Re: 10 year enigma

Posted By Suzie on March 07, 1999 at 18:52:24:

In Reply to: 10 year enigma posted by C.L.C. (Chris) on February 26, 1999 at 11:42:32:






: Sorry this is so lengthy but there's a lot to say.  I'm a 29 year old male with a 10 year, persistent problem that has not been diagnosed.  Ten years ago, my initial symptoms were severe cold chills, with uncontrollable body shakes lasting a half an hour to approx. 1 hour.  Also with the chills I felt extremely tired and fatigued, foggy in the head with general aches and pains.  When the body shakes finally subsided I would get a painful, pressure-like headache on the entire top half of my head.  These attacks continued this way every couple months or so.  Then, I began experiencing extreme abdominal pain (left-side, just underneath rib-cage), diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue and yellowing of skin along with the body chills and other symptoms.  These attacks come and go on an average of every two weeks.  Over the years I was under the care of a Gastroentorologist who performed numerous tests..colonoscopy, endoscopy, ultrasounds, cat scan, blood tests, urine tests, stool sample test and nothing definitive has resulted.  I did notice these attacks were more frequent after the consumption of alcohol..I tested positive with pancreatitis (1992).  I quit drinking alcohol, but the abdominal pain and other symptoms got worse.  Two years later I had my gall bladder removed because of gall stones, however, I never had any pain in the area of my gall bladder, it has always remained on the left side and radiated into my mid to lower back.  Still having problems, I was retested for pancreatitis and this came up negative.I had the test done again by a different doctor with the same outcome - No Pancreatitis.  This I don't understand..because the same problems persists.  Is this recurrent pancreatitis?  
: About two years ago I turned to Holistic medicine, most of which didn't work.  I did get some positive results from something called Noni juice.  While drinking the Noni juice, I went three months without an attack, and when it finally did hit, it was extremely mild compared to past attacks.  However, the same routine slowly resumed and although the attacks were milder, they were still averaging every two weeks.  Now it seems that the abdominal pain has decreased and rarely do I become nauseated, however the body chills and shaking are worse.  I have episodes now where my body will shake violently and uncontrollably, as if my entire body is vibrating.  .   I was told this could possibly be a severe reaction to a fever.  But what is causing the fever?  Infection, inflammation, what?  
: Please help if possible.  I have left out some smaller details, which may or may not help, however, this is getting too long.  Thanks.          
:          




Dear CLC,
I too am puzzled by the episodic nature of your symptoms.  Usually, when we are presented a story of an intermittent complicated problem that involves multiple different body parts, we think of conditions in which hormones are released into the body that affect multiple body parts.  Conditions that can present thios way include carcinoid syndrome ( a condition in which symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea,sweating and flushing can be precipitated by alcohol) and pheochromocytome ( a condition of the pancreas in which adrenaline is released).  I assume that these diagnoses would be excluded by the blood, urine and CT scan tests.
Pancreatitis can present with abdominal pains but would not cause the symptom complex that you describe.  
You may wish to return to ypour physician for a repeat evaluation.
This information is presented for educational purposes.  Ask specific questions to yourr personal physician.
HFHSM.D.-rf
*keywords: pancreatitis, carcinoid syndrome
0.2
Thanks for the reply.  It most definitely is puzzling.  I would like to elaborate on my symptoms and add some other concerns.  I guess I've lived with this for so long that I forget all the things going wrong with me.  Some of these things happen before, during, or after an epsiode.  Some come and go, while some are with me on a day to day basis.....I will try to separate them accordingly.
Fever of 101-102, perhaps higher. Does not respond to tylenol (During).
Possible low grade fever......I need to verify with daily temperature readings.
Bad breath (before).
Unusual body odor..similar to baby formula (during).
Blood shot eyes (during and after).
Extreme, sickly, sour feeling throughout body (during and after).
Pasty, ashen color to skin (after)
Yellowed skin and eyes (before during, but mainly after) Physician seems to think Gilberts.  
Left-mid and center-mid back pain (during and after an episode, but occasional flare-ups when feeling fine).
Morning stiffness (Nearly day to day).
Joint Pain (during and after, but occasionally when feeling fine).
Red spots (not lesions) on skin, mainly forehead and neck.  These are more like small streaks but can be oval-shaped, and are very noticeable.  Appearing for maybe 30 minutes (Mainly before or after an episode....occasionally they come and go).
Noticeable red hands and feet that are extremely sensitive (after, but not each time).
Loose stools (Nearly daily).
Diarrhea that is yellowish, sometimes dark brown-green. It can be liquid or part liquid part solid...gritty and sometimes oily (very prevalent before and after and episode).
The chills (not body shakes) I mentioned earlier might be better described as a strange, tingling wave that literally "moves" from shoulders up to neck, then down my back then back again.  It feel it both internally and on the surface. (before, during and occasionally with bouts of diarrhea).  
Tingly, pins and needles type feeling on skin.  (Always during).
Cold skin sensations (i.e. my nose feels cold to my own touch) (Always during).
Slight feelings of hunger before onset.
While my episodes are milder (mainly abdominal pain and vomiting) I'm still extremely worried.
I'm always irritable, and have drastic mood-swings..sometimes even fits of rage.  Sometimes I can't concentrate and find myself "spacing-off" for great lengths of time.  
I don't recall hearing any of the doctors I've seen mention carcinoid syndrome or pheochromocytome, but I will follow-up with your findings.  
I'm going in for a CT scan next week (last one was in '92, I think)  I'm not too confident it will show anything now, though.  But I'm going to keep digging.
Thanks again for the reply...I know you may not have the answers but I'm hoping one of the above symptoms will help.
Thank You!  Chris (C.L.C.).      




Sorry to read this, but something sounded familiar - what about allegies?  Also do a check for Lyme's Diseas and also for Malaria.