Gastroparesis

You have my sympathy. My cousin has Gastroparesis and I would not wish it on anyone. Can you have shakes? I know a bottle of Ensure is 220 calories. You could easily put together a protein shake that would top 300+ calories and provide some much needed nutrients.

One of my good friends has this terrible affliction. She believes it was triggered by long-term pain killer and opioid use. Medications that she had been taking for a serious back injury over a period of many years. Basically, she believes the pain meds slowed down her digestive system to the point that it became paralyzed. She reached a point where she could hardly keep any food down at all and ended up losing a lot of weight. What finally helped her was to get off the pain meds completely and then experiment with what foods she could tolerate. Getting off the meds was difficult, but she was successful. The food experiments continue. She did discover that she tolerates many fermented foods like sauerkraut. She drinks a lot of homemade kombucha, as well. She's beginning to add more foods to her diet and I think she eats eggs now.

One of the books she said really helped her is Nourishing Traditions. She gave me a copy as a gift and I have tried several of the ferment recipes with good success. Lots of good information about how people used to eat before processed foods. Here's a link to the book if you want to check it out:

https://www.amazon.com/Nourishing-Traditions-Challenges-Politically-Dictocrats-ebook/dp/B00276HAWG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491975556&sr=1-1&keywords=nourishing+traditions+by+sally+fallon

Good luck to you and hope you find some solutions and a way back to health very soon!

My mom has this as well, after having open heart surgery she found out that during the procedure some of the nerves to her stomach had been burnt, there was hope it wouldnt lead to this, but it did and she actually is in a wheelchair right now from getting a really bad flu that started to attack her body and she is slowly gaining the ability to walk again.

My dad had a really hard time getting her to eat anything, and her doctors have told her she cannot have any fat, so she eats chicken, fish, pasta and things that are easy on her stomach. However she is never eating enough, and im really glad that it seems like this is something you are worried about and are taking a proactive approach, I feel as if my mom has given up on trying to eat, and will sometimes go a few days without eating. This has caused her to not be getting enough sleep, and be extremely weak, im not saying this to scare you by any means, just trying to explain what someone else is going through.

my mom did try protein shakes, and she didnt really care for them, but she will drink a smoothie some days that has greens, veggies, fruits, yogurt, and ice in it. Other than that I would say eat what you can, when you can. Some days she cant eat much, but other days shes so hungry and eats way too much and feels sick, I think its a balancing act. Have you tried any additional foods besides the ones you mentioned? You may need to experiment a little

Hi EvyShepard,
Years ago I suffered from ideopathic gastroparesis for about six weeks. It was awful trying to figure out what I could and could not stand to eat. I wish you all the best with this. Mine randomly cleared up when my nerves regenerated, but I assume that is not the case for most people.
Foods I could tolerate: homemade chicken stock with saltines, green smoothies, and Ensure shakes. If I had gastroparesis today I would probably try to add a bit of coconut cream or avocado to the smoothies to see if I could have tolerated that form of fat better than with meat or fried foods.

I'm on a soft diet , Lost 4.5 stone in 4 months , had a nice 14 day stay in hospital getting all the good stuff intravenously , weaned on to a mash/puree liquid diet .The one thing that has helped me to gain a small bit of weight is fortified milk [ 4 tbs of Nido full fat whole milk powder to 1 Pint of whole fat milk ] , been adding this to scrambled eggs with cheese , works great with mash potatoes/carrots or swedes .Enjoy hot milky drinks eg hot chocolate or coffee , topped with cream .My diet at times is repetitive at times , fire on a pot of vegetables boil until soft ,puree and add cream , potato cakes ,yogurts ,rice puds , basicly what my grandson eats . Basically not much can be done apart from bulk out what you can eat , go for Ensure plus , 350 calories/220ml , love the coffee flavour .All the best , hope your health improves .