Gastric Emptying

[Guest guest]

Cara,

To test for the speed at which food leaves the stomach, or lack of

for that matter, the doctor would have to order a gastric empyting

test. For this, the child drinks or eats a food that is laced with

a radioactive substance (very mild and leaves the body quickly,

relatively speaking). Then the child has to lay down on a table and

an x-ray-type machine is lowered over him. This machine will track

the movement of the food for a period of 90 minutes. The info is

then fed into a computer that calculates the time that it takes the

stomach to empty. Sometimes it will also show reflux, but it is one

of those things that you have to catch. A child can have reflux,

but it may not happen at that time.

The last GET that Max had indicated that his emptying was over 1500

minutes. In essence, his stomach is emptying so slowly that it

technically does not empty. There is still food in there from

breakfast when he eats his lunch. This happens with a lot of RSS

kids. And this was AFTER the pyloraplasty!

What amazes me, and Salem has noted, too, is that despite

the delayed emptying, Max and still eat a lot of food. But

Max pays for it at different times of the day. He will get stomach

pains that make him really uncomfortable. He likes eating, though,

so he just waits for it to pass and then chows down.

Jodi Z.