Digestive/Gastroenterology

[shelby48]

For the past 3 1/2 years my wife has been suffering with frequent bowel movements w/stomach pains,fast heart rate and sweating. Everytime she eats or drinks anything 10-15 min later sometimes 25-30 min later she has a bowel movement and stays on the toilet for about an hour all the time. Her stool is usually very loose and the other day she had some white jelly or mucus like substance come out.During this time she has seen about 3 GI doctors and 2 bariatric doctors. One of the bariatric doctors felt that she needed a Gastric revision but it had to go through a board of his peers and they felt that it wasn't warranted. So we seen another bariatric doctor and he did detect an ulcer that she is being also treated for now but he said an ulcer would not cause her bowel problems and she did have pain from the ulcer but it was in a different spot.She has pains in her middle abdomen just about everyday,we thought it was IBS but she still have pains even after bowel movements and it continues. During and after eating she sweats especially from her nose area and her heart rate goes up.She has seen and currently seeing a cardiologist for her heart and is on medication,she never had heart problems like this prior and it seems like the heart rate is tied in with the pain and bowel movement. After every bowel movement she becomes hungry and she has about 9-10 bowel movements a day or more and looses 4-5 pounds a day.
My wife had Gastric Bypass Surgery roux-en-y 8 yrs ago and her gallbladder was removed during this surgery,I read that 17% of patients that had gallbladder removal had long term bowel complications and bile. Is that true and could this be what is going on because a the GI doctors she seen did all the tests ran colonoscopies and test for Chron's and other digestive disorders and all came back negative they can never figure out why.Could someone help?

[shelby48]

She had her procedure and the doctor found that the ulcer she had is healing and getting smaller not bigger so she is doing ok with that Thank GOD!!. Still is facing the problem with frequent stool movements and abdominal pain.Her heart rate is still rapid and she's currently been having pain from shoulder to chest and behind rib area to the back on her left side.Like I said before she never had any heart problems until she started having abdominal pains w/ frequent bowels.She sees a cardiologist and takes metoprolol.She went to the hospital because of rapid hb and chest pain in Dec 2012 he found nothing abnormal on all her tests. Do you think this is from her digestive problems.

[CalGal]

There's no 'time limit' on when someone might have post-gallbladder issues because changes can take place in the surgically altered area. Although it's not quite the same thing, think of all the individuals who have miserable pain from the development of adhesions literally years after the actual surgery.

Bile, if immediately vomited, is a kind of yellow-green if brought up by itself. It would still have kind of a yellowy color if it accompanies food.

As for the gluten issue, if it were gluten that substance causes general digestive 'misery' and taking in almost anything makes a person miserable. it's only after taking gluten completely out of the diet does someone find that they start to feel better - fatigue slowly eases, mood improve, rashes hopefully disappear, joint pain subsides, etc., etc. Any single or multiple food group intolerance causes a person to feel they can't eat anything. So don't discount the issue.

Yes, all of the surgeries can add up to digestive problems. Just the bodily process of healing the cut tissues is going to cause internal scars of some sort. If that scar formation pulls the surrounding tissue 'tight,' it can cause problems immediately or years later.

Most functional medicine docs are 'regular' MD with a specialty in functional medicine. It's not like looking for a GI person or pulmonary individual, etc. I believe you can seek out one yourself, or ask if your doc knows someone he/she trusts.

Where is the ulceration located?

[shelby48]

Even though she had Gastric Bypass w/gallbladder removal 8 yrs ago she still could have postcholecystectomy issues. What color is bile if it's vomited out again? Because when she has vomiting its usually whatever she has eaten, does the bile come out with food? I don't believe it's just certain foods like gluten that she can't tolerate it is all foods that she eats even low fat,low sugar and low calorie, same with drinks.She has tried diets even low fat seems like nothing works.She had other surgeries after the gastric bypass,she had a complete hysterectomy and two scar tissue removal surgeries in abdomen and an exploratory surgery where they were checking for dead intestines which she did not.Could these surgeries have had an affect on what's going on with her now? Does my primary doctor has to refer us to a functional medicine doctor or can she do the antibody testing also she is seeing a bariatric doctor can he do it. Also one more question she currently was diagnosed with an ulcer her bariatric doctor said that it looks bigger than what he saw in first EGD she has another one in a few days to see it again could this also cause what is going on as well? I know sounds like a lot of problems could you give me your best knowledge possible?

[CalGal]

Yes, it could be bile-dumping - or unregulated release of bile when food isn't always present. Find out from her doc whether she can try a bile-binding resin or something like welchol. In addition, make sure she's following a low fat diet. There are some suggestions for 'gallbladder' diets at www.gicare.com.

If she's bringing up bile when vomiting, she needs to be evaluated for postcholecystectomy issues. Check medscape.com for some articles on the problem.

If that doesn't help, consider checking into the possibility of food intolerances. Some of the symptoms could be related to gluten, dairy and other food sensitivities. You may have to work with a functional medicine doc to do that. You want testing on IgG/IgA antibodies, not IgE antibodies which is what a typical allergist does.

[shelby48]

Yes she does have fatigue and nausea after eating and before also has dizziness even when laying down. Also has chronic migraine like headaches that makes left eye spasm, been suffering with this every day and even wakes up with it. She has no relief with the abdominal pain after passing stool.Usually with IBS you have some relief after bm but she doesn't. She just always feel sick after eating and also has vomiting sometimes but more bowel movements than anything. Could this be bile dumping? Because her bariatric doctor told us he has no knowledge of this when we explained this to him.He said we need to ask primary care doc to refer us to another GI doctor.She has seen several of those and haven't been any luck prior.

[astronautagogo]

Sounds to me like her Vagus Nerve might be getting set off and irritated....that along with an ulcer can present all of these symptoms. However @CalGal definitely seems to know her stuff so I answer her questions as i'm not familiar with potential post GB surgery issues. What I do know is that ulcers and gastritis are very under appreciated conditions that pose much more serious and wide ranging symptoms than they get credit for, including rapid heart rate, fatigue, dizziness, anxiety etc etc. Has she been tested for h pylori or parasites?

[CalGal]

Many people have issues with bile 'dumping' following GB surgery. Is she on a low fat diet? Have the docs tried using any form of bile-binding resin to see if that would change the issue? Any food intolerance issues in her family? Is there any correlation between what she eats and the frequency of bowel habits? Any rashes? Any severe/unusual fatigue after eating?