Nutrition Health Chat: Tuesday, Dec. 8th, 5-6 PM Eastern. Learn how vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients affect your health. Free live Q&A. Join us!
Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum. ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
Chronic digestive problems for years, no hope?
by Matsu, Apr 01, 2009 01:51PM
I'm not sure where to begin, so I guess I'll just post a timeline of my problems. Please bare with me if this gets long, it has been a long battle.
It started with Post-nasal drip when I was about 11, which then turned into an upset-stomach every couple of days. (A feeling of irritation and nausea in my stomach, like I'd swallowed slime & sand, just gritting against my stomach walls, ugh!)
My allergist assumed it was caused by my pollen & tree allergies, put me on several meds for it, and sent me off. I tried over the counter stuff to stop the Post-nasal drip, nose sprays, steroids, etc. Nothing made it stop or helped.
The nausea and upset feeling was soon joined by severe bloating after eating anything, I was constantly burping, it felt like the food just sat and rotted in my stomach for 8+ hours, not moving. So, being a stupid and sick kid, I decided avoiding food was the only way to feel better. Between ages 12-14 I lost a lot of weight. (I was always stick-thin anyway, now I was a skeleton.)
Then intermittent heartburn and reflux joined my nausea, upset stomachs, fullness & bloating.
I went to dozens of doctors, and had many tests done.
Upper endoscopy showed inflammation of the stomach, no ulcers, tested negative for H-pylori.
CT scan on my head showed no tumor that could cause chronic nausea.
I had a test done on my gallbladder with a contrast fluid... I forget the name of it, but it came out normal.
Blood tests to check for various things never showed any problems, besides my obvious lack of nutrition at this point.
I had a stomach-emptying test done to check for Gastroparesis, felt horribly nauseous the entire time, but it came out normal.
They put me on several drugs, Prevacid, Pepcid, anti-nausea meds, Regland, over the counter stuff... Again, nothing helped. My mom put me on a slew of vitamins, pro-biotics, protein powders, etc.
At about age 15, 5' 3" tall, under 80 pounds at my lowest, my Gastro doctor was afraid I'd have a heart attack because of my low weight. So I was put on TPN (intervenious feeding) for a couple months. But my family's insurance wouldn't cover it, so I had to switch to a G-tube instead.
I protested of course, but I was a kid, and had no say in the matter. The surgery made my heartburn flare up for months afterward, which my doctor said was "normal". By this point I was lucky to get toast, an egg, water, and some bland cereal down once a day.
But I did gain some weight back, I got to about 110 pounds, my highest ever. I slowly started eating more (Two meals in one day, I could stomach some jelly on my bland toast, shock!)
I tapered off the G-tube feedings once I got my weight back up, and had it removed last year, in 2008. I still wasn't well by any means, but I learned to deal with the nausea, bloating, occasional heartburn (not very often anymore), migraines, etc.
That is, until the beginning of this year. I was out one day, and with no warning I had a "nausea attack". Shaking, breaking out in a cold sweat, sick to my stomach. It then repeated itself after most meals. A week later it was joined by a pain in my upper-right abdomen. The shaking stopped mostly, but the feeling of fever, nausea, and pain didn't. After several days of these 30 minute to 3 hour attacks, my parents took me to the ER.
A CT scan showed I had a very small kidney stone (.3 mm I think) in my right kidney. But they said that couldn't possibly be the cause of my pain, and tried to send a psych consult instead. I refused. (That's one good thing about turning 18! I can finally take some control over my treatment.)
Being an underweight teenage girl, I had already been to 5+ doctors who immediately thought I was anorexic, making this all up in my head so that I would have an excuse not to eat. Because of Child Protective Services my parents were even forced to send me to therapists and eating disorder specialists for testing. I've been through it, I'm not anorexic. The eating disorder specialist said my doctors were wrong for sending me to them for something that is clearly a physical problem, I agreed.
Next stop was a Urologist for the kidney stone. He also said he doubted that was causing the pain, and sent me back to my Gasto, thinking it was an ulcer instead.
My Gastro ordered a full abdominal ultrasound to rule out everything else. Gallbladder, pancreas, liver, etc. all looked normal. He just noted that I had a large excess of intestinal gas (Well, duh! I had complained of bloating for years. I can burp all day and hardly get relief.)
So I guess that brings me to where I am now. Nauseous, bloated, in pain, unable to eat hardly anything, losing weight again quickly, diarrhea & cramping after many meals.
I'm losing hope. I've tried to search for answers myself, goodness knows my dozens of doctors haven't been much help, but I'm coming up empty. Has anyone had something similar? Any ideas of what it could be? I'll listen to pretty much any idea you have, thanks for reading all of this. :(
It started with Post-nasal drip when I was about 11, which then turned into an upset-stomach every couple of days. (A feeling of irritation and nausea in my stomach, like I'd swallowed slime & sand, just gritting against my stomach walls, ugh!)
My allergist assumed it was caused by my pollen & tree allergies, put me on several meds for it, and sent me off. I tried over the counter stuff to stop the Post-nasal drip, nose sprays, steroids, etc. Nothing made it stop or helped.
The nausea and upset feeling was soon joined by severe bloating after eating anything, I was constantly burping, it felt like the food just sat and rotted in my stomach for 8+ hours, not moving. So, being a stupid and sick kid, I decided avoiding food was the only way to feel better. Between ages 12-14 I lost a lot of weight. (I was always stick-thin anyway, now I was a skeleton.)
Then intermittent heartburn and reflux joined my nausea, upset stomachs, fullness & bloating.
I went to dozens of doctors, and had many tests done.
Upper endoscopy showed inflammation of the stomach, no ulcers, tested negative for H-pylori.
CT scan on my head showed no tumor that could cause chronic nausea.
I had a test done on my gallbladder with a contrast fluid... I forget the name of it, but it came out normal.
Blood tests to check for various things never showed any problems, besides my obvious lack of nutrition at this point.
I had a stomach-emptying test done to check for Gastroparesis, felt horribly nauseous the entire time, but it came out normal.
They put me on several drugs, Prevacid, Pepcid, anti-nausea meds, Regland, over the counter stuff... Again, nothing helped. My mom put me on a slew of vitamins, pro-biotics, protein powders, etc.
At about age 15, 5' 3" tall, under 80 pounds at my lowest, my Gastro doctor was afraid I'd have a heart attack because of my low weight. So I was put on TPN (intervenious feeding) for a couple months. But my family's insurance wouldn't cover it, so I had to switch to a G-tube instead.
I protested of course, but I was a kid, and had no say in the matter. The surgery made my heartburn flare up for months afterward, which my doctor said was "normal". By this point I was lucky to get toast, an egg, water, and some bland cereal down once a day.
But I did gain some weight back, I got to about 110 pounds, my highest ever. I slowly started eating more (Two meals in one day, I could stomach some jelly on my bland toast, shock!)
I tapered off the G-tube feedings once I got my weight back up, and had it removed last year, in 2008. I still wasn't well by any means, but I learned to deal with the nausea, bloating, occasional heartburn (not very often anymore), migraines, etc.
That is, until the beginning of this year. I was out one day, and with no warning I had a "nausea attack". Shaking, breaking out in a cold sweat, sick to my stomach. It then repeated itself after most meals. A week later it was joined by a pain in my upper-right abdomen. The shaking stopped mostly, but the feeling of fever, nausea, and pain didn't. After several days of these 30 minute to 3 hour attacks, my parents took me to the ER.
A CT scan showed I had a very small kidney stone (.3 mm I think) in my right kidney. But they said that couldn't possibly be the cause of my pain, and tried to send a psych consult instead. I refused. (That's one good thing about turning 18! I can finally take some control over my treatment.)
Being an underweight teenage girl, I had already been to 5+ doctors who immediately thought I was anorexic, making this all up in my head so that I would have an excuse not to eat. Because of Child Protective Services my parents were even forced to send me to therapists and eating disorder specialists for testing. I've been through it, I'm not anorexic. The eating disorder specialist said my doctors were wrong for sending me to them for something that is clearly a physical problem, I agreed.
Next stop was a Urologist for the kidney stone. He also said he doubted that was causing the pain, and sent me back to my Gasto, thinking it was an ulcer instead.
My Gastro ordered a full abdominal ultrasound to rule out everything else. Gallbladder, pancreas, liver, etc. all looked normal. He just noted that I had a large excess of intestinal gas (Well, duh! I had complained of bloating for years. I can burp all day and hardly get relief.)
So I guess that brings me to where I am now. Nauseous, bloated, in pain, unable to eat hardly anything, losing weight again quickly, diarrhea & cramping after many meals.
I'm losing hope. I've tried to search for answers myself, goodness knows my dozens of doctors haven't been much help, but I'm coming up empty. Has anyone had something similar? Any ideas of what it could be? I'll listen to pretty much any idea you have, thanks for reading all of this. :(
Member Comments (1)
by Matsu, Apr 02, 2009 02:41PM
Bump?
Post Comment
Related Communities
Recent Videos
Related Expert Forums
Recent Activity
Most Popular Trackers
RSS
Expert Activity
Community Members
