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Stomach Bug that never leaves

Around the beginning of August just after that very hot spell, I was eating some hamburger that probably was very rare.

I suddenly got this weird
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Did you ever find out what the problem was?
I am dealing with the same symptoms.
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A person with a chronic condition usually knows more about it than your typical doctor.
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CONTINUED

So to summarize:

* - I felt gut troubles acompanied by almost oragne stools with a period of 3- 9 days between each one, and they were verysoft, almost liquid. My dosgs, all 9 of them have this same symptom as well as Intestinal gases.

* - I had a big boil in al of my left eye's lower lid, followed bya big pimple on left cheek and whole left cheeck inflamation.

* - The lab tests show LOW K and LOW HDLD, HIGH ALT ups and downs in the measures of the WBC Hemoglobin, Leukocytes, and such. As well as an urinary infection which seemingly disappeared by itself.

*- I have suffered from physical fatigues at some points during this year.

This might be due to a re infection since here the cats are still in the house since no other person in the house gets affected by this, although the owner of the cats suffers from a continued throat infection which can't be cured with coinventional antibiotics like they use to do.

I AM STILL LOOKING FOR ASSISTANCE ON THIS, I REALLY HOPE THIS CAN HELP ANYONE GOING THROUGH THIS SAME ****, I WILL BE BACK AS SOON AS I FIND WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO RESOLVE THIS PROBLEM.  If anyone got a diagnostic while having these symptoms, please reply and thanks in advance. Hoep you all get well if you hadn't yet.
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Are you close to cats or a loved one who have physical contact with you sharing time with some pets like cats, hamsters or dogs? I'm having the same symptoms as you as well as an inflamation in the face. I guessed it was Giardiasis and then Toxoplasmosis. Since my situation started after a cat which lived for like 8 months in the streets, was brought home, without even giving it a bath or cleaning it.

The case is, I have 9 dogs and all of tem presented the same gastric symptoms aa me, they started right after January 6 2011, the cat arrived around December 12 2010. I have visited to this date, the ER of the nearest hospital for about 20 times, they check my heart and encymes and  EKGs. They just contol my Blood Pressure and send home to die in my bed :-\ The story goes like this:

On Jan 3 I went to the bathroom, and when I was sitting down in the "trone" I felt like my Blood pressure went up, the sides of the neck felt like pounding and felt the pulse accelerate suddenly accompanied with abdominal pain, but it was a very rare pain, very unlike any other before.

Later on Jan 6 I had to go to the ER with the high blood pressure and kept visiting my Generalist and internist due to the HBP, even when taking treatment of ENALAPRIL 10mg, COZAAR 100mg andNORVASC 10mg, the blood pressure kept going up. THis was accompanied by mild hurting just below the left ribs in the abdomen and almost orange stools, but the bowel movements wre very unfrequent, some times 5 days btween them others it took 8-9 days.
I remember on Jan 14 I tried to walk to the Walmart Super center near home, I parked 5-7 parking spaces from the front door, adn walking there, at the time I reached the front door I felt like if I had run a couple of miles, very high rate and blood pressure. I also had tremblings like whe there is too much cold, but even standing in palain sun in the morning in PuertoRico. I then noticed one of my dogs had the same trembling which, like in my self, was more pronounced when it exhaled. I started looking for illnes transmitted by pets and found it was Giardiasis.

Tests were negative but durng this time my bowel movements were very unfrequent, so even the movements had to coincide with the period the parasite sheds their eggs. In beggining of February I felt sore throat and took CIPROFLAXIN for 10 dasy, strangely I felt better inn the abdomen. So then on Feb I experienced a big boil in my left lower eye lid which lamost closed my eye. I decided to break it myself and so I did and epmptied my eye lid to feel better, I did feel better. Then on May 8 I felt like a pimple in my left cheek, as well as reduced hearing in the left ear and a sensation of stiffness in the lef side of neck, a swollen lymph node beneath the arc of the jawbone and on on the base of the back of the head as well as sore throat but mostly in the lef side inside.

I went to the Dr. since the pimple got bigger than a quarter of dollar, and the inflamation was like all the cheek and the pimple was suppurating plasma and blood. The Doc said the partial hearing loss was due to inflamation on the canal of left ear as well as the swollen nodes and the pimple. I was given CLINDAMYCIN HCL 300, 4/ day for 7 days.

Started the med at 8 pm, at or around 11pm I felt a burning sensation in the left side of neck, chest and upper left back near the shoulder.
I kept awake to write down anything I felt in case it was a reaction to the CLINDAMYCIN, but I felt nothing more up to the 7 am next day so I went to sleep. Never felt it again until June, then I went to see other Dr. whcih put me on KEFLEX but as I took that I felt the symptoms got worser and woser. Between Jan 6 and June 21 I had been on a couple of Antbiotics adn have taken a few Tests, including rutinely ones at ER and CMPs, CBCs, Stool tests and so on. I noticed on July 5 I went to ER and they made an Urinalysis they told me I had an Infection and prescribed me SEPTRA DS 2/day for 5 days, but I didn't took them since I had to do mare tests and then they might get wrong, so I took the SEPTRA in July 13, right after the new urinalysis. Surprise for me! The Urinalysis on July 13 was negative.

of importance is that between the ER CBCs and the other tests ordered by Drs. I have been showing LOW K ( potassium), HIGH Ca( Calcium) and a rollercoaster on the Lymphosites and WBC, as well as the Hemoglobin lower than my normal values (between 16 and 17). Also I had some CBCs show I had Low HDLD and HIGH ALT.

After reading and getting a clearer understanding of Giardiasis and Toxo I came with a theory: THE GIARDIASIS BLOCKED ABSORPTION OF K AND FATS IN THE INTESTINES SO THIS MIGHT BE CAUSING THE FATIGUE AND LOW HDLD" Along the time I have experienced periods of HBP as well as fatigue when walking very short distances ( 25 feet) and some months when I could walk the mall and go shopping with no problem.

Until last October 2011, in October 29 I had to go to ER again (maybe my 20th time this year) and so the Drs. there started thinking my  problem is psychological >:-[ but I started seeing an Infectologist, Internist, Nephroloist and Cardiologist.

The Cardio made the ECHO on November 16 and the result came on 23rd. I felt so bad that I got Clindamycin 300mg by myself and started it on Nov 4, through 5 and sunday 6. At sunday I had to go to ER again and came home on monday, I was eperiencing the burnig sensation around my upper torso: Neck, left side of chest and abdomen ( where I have felt the hurting since January. as well as the upper side of my back. The burning sensation got less intense with the passing of days, at the time I went to do my ECHO i just got a sensation of tingling wich agravated by a slightly of a touch to the left side of the chest, then turned to a sensation like itchyness inside the chest and left side of neck, throat. I remember the same day I did the ECHO i felt the left chest in pain, it was painful when touched like if it was a big briuse, or when  some one bench presses more weight than they can handle. but it dissipated with tha passing of days like the other symptoms, I even had the blood pressure too low on November 24 and 25 so I was only taking one of the 3 medicines for HBP.

Then I started feeling the symptoms coming back a bit worser in each passing hour until last saturday December 3, in which I started feeling the fever like symptoms again, I got very hot to the touch in regions like Left side of the abdomen, thraoat area and upper back while the other areas of my body felt like cold some of them others felt normal.

Now I'm taking again the medications as prescribed, monitoring my BP a lot of times a day.

The CARDIOLOGIST made an ECHO CARDIOGRAPHY(ECHO) which showed in his own words "the heart walls are a bit thicker than normal" I guess this is due to inflamation. The Infectologist told me to control the HBP in order to rule out the posibility of the feverlike symptoms being caused by HBP.

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Hi,

Did you heal your giardia? I have the same symptoms you describe plus the strange sensation in my neck and my cheaks what the helll is that?

garlic helps but not that much,
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I've been dealing with this same problem, which all started after a dentist prescribed me the antibiotic Clindamycin for a tooth, for over 2 months now (since June 8, 2010). I've only had a few days in these months (usually when my stress levels were low) where I did not have soft stools. I have the bloated pressure in my abdomen, which is relatively constant. Sometimes I have gas, which I think is good because it seems to alleviate the pressure temporarily. I've had blood tests and stool tests that came up negative for everything tested, including H Pylori, C Diff, Campylobacter Antigen #1. The only thing that was unusual in my tests was my Red Cell Dist. Width, which is low at 9.8 where the normal range is 11.5 - 14.5. The doctors don't know what's wrong and of course it was a different doctor who showed up each time and the last one (a new doctor to the office) went so far as to suggest I could be gluten intolerant, even though I have not found any evidence to support that theory. He wants me to see a gastro specialist to find out, but I'm not having a problem with gluten, it's milk that I can't seem to tolerate right now.

Prior to this, I've had no food intolerances other than bleu cheese because I'm allergic to penicillin. I never had any lactose issues before this. The last time I had a glass of milk before bed, the next morning I had a terrible experience with a very loose explosive sort of stool that burned even after it was gone. I decided to cut milk out of my diet after that, and since then I have not had the explosive burning.

After the Clindamycin dosage was through, I began taking acidophilus (Bio K) once every morning to regain my flora. I hate yogurt so that was not an option for me, the acidophilus has more of the cultures and it is easier for me. I always feel better once I drink it, and I would recommend it for anyone having these problems. I found that doubling the dosage to two a day often had a good effect on me too, where my stomach felt better and my bowels were not unpleasant to pass, although they were still soft. After a month of this is when I went to the doctor, who put me on antibiotics and told me to hold off on the acidophilus for now until the antibiotics were finished.

Since this all started with a course of antibiotics, I was rather worried when the doctor prescribed me another antibiotic, Ciprofloxacin as well as Metronidazol. I took them for a week, and I felt that some of the painful cramps subsided. Having to wake up in the middle of the night to urgently use the rest room also subsided, which was a relief. I was told to go on a liquid diet (Water, Jello, applesauce) which was difficult to me because I did not feel satisfied after eating that. I was told after a couple days I could move up to soft foods, so I would eat applesauce with cinnamon, biscuits made with no dairy, mashed potatoes, lots of chicken. I even had some lovely pasta with meat sauce from a local Italian restaurant that makes it all from scratch - that went down very well and gave me confidence that I could eat real food without problems in the morning.

However, the bloated pressure and cramps remain. My periods, which usually give me these same sensations of cramps and abdominal pressure magnify the problems for a very painful week or so, making it hard to tell if I'm making any progress. I just want to feel better. I want to make the pain go away, no one knows what is wrong. It's quite possible it started out as Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea and then has been dragged out by the stressful events that have coincided with it. Not to mention the thought of not being healthy is stressful in itself, as I know you understand.

I am worried that after two years of being "cured", you have the symptoms revisited. I am worried that I will have to remove dairy from my diet permanently. I am worried that an antibiotic has permanently changed my life.
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I am back and it is now 2010. I was symptom free for TWO WHOLE YEARS. I never thought that nightmare would be over.

Then in the middle of this heat wave in the eat, once again, I got the strange dull headache and then suddenly BLAM! The stomach is tingling and hurting up above.

What else is similar? I ate some rare hamburger. I hope I did not catch some exotic disease and give this to myself another two years. God help me.

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HAve you tested for clostridium defficile?
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rthomas003

10/14/06
its all in your head, just stop worrieng about it for the love of god. people sometimes have chemical like "inhuman "smelling poo, it happens, you probably ate some bad hamburger and got siock but your making it last becuae youve convinced yourself you have some weird rare stomach disorder, your fine just shut up.
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This post was posted a year ago but I wanted to make a comment on it.  I think this guy is a young doctor.  This is very much what I think the attitude of doctors is.  Doctors are seen in society as "know it alls" when it comes to health issues, and the natural reaction of a "know it all" who doesn't have the answer is to become defensive and say it's just stress or it's nothing or it will settle on its own instead of being humble and taking it as a learning experience like 1 in 10 doctors do who actually learn throughout their career.  Being a doctor is a great life long responsibility.  Few rise to the challenge.
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Have you gotten an answer? I had had a parasite in my stomach but it was found in a stool sample. It had made me feel bloated and bowl movements were nothing but liquid no solid stool. I had had

BLASTOCYSTIC HOMINIS
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I have a parasite or a bug of my own that I would like to share and hopefully get some ideas. I have had this thing I will call it MyBug for years. I first noticed small worms in the toliet and thought they were from someone eles. After several times I realized oh my gosh they are from me! I think I have had them for like 7 years or more. I recently was on a medication that made me vomit and oh gosh for the first time I realized they were in my stomach as well as my bowls because again I saw them in the toliet after I was ill. I have that tingling sensation as well but did not associate it to MyBug until recently. It keeps me up at night but in my cash the tingling or crawling sensation starts high up kind of between my ribs and goes to my stomach. I really have no symptoms other then I know MyBug is there and this tingling thing which when it happens makes me hot so basically causes night sweats. I have had several stool test run and they can't find or see MyBug but on a recent test they found Blastocystis hominis which I am now on Flagl for which makes me really sick! MyBug is not Blastocystis hominis but the doc says he wants to cure this before moving on to MyBug which is for me worse. I have read every article I could find on bugs and worms and looked at a million pictures of them trying to find MyBug but so far nothing matches. Oh ya all the deworm medicine and nature stuff does not touch MyBug. It must be something really tough and I guess stomach acid does not kill it either! I wish I could post pictures here and could have someone take a look at them. I know its gross but I have fished MyBug out of the toliet and taken a picture of it or them I should say because it seems like there are two different looking MyBugs maybe male and female. Its scary because I have had it for so long, nothing seems to kill it and the doc can't find it!!!
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I have a story of my own to tell
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Life,

I really think a virus disturbed the balance in my stomach. I had terrible flatulence throughout all of this for four long months.

The fact that you did have Giardia tells me that this could also be the residual effect of it. I have read where it damages the lining of your stomach and takes a while to regain balance.

Just keep treating yourself with healing foods, try to sleep well at night (I used a valium to knock me out when the pain was unbearable) and try not to be stressed by it. I thought I would never see the light.

I am now drinking coffee and eating steaks again...and have been pain/gas/nausea free for a full week now. I have to get back to my exercise routine and lose the 10 lbs I gained from all this inactivity and food therapy!

Praying for you!
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Many of the foods you mention are foods that are suppose to be good if you have IBS.  I found a very depressing but helpful website helpforibs.com that lists a lot of what you mentioned.  

My doctor told me there is nothing wrong with me.  My tests show nothing so there is nothing wrong with me.  Yes, I have some IBS symptoms but get over it.

IBS is so depressing to read about and I feel as if I have the worst case possible.  I react to everything I eat.  My struggle is every second of the day.  I hate to eat.  

Something triggered diarhhea last week and I had it for most of the week.  I haven't excercised in a couple weeks because I'm afraid to lose any more weight.  I'm so weak and I can't afford to lose any weight.  

It's so hard to think that I was perfectly healthy in February.  Busy as could be, loving life, enjoying my family and now I feel so down and depressed.  

I will try some of your suggestions and let you know how it goes.  I'm still trying to hang onto that thread of hope that it's just going to take time for my body to recover from the Giardia and treatment but I'm beginning to lose hope of that since it's been over 3 months.  Although I had Giardia for almost 5 months before they detected it.  

LIFE IS GOOD!!!



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Life,

I can say that after exactly 4 long months my stomach finally feels normal for the last 4 days and (dare I say it)  'it' is gone.

The stress that has accompanied this illness has been tremendous.

I am going to list all the foods I ate to attack this, which mostly were on the list of 'avoids' that the gastro doc gave me. He looked at me like I was nuts when I told him I did just the opposite of what he told me to do. After all, I had to go on the premise that I had acquired something foreign in my stomach, whether it be viral, bacterial, or protozoan and that if I wasn't going to get antibiotics I would have to go the natural route to kill it. All the Prevacid, Pepsid, Pepto Bismal, Bentyl, Levsin and Nexium in the world did nothing to help this because most of the time I did not have acid indigestion, but a feeling that I was hit with a baseball bat squarely in the abdomen.

Those things just made me feel worse.

I have one more problem that I hope is just temporary. I woke up with a sore red spot on the top of my head this morning, where I seem to be missing a patch of hair! I have long dark luxurious hair and this alarmed me terribly! Could I from stress of this illness have pulled it out during the night? After all I have been in extreme pain almost every day for 4 months...and worried sick because they did not tell me what I had.....good grief. Or, maybe because I could not eat/digest protein for four months and had to give up my fish-rich diet? I have started to eat eggs again....but I am missing my sardines and salmon and steaks.

Anyway, here is what I used to 'attack' the 'thing' in my belly, in light of having had 400 tests for every parasite and bug including HPylori, come back negative:

I tried to take plain Metamucil with applejuice daily but that became a chore and I gave up on it. But it also helped so if you can do it, that's good.

- Ginger/lemon tea with ground cloves in it on an empty stomach first thing in the am, and last thing at night.

- Oatmeal, chunky applesauce and vanilla yogurt (the kind with the cultures) laced with two tablespoons of cinnamon three times per day. This was like apple pie.

- Meals of pasta made by cooking it in bouillion, and seasoned with basil, thyme, hot pepper, pepper, sea salt and olive oil (EV), mixed with baby peas.

- Meals of pasta made with tomato sauce laced with two cups of chopped garlic, some hot pepper, basil and plenty of EVOO.

- Lots of carrots - canned have the most Vitamin A, and drink the juice - it was the first thing I had when I decided to attack this with food. I thought, Vit. A is for repair of irritated skin, so why not? I found the juice soothing.

- Fresh squeezed OJ.

Of course go slow on this, because you may not have what I had and even though these are all harmless normal foods and herbs and spices, you may react to them differently. And watch your salt if you have to.

Drink plenty of water and applejuice....write to me and let me know what happens...

I stayed away from rice because it's binding, although I did not have that problem once the intial 3 weeks of the illness had past. In fact, every description I read about IBS said you must have 2 of the 3 symptoms and I did not....I had JUST the belly ache.

I'm having the colonoscopy and endoscopy just for good measure in January, and if that turns out negative I will proclaim that I healed myself without the doctor.


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I am so glad to hear that you are feeling much better.  I'm going to try some of the things you mentioned.  The oatmeal worked really well for me once I really gave it a chance.  I've lost so much weight this past week because I'm getting to the point that I hate to even see food.  

I realize IBS is not a disease but a syndrome that they don't really know much about.  I have all the symptoms: stomach pain, gas, bloating, spastic colon, lactose intolerance.... the list goes on.  The people that tell their stories of living with IBS is so depressing!  I appreciate what you said about how it can take time to recover from Giardia.  I really hope it will just take time but some day I'll be better.  

I went to nutritionist which turned out to be a "quack".  I was hoping she'd give me some suggestions on what to eat/not eat.  Maybe recommend some supplements.  Instead, she told me to take a full body digital picture (in my clothes) and send it along with $300.00 to some guy in Vegas.  He would break it down to binary digits which would diagnose my problem.  Then he'd make some patch embedded with a computer chip that would emit energy frequencies and after a few months of wearing this I'd be "cured".  What a waste of $35.00!!

My tingling happens as soon as my stomach begins to flare up.  I almost think it's an allergic reaction of some type because I also itch around my neck and chest area when it happens.  The tingling is not constant as it once was.  It seems to come and go depending on what is going on with my gut.  I know this makes no sense since the cheeks would be controlled by the brain and the hands would seem to be something wrong with the spine.  I don't know but that seems to have become the least bothersome of my symptoms.  Anyway, my next test will be a colonoscopy.  

Sorry for length of this.  Thanks for listening.  Thanks for your ideas, input, feedback.  I really do appreciate it.  

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OH yeah it was LIFE who had the positive Giardia test, not Pete.

I had the same reaction to the Flagyl -- my test could have missed the infection but the Flagyl did kill something.

I heard that in adults, the Giardia often messes up your stomach for a long while afterward and you need to heal it gradually.
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To Life:

I am astonished that you also had the tingling pain in your cheek. Could we have a herpetic infection? The symptoms are quite bizarre aren't they?

Also there is no such disease as 'IBS'. That is just a collection of symptoms for which there is no diagnosis. I do not accept it as a diagnosis. I had a virus that never went away. I have some sort of INFECTION.

I am feeling almost 90% cured and how did I do it? All natural. Everything the doc said NOT to eat, I ate, in abundance...and it worked. I have been making pastas and such with loads of basil, thyme, cayenne pepper, pepper, and tomato sauce with LOADS of garlic chunks.
I have been drinking ginger/lemon tea with ground up cloves. I mix at least 2 tsp of cinnamon into my oatmeal and applesauce and yogurt mix daily. The doctor looked at me like I was nuts when I told him what I have been eating but you know what? This has helped cure me when nothing he did for me has. I have been killing whatever it was that got 'stuck' in my stomach. I am not feeling the kicked sensation anymore, just a little soreness around the ribs.

As for you Pete, I am not sure I understand the terminology of what you are telling me about the tests and levels and such. Can you please explain a bit more?

All my tests came back negative except for on a scale of 0-4 I had 1 mucus and 2 bacteria. So there is SOMETHING in there irritating me. People do not get irritated for no good reason.

Thanks.
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For clarity, I never had a positive Giardia EIA test.  The diagnosis was empirical.  In fact, I had a half dozen negative Giardia tests, negative o&p, and negative cultures.

The doctor ALSO told me my blood tests were normal, but they were not.  They clearly showed elevated ALT and AST on the comprehensive metabolic panel multiple times.

Keep in mind I was incredibly ill for 6 months and I am still recovering.  Hang in there.  Here are suggestions to ask your GP about:

-Blood Tests:  Comprehensive Metabolic Panel with ALT & AST, Epstien-Barr Virus (Sometimes mono presents in a odd GI manner, it's worth a shot), Salmonella Agglutinins (aka Widal)

-A consultation with an infectious disease specialist.

In my case most tests were basically normal except ALT, AST, and Salmonella Aggultinins.  Notably, white counts and ESR are often completely normal with Typhoid and a few other rare ones.  Your GP will likely contradict this when trying to convince you to avoid the infectious disease specialist, but it's worth a shot since the scholarly literature documents this fact.

I also had an EGD and colonoscopy.  These were normal and the procedure is quite easy.  Really the coloscopy preparation drink is the only unpleasant part.  I also had normal ultrasound, CT, and enterography.  

This may be an unusual infection or a nasty virus, but based on my experience I do not think this is in your head.  I do think you should see the labs yourself and you should seek personal support from anyone close to you.  Your recovery is likely to be slow like mine has been.  But if all of the usual illnesses are ruled out, it's incredibly likely you'll be feeling better in several months.  Also, don't expect recovery to be continuous progress.  Mine got better and worse many times.  Sometimes it followed a 5-7 day cycle.

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By the way, you're really starting to sound like a doctor with the medical terms and information you know.  In fact, you know a lot more about this than any of the doctors I've been to!
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Thanks for that list.  I know my test did not cover Crytosporidium Parvum.  I received a copy of my reports because I plan to see a Nutritionist.  Fortunately they copied and mailed them no questions asked.  I have 0% hope that the Nutritionist will say much I haven't already read about but I'm hoping she'll have some input on the meds the docs are prescribing.  The latest is some low dose of antidepressant.  I guess they've found it helpful in desensitizing the nerve endings of the gut to help relieve pain.  At this point I'm not taking any prescribed meds and will be very slow to do consider any of this.  

Friday was a terrible day.  I felt like someone kicked me in the gut all night long.  My insides felt bruised and raw.  I could barely move or cough.  The next day I was much better.  Again, I'm never without symptoms anymore and that's what really scary.  I seem to be getting worse rather than better.  My chest and neck itch, the back of my hands and cheeks tingle, I've really got some bizarre stuff going on and I don't know if it's related.  

They plan to do one more Giardia stool test.  The better test, I've heard from a microbiologist, is the one that initially diagnosed me which is a stool antigen test.  I don't understand the different testing procedures.  I'm also currently having my pancreas levels checked.  

After this, if the tests remain negative, I will begin to look more closely at Irrtitable Bowel Syndrome.  I checked out some sites and it's very depressing what I read because it appears that between the Giardia and the Flagyl I may deal with IBS the rest of my life.


But as my screen name says...LIFE IS GOOD!  

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Life -

When I told the gastro doc that I had contracted an ordinary stomach bug that blossomed into this 'overnight', he told me "sometimes you get a virus and then it takes on a life of its own and gives you IBS".

Phooey!

I did not buy this explanation. The Flagyl did kill something but not sure what.
Giardia is hard to find so I could have had that along with some thing else, or I could just be suffering from the effects of the Giardia which I hear last a while even after it's cured.

He gave me meds and a list of foods to avoid. Prevacid, Pepcid, Levsin and Bentyl I refused to take because the first three did nothing, except the two P's gave me indigestion!

I then went ahead and ate everything on the list he told me to avoid since these are good anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-parasitic foods (cinnamon in my oatmeal, cloves, ginger, garlic, hot peppers and lots of roughage...) I actually feel better for this (even tho I reek of garlic, LOL)

I started drinking black coffee again and even at hamburg although this time well cooked and mixed with a ton of garlic and some tomato sauce made with plenty of EVOO.

I am still getting severe hunger pains and pinching sensation under the ribs and my ribcage hurts both in front and back.
The lab that tested me won't let me see the results and neither would the doctor. He said all were 'negative'. However, sometimes the microscopic parasites, even when in abundance, are not considered to be causing the problem. (For example my cousin was Dxed with Crypto and yet they gave her no anti-biotics for it!)

On the 21st Nov I will see a GP and I will:

1- demand to see my actual test results
2 - have a test for HPylori, the ulcer bug, which I don't think was in that other test
3 - tell her she'd better start exploring the anti-biotic that will help me or I'm going to put a gun to my head because I've never had a stomach ache/headache in my life, let alone for 4 months like this

I am also going to have a colonscopy and upper endoscopy in January and I will ask that they take a biopsy of where it still hurts up top.

Yes, the nausea and kicked in the belly feeling isn't as bad. But I still know I am 'sick' and don't feel right.

Bowel movements are regular, and bulky and the right color.
But I still have 'something' and am confined to home until I am sure I won't have an attack while out.

I am not sure if oatmeal or Metamucil will help you -- you just have to experiment like I did. Maybe I am feeling better in general and therefore I can eat most anything now. I never thought this was related to food --- just that if your stomach is hurting from something else, eating in general is going to hurt! Right?

Drinking water can hurt if you are already in pain! D'uh. I tried to get the doctor to see this logic. He doesn't buy into the parasitic idea, but did at least not belittle me.

But like I said, I still have to demand to see the actual test numbers, which the lab will not show me! What a crock.
I hope you feel better Life......it's no fun always having a stomach ache and I never could understand how people could live like that...never thought I'd end up like this... :-(

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Avatar universal
These are the things that can come back high on tests, but which doctors often refuse to treat because they don't feel they are the cause of your symptoms:

Microscopic parasitic infections that are often found to have caused Crohn
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Isn't it so awesome when you have a good day.  When I read your entry about having two good days, I was a bit envious.  I use to have good days and bad days.  I no longer have one whole good day.  I now have good hours or a good 5 minutes.  I cherish those good moments.  I just wish they could last longer.  

Ever hear of Xifaxan?  That's the latest med they want to try.  The thought is that my bowel is not working properly and I have a back up of bacteria which is causing the gas, fluttering, pain, etc...  This antibiotic does not absorb into the bloodstream but stays and works only in the gut.  

I really hate taking meds.  The Bentyl, for instance, I feel lousy for 3 days while I'm on it and then I feel lousy for another 2 days as I wait for it to work itself out of my system.  I feel like such a guinea pig!
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