Diabetes and abdominal pain

[*4!#6]

As a new nurse, I have already seen this type of patient many times and would like to see if other nurses share my experiences or have any tips or information for me.

This type of patient has diabetes and comes in for DKA. They are typically a frequent flier and what medicine calls "noncomplaint" with their treatment plan. They are usually younger then you'd expect and have multiple comorbidities that you would expect to see in a much older patient, such as ESRD, CAD - with CABG, neuropathy, etc.

One of the biggest complaint with these patients is abdominal pain and nausea. Often this abdominal pain/nausea is intractable. Some are labeled "drug-seekers" and some are not, but all have similar symptoms.

Does anyone know what this is, how do we successfully treat this, or why this pain happens? I have heard it explained as gastroperesis, but what exactly is this? And why is it so difficult to treat? I'm not really sold on the idea of gastroperesis.

[RNewbie]

I am familiar with gastroparesis pts. The ones I see are usually young and have no health probs. I never realized the correlation between this and diabetes, but I found some info that sums it up pretty well. I feel so sorry for gastroparesis pts. I can never get their pain or nausea under control and they are just miserable. I have seen some that have a gastric stimulator placed and that seems to help.

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/gastroparesis/

[Trekfan]

As a new nurse, I have already seen this type of patient many times and would like to see if other nurses share my experiences or have any tips or information for me.This type of patient has diabetes and comes in for DKA. They are typically a frequent flier and what medicine calls "noncomplaint" with their treatment plan. They are usually younger then you'd expect and have multiple comorbidities that you would expect to see in a much older patient, such as ESRD, CAD - with CABG, neuropathy, etc. One of the biggest complaint with these patients is abdominal pain and nausea. Often this abdominal pain/nausea is intractable. Some are labeled "drug-seekers" and some are not, but all have similar symptoms.Does anyone know what this is, how do we successfully treat this, or why this pain happens? I have heard it explained as gastroperesis, but what exactly is this? And why is it so difficult to treat? I'm not really sold on the idea of gastroperesis.

Ok so here what I know about it from my own experience it is nerve damage that can be caused by high sugars or byetta (in my case) and the pain from it can not be seen on any test and that's why doctors just call people drug seekers because most er doctors do not know much about it .( I ended up in a weelchair from the pain for 3 months ). No one knows much about why the pain happens in my case I had a S/b blockage that I vomited up (fun times ) Also what can happen is because everything is moving slower then normal you can get bacteria overgrowth witch makes people sick .Trust me when I say if someone comes in with it they are in pain ! the pain is like being stabbed with a hot knife . the olney other thing that will help is a GI cocktal