Violent retching x 27 days with abdominal pain

[momand4kiddos]

My 14yr old son started dry heaving/retching on April 1st one week after being released from the hospital for asthma and bronchitis. Since that time he has undergone a full UGI series, upper endoscopy, abdominal CT and sono, KUB, head CT, complete blood work and neuro eval. All test results have come back negative. He continues to retch violently throughout the day, stopping for no longer than an hr and continuing until he finally falls asleep. If he is sleeping he is ok, as soon as he wakes it begins again. Most recently his neurologist said he felt these were abdominal migraines and placed him on 25mg Elavil. He has continued to decline with retching becoming more violent and painful. He was placed on phenegran and then Zofran 8mg with no relief. He has since had his Elavil raised to 50mg. in hopes of relieving the "migraine", however, another doctor has said he does not believe these are abdominal migraines and wonders if he has developed a tic or something else related to his OCD. Most recently a renowned physician suggested exploring abdominal seizures. I am at a loss. My child is suffering both physically and emotionally at this point. His life has come to a complete halt and every turn we hit a wall. Can anyone give insight, please?!

[J_P_]

Have they done an H-Pylori Test?  It sounds familiar to me, and i was diagnosed with H-Pylori.

[selma67]

HI.  My son has something similar to your son.  He is almost 13 years old and since last Thursday has started in with constant all-day retching.  It finishes when he sleeps and for as long as he sleeps and then starts again when he wakes up.  Sometimes it is only a few times an hour and other times it is worse.  At first we thought it was from a tummy bug but now, having read a lot about this in the past few days, it seems as though it is likely either a severe food intolerance or else what J P said . . . possibly h pylori.  When my sister had bad and frequent vomiting which lasted many weeks after the initial virus which triggered it, she was sent for an endoscopy because h pylori was suspected.  In fact, she was lucky and didn't have h pylori and her vomiting cleared up spontaneously, possibly due to the endoscopy.  

In any case, we are getting referred to a GI specialist, but I think h pylori is going to be what we look at first, since it appears to be a fairly common infection.  

If anyone else out there has any information about this, I would be really grateful for whatever help or advice or experiences you are willing to share.  I'm getting a bit desperate myself, actually.  Thanks.