Ulcers and GI Pain

[Mintlilacs]

I have a complicated GI situation and my doctors are stymied.  Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I am a male in my early thirties, with chronic fatigue syndrome.  During the course of which I drank a couple of glasses of horseradish juice (for detoxification purposes).  This caused severe pain, bloating and diarrhea.  Although those symptoms are gone, whenever I eat anything coarse or spicy it causes irritation.  This starts a couple of minutes after eating it and continues as the food makes its way through my GI track.  The only thing that relieves it is to take a laxative and flush it out of my system.  It has been getting progressively worse, and now my diet consists of mostly whey, brewer’s yeast, milk and yogurt.  Most herbs, medications and vitamins irritate it.  I also have receding and inflamed gums which get worse as my stomach situation deteriorates.  Lastly, I have chronic prostatitis, with significant calcification, both an alpha blocker and antibiotics (Cipro, Bactrim, Doxycylcine) for it irritated my intestines.  There also seems to be a link between the prostatitis, inflamed gums and GI symptoms, where one aggravates the other.  In general I have poor wound healing.

Test results: I possibly have chronic infections/virus, i.e. Parvovirus, mycoplasma, Bartonella etc.  But the blood levels are low and the doctor is not sure if they are active or not.  A stool sample showed Citrobacter freundii, E. hartmani and low butyrate.  I have not been tested for small bowel intestinal overgrowth.  I have high serum and urine aluminum.  An endoscopy found “Diffuse moderate inflammation characterized by erythema and granularity was found in the entire examined stomach.  Localized severe inflammation characterized by deep ulcerations was found in the gastric fundus.”  Esophagus and Duodenum were normal.  Both a biopsy and blood test came up negative for H. Pylori.  Colonoscopy and Pillcam of small intestine and CT Scan of the Abdomen and Pelvis were normal.  In a Small Intestine Series they found “In the terminal ileum, there is mild thickening of folds with a cobblestone appearance…Findings consistent with early Crohn’s disease.”  Since the pain I experience after eating is not short lived, I do not thing the issue is only gastric ulcers but also something along the intestinal tract.

What I’ve tried:  Nexium, Aciphex, Prilosec, Pepcid, Carafate, Clidinium/CPD and Probiotics.  Nothing has helped.

What I think is going on is that something is hampering the bodies ability to heal itself, caused either by the inflammation from the chronic prostatitis, a chronic infection/virus or the aluminum.

I would be grateful for any treatment or diagnostic ideas,

Cobi

[Mintlilacs]

Thank you for your post.

My docs want to just repeat what they already did, CT scan of abdomen and pelvis and colonoscopy.  I’ve done some blood work for IBD and it came back negative.  Its unlikely I have IBD since I had no GI symptoms before the horseradish juice.  I’ve tried asacol and hydrocortisone, both caused gastric irritation.

The reason why I focus on my stomach issues is that the problem is clearly there and not responding to interventions.
Thanks again.

[CalGal]

If you have findings in the terminal ileum that are indicative of Crohn's disease, why are your docs not following up on that? How about doing a Prometheus test that will look for the presence of certain markers that are found in those with IBDs?

Why haven't your docs started you on some of the more generally used drugs to try to stabilize any inflammatory problems known to occur with IBDs?

You seem to be focusing on the findings in the stomach. But what about the findings in the small intestine and the lower colon?