meantime, I can give you some dietary suggestions that help with the nausea and the possible gastroparesis issues. (I get delayed gastric emptying flareups and the nausea is only calmed with Zofran.)
I used the BRAT diet for a while: Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast. All of these are so bland that they "calm" the stomach. Small amounts. I also drank diet ginger ale (again, small amounts) because ginger helped with the nausea. Creamed soups, bland chicken, yogurt.
Avoid any heavy fat meals or fried foods. Those make the delay in the gastric emptying worse.
Hope you get an answer (and some Zofran) soon!
As another side point for controlling nausea, there are a few other things that might help.
I've heard (though I have no experience with this) that adding ginger powder to ginger ale helps.
I DO have experience with Sea Bands, which press on a spot on the inside of the wrist called the Nei-Kuan point. I hate to admit that acupressure works, but it does. I used it for years for my travel to high school because I got so terribly carsick and I had a looong commute (think hours). They work for all nausea, not just motion sickness.
I also find that mint gum works wonderfully; I used it to control the nausea I had for the first few days I was on Metformin. Oh, what a wonderful trick that was!
I'd also suggest Benadryl, but that, of course, will make her tired and therefore probbaly won't be too helpful.
Thanks! Just got ginger ale! I'll look for Sea Bands & get her some gum. Hopefully these things will work until we can get an appointment.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned appendicitis. I had all those symptoms 2 weeks before mine was finally removed and even when it was removed they still said it wasn't appendicitis ...until it was autopsied after removal. Also gallstones could be giving you those symptoms as well....
I say definitely get her in to see an gastro dr if you can
Thanks -- I never thought about appendicitis. Trying to get a referral to a gastro. Meanwhile, I'm trying out all suggestions.
My teenage daughter seems to suffer from a extra sensitive stomach and isn't diabetic. However, someone once told us the the best ginger ale for nausea is Reed's Extra Ginger Brew. It's at places like Trader Joes and whole foods. She just sips a little now and then and and goes through a bottle every few days. Lots of people swear by it, and it seems to work for her too. Might be worth looking into if it stays non specific or drags on. Kind of like the suggestion or adding ginger, just already made that way.
Definitely get it checked out. It really can be any number of things so you really don't know until you get some things checked out.
Try a gluten free diet...I personally experienced good results after going gluten free.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the suggestions!! We've got her under control now & I think we'll be able to finish the school year & make it to the July 16 gastro appointment I scheduled for her. Really watching what she eats, got her a soy/protein shake mix, she's taking Zantac & probiotics. Endo also suggested we get her checked for Addison's, just in case that's causing the problems. Tudiabetes is the best place for me when I have a tough question & need some help!
So tell us what happened!?! Hope she's feeling better. My son is 1 1/2 yrs of being a PWD also has some vague on & off stomach thing that is hard to pin point and at various times we've credited different things to its possible different causes. I was concerned about gastroparesis too, but not likely. We also have a GI consult upcoming, but it may be overkill b/c I think the last episode of stomach pain may have been from constipation.
I've had a "vague on & off stomach" thing since I was about 17. They finally decided it was IBS. Completely erratic and unpredictable as to frequency, intensity, and duration. No pattern that can be identified.
I have been Hypothyroid since birth and Diabetic since a child. Hypothyroidism has been around for a long time, but they are barely getting around to really knowing much about it at all. Most of what your daughter is going through sounds a lot like the hypothyroidism is giving her issues. I take a T3/T4 combination which they are finding more beneficial for treatment of Hypothyroidism, but I still get some of the same symptoms as your daughter. It would be worth talking to her Endo about the symptoms of Hypothyroidism and it interacting with her Diabetes.
So...I would like to suggest at your appointment that you cover the very basic potential problems alongside the more serious, like food allergies. I had similar issues that you describe in your daughter for a while, which culminated in major cramps 24/7 and fatigue, alongside the random symptoms. I was active, relatively stress free at the time, and doing well with my T1D, up until my major symptoms arrived. I went through the regular doctor, endo, gyno, and Gastroent, who, after a series of tests, sent me for exploratory surgery. You know what I had? Lactose intolerance. You know who diagnosed me? My husband, after seeing the surgery photos of my intestines. My surgeon didn't even catch that - only that the bloating was rubbing my other organs and causing pain (which was causing my blood sugars to react to stress, which threw my body into symptom chaos). Each of my docs must have assumed this was ruled out. It was counterintuitive to me since I felt better eating cereal with milk (calmed the stomach) and nauseous eating chicken (lactose hitting my intestines from the cereal some odd hours later). I was better in less than three weeks. I'm not saying it won't be something serious, I just want to make sure you guys are aware of this possibility. Here's to hoping your daughter feels better soon and the cause is something mundane, small, and treatable!
Think I'm going to be able to get her tested at her primary doc for Addison's disease before our July gastroenterologist appt. Samantha has had T1 for 2 yrs & these stomach issues just started. She was going on as usual, eating just about anything she wanted until the last 2 months. This is something that's been building up & I feel like we just have it contained right now by watching what she eats very carefully. She's a junior in high school, under some stress with testing & her sports, as she's getting ready to choose a college. Could be stress, could be sudden allergy, could be ulcer, gastroparesis, IBS -- I know it takes a while to figure out GI issues. We've made so many changes - absolutely no fast food until we know what's going on, a light breakfast & lunch (scrambled eggs are ok, pancakes ok, peanut butter & jelly or soup. I think taking the probiotic pills is helping. She was very nauseous & feeling full easily, but that seems to have gotten a little better. I hate to have her deal with yet another issue, but I'd like to get this pinpointed.
Thanks, she is hypothyroid & we get her levels checked 3-4 times a year. She seems to be holding steady on this.
I'm hearing more about abdominal migraines, which truthfully sounds a bit off the wall & of course other more serious diagnoses would have to be ruled out. A friend had mentioned it in reference to her daughter, who was under some stress. I looked it up on pubmed.gov & there is some credence to such an unknown condition. Although I cant imagine any MD readily diagnosing the symptoms as such when there could be so much more serious issues at fault. The negative thing is there's no diagnostic test. Do you have migraines in the family?
We don't have migraines in the family -- but we don't have diabetes in the family either! I'll look this up. I try to bring up anything & everything when we get to a specialist.