Gastroparesis?

[crikklekay]

We’ve had a year. First severe iron deficient anemia out of nowhere, but couldn’t find the cause. We did a pill cam that got stuck and had to be removed with surgery, and that’s when the surgeon found a mesenteric mass stuck to the small intestines causing a narrowing which is why the pill cam got stuck (it did confirm bleeding in the small intestines, just not where it was coming from). John was put on a low fiber diet because he ended up in the hospital due to a partial blockage. But he kept having attacks every couple weeks or so, vomiting, cramping, and a “stuck” feeling in his middle. We’d do fluids and meds at home until it passed. One time he went to the ER because it got too bad, and the CT scan showed no blockage, which was odd. Slowly the attacks started happening more often, and when we mentioned this to the oncologist she said it sounded like a functional problem. I think she mentioned Gastroparesis but I didn’t know what it meant. The mass and the intestines it’s stuck to both lit up on the PET scan so she said we just need to focus on yanking it out.

His attacks became once a week, until recently he had 3 in a 2 week time span. And these were different. Yes, he had days of cramping and vomiting but no “stuck” feeling in his gut. So I looked up Gastroparesis and found it refers to stomach specific paralysis instead of the intestines like we thought he has been having. But now I’m confused, how can an inflamed small intestines cause his stomach to not work correctly? Is this a separate issue we need to worry about, or is the mass/small intestines causing it? Has anyone else had something similar?

John is still in iron deficient anemia, though iron infusions do help. But now he can only tolerate liquids. He tried some potato soup which had mushy chunks of potato and 6 hours later he was vomiting the contents of his stomach (which mostly looked like bile). His Gastro said this was a “mechanical issue” after the surgery so he said to refer to the surgeon and oncologist but I plan on calling him on Monday to see if he can shed any light. But I was hoping someone out there has also dealt with temporary Gastroparesis due to cancer/intestinal issues. Or just Gastroparesis in general and if it sounds similar to what he’s going through. Surgery isn’t for another 3 weeks and we’re at our wits end.

[PepperBaby]

This may be a long shot but have you heard of intussusception? It's where a section of intestine can telescope into itself and is usually caused by a lead point which can be a polyp, tumor or mass. The attacks are very painful and can cause vomiting and blood loss. Very hard to diagnose because it's almost impossible to run a scan during an attack because attacks don't give much advance warning.

[crikklekay]

I’m just seeing this, I didn’t get an email showing a reply! I had read that somewhere at some point, but I didn’t know it could cause blood loss. He’s having surgery tomorrow so that will hopefully provide some answers. Thank you for the suggestion!