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Need Help Undiagnosed Health Digestive Issues
Hi! I am a 27 year old female 5'6" 115 pounds. I would like to preface that I have a high tolerance to pain...I have performed ballet on borken toes. I have been having digestive issues since I was born. Recently things have gotten worse but I no longer go to the doctor because I feel they think of me as crazy and just diagnose me as nothing is wrong. Here is my history. I was born premature with jaundice and had to remain in the hospital for about a week. I have also had psoraisis since I was born. I had serious digestive issues during infancy til about 9 years old. My mom would have to rub my stomach to assist me in going the bathroom which was always followed with alot of pain and crying (Localized in the lower pelvic region and upper right side). After that things calmed down and I just suffered from boughts of constipation. I then starting having severe constipation starting around 20. The Doctors prescribed me to go on Senna laxatives as needed and informed me that these wouldn't be harmful. (Blood tests were normal) This would help with the constipation sometimes but not with the pain (lower pelvic region and upper abdomen). I just kept telling myself this was normal for me. Then around 25 I started to have a hard time keeping weight on. All I wanted to do was sleep non-stop. I was having constipation worse than ever and pain that was non-stop in the lower pelvic region and upper right abdomen. I was nauseated all the time and eventually only ate the minimum I had to to because it always made me sick. Again I went to a new Doctor. Blood tests normal, diagnosed IBS and put on miralax. Nothing changed and I just lived with the pain until one day the I was folded over so bad and throwing I went to the emergency room. I had severe pain in the same places. The doctors said it was probably just a cyst and said take these pain pills and go home and come back the next morning for an ultrasound. I then threw up on the doctor and said I can't take these pain pills and I'm not leaving til you figure something out. Blood work was run it was normal. I had 24 hours of testing including two CT's because the first was inconclusive, x-rays, pelvic and abdominal ultrasound all normal. Finally they did exploratory surgery and found that my appendix was perforated and seeping. It was removed. After the surgery I remained with the same digestive problems and take miralx daily which keeps me regular. However, I get sick at least once a week following eating with such bad intestinal cramping I cannot leave the house for a day I feel like I need to throw up but never do. I then went back to the doctor again after about a year of this because I was tired of living with it. They performed a colonoscopy and found everything to be normal except for two very narrow portions. I was told to stay away from too much fiber and continue to take my miralax. It has been the normal pain for months but recently I have been feeling more sick again. I am always tired, my brain feels foggy, I have pain from my belly button to under my ribcage, and between my shoulder blade, immediatly after eating whenits most severe. Then it tapers to a gnawing burning sensation for the remaining of the day with a few sudden jabs of pain. I wake up in the arly morning around 3-4 and can't go back to sleep because I'm so nauseated and in pain. Also my stool has reacently turned a bright green color (no I have not been eating alot of veggies I have kept a food journal for years). I also have had severe headaches, extremely thirsty all the time (I only drink water no coffee, no tea, no soda), and craving sugar like chocalate and cakes. I don't want to go to the doctor to have them tell me I'm crazy again but I'm tired of feeling sick. I work for a biotech company studying the immune system so I am aware of how things work. Is there a possibility the doctors are missing something, something tied to my auto-immune psoraisis. I know when I am going to get sick because it flares up but they discount that. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks...sorry for such a long post
The only thing I could possibly add is from two key things you said: auto-immune psoriasis and that you're feeling really tired. There is something called auto-immune hepatitis. I don't know much about it, but maybe something to google?
Dear Dancer,
I sympathize with you. I took a medication one time that goofed up my digestion for good, they call it the usual IBS, bouts of constipation a few times a year, no appetite. Anyhow, I've had a lot of medical problems over the years from a car wreck, I'm older now and on disability, and I now think I'm fairly stable, all things considered. But the point is, I have learned a lot about health, and I was also a nursing student ages ago and worked in old people's homes.
What I was looking for in your report, and found it, was the "narrowing" parts of your bowel. Part of what happens to you is, the digestion can't get thru those places as fast as it should, so the waste gets stuck. The more that you eat, the fuller your intestines get, until you get nauseated and sometimes throw up. The solution is to have a top-knotch gastroenterologist surgeon operate on your bowels and get rid of those "narrowing" places in your bowels.
Go to a doc who is associated with the state university hospital in your state. I live in North Carolina, so Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill are the hospitals I'd be looking at. In South Carolina, Charleston has got the best medical school hospital that's a branch of their state university branch there. Seems like I recall also, for example, in California a couple of the top ten hospitals in the country (according to U.S. News) are also university hospitals... I forget, but I think Stanford and UCLA are the ones.
I have a relative who had colon cancer and after the operation, a "stricture" developed, which is where the scar tissue tightened up parts of the bowel, and it had to be loosened up. This is a common result from bowel surgery. So, what you've got is very similar to that, in the way your intestines were at birth. So, that's how come I know what narrowing of the bowels can do to a person. It's serious enough that it normally should be operated on.
Now, your recent green in your stool indicates your bile is goofed up, which all that stuff is situated between the stomach and intestines, right under the liver, to include the gall bladder, bile ducts, and so forth. If your guts are holding too much waste or even backing up, well, then the bile ain't going to have nowhere to go, and it can cause all that green bilious stuff to malfunction. So, you ALSO have a gallbladder bile-duct situation now, which will probably eventually need looking into by a specialist.
In addition, as if all those things weren't enough, because the waste sits in your body too long, it can make your body toxic, and you can get infection in the body, and I'm thinking your thirst has to do with your kidneys and perhaps something to do with diabetes. Now, kidneys and diabetes, I don't know enough about to comment, except it's all part of the digestive process, which has been unhealthy your whole life, and may now actually be malfunctioning in that area, too.
So, in sum, you need those narrowing places in your bowels repaired, you then may need someone to find out what's going on with your bile and gallbladder, and someone to find out if you've got diabetes or something amiss with your kidneys. As for you idea of an autoimmune disorder contributing to all this, that could very well factor in, too. So, the docs need to keep that in mind while they do any of the investigations I'm suggesting.
There is a possibility that if they could just get your bowels opened up, that your other symptoms will subside, and you won't need to deal with bile and diabetes and all that other jazz. In other words, if you cure the original problem, the complications might end. And if not, why, you'll know those other things need to be looked at, could be there's a little damage as relates to those.
While you're waiting to get some surgery (and ask some docs and other people if you should do that, of course), I can tell you what I do when I have constipation, altho I don't imagine it will help you entirely. I noticed one of the docs said don't eat too much fiber. I imagine what he's thinking is, if your waste gets stuck, and then you go and pile bulky fiber stuff on top of it, you're not doing your guts any favors. So, I cannot say to eat oat cereal or whole wheat bread, but that's what I do.
What I can tell you, and you probably already know all this, is to drink lots of water, but DO NOT drink too much juice...juice has a drying effect, and yet you must drink 4 oz of orange juice daily, it's very good for the muscousal linings in your body. Also, you need to of course be active no matter how you feel, because exercise keeps "the engine oiled," which is to say by moving around physically, it will help your bowels move easier.
Even tho you shouldn't have fiber, I can see no harm in a small dark green salad daily, or some slices of cantelope (eat catelope by itself to prevent gas). They have high water content, not much bulk, but both will help your digestion move better because they have some bit of fiber in them. Spagetti is easy to digest and also has a lot of water content. Blueberries REALLY helped me when I first had IBS. And then there's Activia yogurt or Acidophilus milk, they have "good" bacteria that help break down digestion. Lastly, a half-cup of coffee can stimulate the bowels to move.
I have to assume that once the waste gets to where it's ready to come out, that it does indeed come on out, if the narrowings in your bowel are further up. But if it is dry and hard to pass when it exists, you can buy "Baby Lax" at the pharmacy, a little box of tubes of ointments, and squirt two in there and it'll come out for you. Keep the area lubricated with plain KY jelly after you bathe, too, to help passage of waste in general.
I hope this way too long reply helps you out a little bit. But I wanted to tell you everything that came to mind about you. Some of it may be somewhat incorrect information, and so I apologize ahead of time, just ignore what doesn't turn out to be helpful. But at least it will give you some ideas to work with, in your battle to be free of your ill-health for all these years. Oh, and I admire you for being a dancer.
GG
I sympathize with you. I took a medication one time that goofed up my digestion for good, they call it the usual IBS, bouts of constipation a few times a year, no appetite. Anyhow, I've had a lot of medical problems over the years from a car wreck, I'm older now and on disability, and I now think I'm fairly stable, all things considered. But the point is, I have learned a lot about health, and I was also a nursing student ages ago and worked in old people's homes.
What I was looking for in your report, and found it, was the "narrowing" parts of your bowel. Part of what happens to you is, the digestion can't get thru those places as fast as it should, so the waste gets stuck. The more that you eat, the fuller your intestines get, until you get nauseated and sometimes throw up. The solution is to have a top-knotch gastroenterologist surgeon operate on your bowels and get rid of those "narrowing" places in your bowels.
Go to a doc who is associated with the state university hospital in your state. I live in North Carolina, so Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill are the hospitals I'd be looking at. In South Carolina, Charleston has got the best medical school hospital that's a branch of their state university branch there. Seems like I recall also, for example, in California a couple of the top ten hospitals in the country (according to U.S. News) are also university hospitals... I forget, but I think Stanford and UCLA are the ones.
I have a relative who had colon cancer and after the operation, a "stricture" developed, which is where the scar tissue tightened up parts of the bowel, and it had to be loosened up. This is a common result from bowel surgery. So, what you've got is very similar to that, in the way your intestines were at birth. So, that's how come I know what narrowing of the bowels can do to a person. It's serious enough that it normally should be operated on.
Now, your recent green in your stool indicates your bile is goofed up, which all that stuff is situated between the stomach and intestines, right under the liver, to include the gall bladder, bile ducts, and so forth. If your guts are holding too much waste or even backing up, well, then the bile ain't going to have nowhere to go, and it can cause all that green bilious stuff to malfunction. So, you ALSO have a gallbladder bile-duct situation now, which will probably eventually need looking into by a specialist.
In addition, as if all those things weren't enough, because the waste sits in your body too long, it can make your body toxic, and you can get infection in the body, and I'm thinking your thirst has to do with your kidneys and perhaps something to do with diabetes. Now, kidneys and diabetes, I don't know enough about to comment, except it's all part of the digestive process, which has been unhealthy your whole life, and may now actually be malfunctioning in that area, too.
So, in sum, you need those narrowing places in your bowels repaired, you then may need someone to find out what's going on with your bile and gallbladder, and someone to find out if you've got diabetes or something amiss with your kidneys. As for you idea of an autoimmune disorder contributing to all this, that could very well factor in, too. So, the docs need to keep that in mind while they do any of the investigations I'm suggesting.
There is a possibility that if they could just get your bowels opened up, that your other symptoms will subside, and you won't need to deal with bile and diabetes and all that other jazz. In other words, if you cure the original problem, the complications might end. And if not, why, you'll know those other things need to be looked at, could be there's a little damage as relates to those.
While you're waiting to get some surgery (and ask some docs and other people if you should do that, of course), I can tell you what I do when I have constipation, altho I don't imagine it will help you entirely. I noticed one of the docs said don't eat too much fiber. I imagine what he's thinking is, if your waste gets stuck, and then you go and pile bulky fiber stuff on top of it, you're not doing your guts any favors. So, I cannot say to eat oat cereal or whole wheat bread, but that's what I do.
What I can tell you, and you probably already know all this, is to drink lots of water, but DO NOT drink too much juice...juice has a drying effect, and yet you must drink 4 oz of orange juice daily, it's very good for the muscousal linings in your body. Also, you need to of course be active no matter how you feel, because exercise keeps "the engine oiled," which is to say by moving around physically, it will help your bowels move easier.
Even tho you shouldn't have fiber, I can see no harm in a small dark green salad daily, or some slices of cantelope (eat catelope by itself to prevent gas). They have high water content, not much bulk, but both will help your digestion move better because they have some bit of fiber in them. Spagetti is easy to digest and also has a lot of water content. Blueberries REALLY helped me when I first had IBS. And then there's Activia yogurt or Acidophilus milk, they have "good" bacteria that help break down digestion. Lastly, a half-cup of coffee can stimulate the bowels to move.
I have to assume that once the waste gets to where it's ready to come out, that it does indeed come on out, if the narrowings in your bowel are further up. But if it is dry and hard to pass when it exists, you can buy "Baby Lax" at the pharmacy, a little box of tubes of ointments, and squirt two in there and it'll come out for you. Keep the area lubricated with plain KY jelly after you bathe, too, to help passage of waste in general.
I hope this way too long reply helps you out a little bit. But I wanted to tell you everything that came to mind about you. Some of it may be somewhat incorrect information, and so I apologize ahead of time, just ignore what doesn't turn out to be helpful. But at least it will give you some ideas to work with, in your battle to be free of your ill-health for all these years. Oh, and I admire you for being a dancer.
GG
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