Aa
Athletic 27/m sudden onset of dibilitating GI issues.
What's wrong with me? 27/m/athletic, debilitating medical issues over past 6 mths out of nowhere.
Symptoms & frequency:
-itchy scalp w/red bumps, starts behind ears, spreads to back of scalp when I scratch - occasionally (probably hives)
-hives all over body, including forehead, eyelids, souls of feet, palm - every day (reactine helps)
-debilitating esophageal problem - once a week, keeps me up all night into late am/early pm next day.
symptoms:
feeling of pill stuck in throat (like hive in throat)
chest extremely tight
gassy belching, feeling of trapped gas
constricted throat/esophagus, pain when swallowing water (like drinking too much water at once, hurts going down)
regurgitating partially digested food and foamy saliva
overproduction of bubbly saliva (have to spit all night)
throat constricts so tightly that it causes me to dry heave foamy saliva, accompanied with gut wrenching burn
vomiting (recent symptom)
sore throat
can't sleep when it flares up
is my digestion shutting off? Too much acid? HELP
Symptoms & frequency:
-itchy scalp w/red bumps, starts behind ears, spreads to back of scalp when I scratch - occasionally (probably hives)
-hives all over body, including forehead, eyelids, souls of feet, palm - every day (reactine helps)
-debilitating esophageal problem - once a week, keeps me up all night into late am/early pm next day.
symptoms:
feeling of pill stuck in throat (like hive in throat)
chest extremely tight
gassy belching, feeling of trapped gas
constricted throat/esophagus, pain when swallowing water (like drinking too much water at once, hurts going down)
regurgitating partially digested food and foamy saliva
overproduction of bubbly saliva (have to spit all night)
throat constricts so tightly that it causes me to dry heave foamy saliva, accompanied with gut wrenching burn
vomiting (recent symptom)
sore throat
can't sleep when it flares up
is my digestion shutting off? Too much acid? HELP
I got this response from another doctor on another forum - anyone have any thoughts:
This detailed chronological account must have taken a lot of time and effort.
Thank you.
I assume your barium swallow was fine and did not show any strictures, and all your workup thus far has been negative.
It sounds like your symptoms might be due to a systemic illness, perhaps an autoimmune disease. I'm not certain whether this has anything to do with the viral infection, but it conceivably it may have been a trigger. The first illness that comes to mind is lupus erythematosus. Another is collagen vascular disease. You may also have malabsorption syndrome.
That being said, another possibility that is frequently overlooked is heavy metal poisoning (mercury, lead, arsenic, etc.). Heavy metals can produce random, seemingly vague symptoms of gastrointestinal symptoms like heartburn, indigestion, bloating, food allergies and unusual rashes. You might be in contact with these and not even know it.
Certain vitamin and nutritional deficiencies can cause or exacerbate the underlying illness, especially in malabsorption syndromes.
So, I recommend you ask your doctor to:
1. get a consultation with a rheumatologist
2. evaluate for heavy metal poisoning
3. check for vitamin deficiencies
4. consider gluten free and lactose free diet; it would be prudent to see a GI specialist if these measures do not make things better
5. consider a consultation with an immunologist if the other steps above are negative for disease.
6. Get tested for HIV if it hasn't been done already
In addition, while your symptoms do not sound infectious, it would be worthwhile to make sure you have not been subjected to toxic mold in your home, place of work, etc.
This detailed chronological account must have taken a lot of time and effort.
Thank you.
I assume your barium swallow was fine and did not show any strictures, and all your workup thus far has been negative.
It sounds like your symptoms might be due to a systemic illness, perhaps an autoimmune disease. I'm not certain whether this has anything to do with the viral infection, but it conceivably it may have been a trigger. The first illness that comes to mind is lupus erythematosus. Another is collagen vascular disease. You may also have malabsorption syndrome.
That being said, another possibility that is frequently overlooked is heavy metal poisoning (mercury, lead, arsenic, etc.). Heavy metals can produce random, seemingly vague symptoms of gastrointestinal symptoms like heartburn, indigestion, bloating, food allergies and unusual rashes. You might be in contact with these and not even know it.
Certain vitamin and nutritional deficiencies can cause or exacerbate the underlying illness, especially in malabsorption syndromes.
So, I recommend you ask your doctor to:
1. get a consultation with a rheumatologist
2. evaluate for heavy metal poisoning
3. check for vitamin deficiencies
4. consider gluten free and lactose free diet; it would be prudent to see a GI specialist if these measures do not make things better
5. consider a consultation with an immunologist if the other steps above are negative for disease.
6. Get tested for HIV if it hasn't been done already
In addition, while your symptoms do not sound infectious, it would be worthwhile to make sure you have not been subjected to toxic mold in your home, place of work, etc.
July 2009
-I had lost about 25 lbs of fat and gained about 5 lbs of muscle since starting my exercise program, and still had a month to go.
-By this point I had been taking the Ranitidine for about 3-4 weeks and I'd already had another huge flare up which kept me up all night and a couple small ones where I eventually got to sleep and the symptoms went away. I concluded that the Ranitidine wasn't helping and stopped taking it.
-During the latest flare up, along with the other debilitating symptoms - I now would get the urge to throw up. I started to regurgitate foam with tiny chunks of digested food.
-Try and try as I might, I wasn't able to throw up. I was desperate to throw up as I felt that I could just end the flare up by getting whatever was in my stomach OUT. I tried sticking my fingers down my throat but I would just dry heave and nothing but a foamy saliva-like substance. Again I would be kept up all night long, spitting into a container, going to the bathroom to dry heave foam, and then eventually it would die down at about 12 pm the next day.
August 2009
-I suspected Candida so I went on the Candida diet. I cut out all sugar, and all carbohydrates for about 7 days. I still had issues during this period so I stopped doing that diet.
-I finished my exercise program, I got down to about 168 lbs form 190 lbs at my starting point.
-I had to travel to Nova Scotia for 3 weeks, and during that time I didn't follow any strict diet, and didn't do much exercise.
-During the 3 weeks I was in Nova Scotia, my symptoms flared up 2 times, including the day that I was supposed to fly to Nova Scotia - which caused a big mess - had to reorganize the transportation plans because I was out of commission.
-Now on top of regurgitating partially digested food and foamy saliva, I started getting a gut wrenching pain when dry heaving. My throat now gets really sore 8-9 hours into the flare up, I assume due to all the partial regurgitation, belching and spitting.
Late August 2009
-When I got back home, I started seeing a naturopath who was a complete waste of time and money, I spent near a thousand dollars on his treatments and pills and tests, and nothing worked.
-I also stopped taking a probiotic that I ordered to get rid of Candida at this point as it was not helping me after taking it for a couple of months.
September 2009
-I FINALLY got a family doctor assigned to me. When I first met with him, he told me that he had never heard of these symptoms, and he told me that if I couldn't find the answers on google, he wasn't going to be able to help me out either.
-He also told me that the only thing that they would look for was any life threatening or terminal problems. He said they were too busy to deal with things that people can 'deal with'. What a lovely health system...
-He made an appointment for me to see an allergy specialist/dermatologist
-He made an appointment for me to get a chest xray
-He made an appointment for me to get a barium swallow done.
-When I finally got to visit the doctor who I got an appointment with in June regarding the esophagus camera, he told me he didn't have the proper equipment so he only did a nasal camera to look at the back of my throat. He said that he saw evidence of Oral Thrush (I think it's just a coincidence that I thought I had Candida and he saw evidence of oral thrush) and prescribed me Nystatin. He also gave me some samples of an antacid called Prevacid that he thought would help me with the esophagus problem.
October 2009
-I got my chest xray done, never heard anything back about that yet.
-I went to the allergy specialist and they did a test on me, and said I didn't react to anything.
-The allergist did a blood test on my for h pylori, but I never heard the result back on that one.
-The allergist gave me a bunch of strong Reactine samples which takes away the hives as long as I'm taking the Reactine.
-After getting flare ups once a week for the last couple of months, I didn't have one for 3 whole weeks! I thought that I was finally over this! I was taking the Nystatin and Prevacid every day. Then it all came crumbling down the day I had to do the Barium Swallow...
-Got the Barium Swallow done where I had to drink gas pills and barium - it was havoc on my stomache and gave me a really bad flare up.
-Ever since then I've continued to take the Nystatin and Prevacid, but I still get bad flare ups once every 7 days or so that disrupt my life.
November 2009
My doctor isn't really helping me out, and nobody is telling me the results of these tests, and I'm not even sure that my doctor is getting the tests sent to him.
I do not want to deal with this for the rest of of my life. I have never had to deal with anything like this for my first 26 years of life - and I'd like to know what the heck this is and what I can do to fix it!
I feel like there has to be a diagnosis and solution out there for me.
Does you company have best doctors through your work health plan. If so I am sure that they can help you. Many company plans in Canada subscribe to best doctors. You should check it out. They specialize in reviewing cases like yours
Good Luck
Good Luck
Isn't there anyone that can advise me?
more detail:
I'm 27 years old and I have been experiencing bizarre and debilitating medical issues over the past 6 months, that started flaring up out of the blue. These flare ups disrupt my life, and it happens more frequently every month. It started happening once a month, now it's once a week. When I get a flare up, it usually happens around dinner time, and keeps me up all night until about 12 PM the next day. Then I usually sleep away the day - so it puts me out of commission for 2 full days a week.
I have always been a very health person, rarely had to visit the doctor, rarely got sick with even colds.
6 months ago I started to get a lot of really crazy symptoms that nobody can seem to diagnose or explain. I've spent a lot of money trying to figure out what is wrong with me, but I'm not getting anywhere on a diagnosis from traditional or alternative health care professionals.
Here is a history of the last 6-7 months.
mid March 2009
My wife and I caught some sort of gastrointestinal norwalk-like virus. We were sick with vomiting and diarrhea after we both ate some bad salad at a local restaurant. We went to the hospital and they kept us over night hooked up to IVs so we could sleep. They did some tests and never told us what it was, they just said it was a norwalk-like type of gastrointestinal food poisoning virus.
Early April 2009
-About a week and a half after the food poinsoning, we started pottery classes, and I started working out at a local gym for a couple of weeks.
-I started getting an extremely itchy scalp. My scalp would get small protruding bumps on it, and the more I scratched, the more it spread on my scalp. It started behind my ears where my glasses rest, and spread to the back of my scalp - it rarely went to the top of my head, and never went on my face or neck.
Late April 2009
-A week or 2 after dealing with the itchy scalp, I was itching my back, and I had my wife look to see if something was there, and we were both surprised to see huge hives on my back.
-Since then I started getting hives all over my body at least once a day. I would put ice packs on the hives which would tame them.
-I assumed that the itchy scalp/hives were due to either the pottery class or the local gym, so I stopped going to both. The itchy scalp and hives kept up even after stopping pottery classes and not going to the gym anymore.
Early May 2009
-About 3-4 weeks after the initial itchy scalp symptom, the itchy scalp faded away and the hives were the predominant issue.
-A couple of weeks after the hives started appearing on my body, I started having internal issues, around the same time that the itchy scalp faded away.
-At night only, I would get a feeling of a pill being stuck in my throat. My chest would go really tight as if I needed to crack my back, and I would get really gassy (burp) but no matter what I did I would get no relief from the chest pain, feeling of a pill stuck in the throat, and I couldn't burp up the gas. This would happen once a week until it progressed to a worse symptom in late May.
Late May 2009
-I started on a healthy eating plan and an extreme fitness program called P90X. It consists of working out for an hour to an hour and a half, 6 days a week, for 90 days.
-I went on a low carb diet to shred body fat. I mainly ate really clean healthy food like lean meats and veggies - very little sugar and very little starchy carbs (no white breads or pastas etc)
-I was still getting hives, and by this time I narrowed it down that the hives were caused by friction, not food allergies. I had found some relief from these hives with Benadryl, but it made me drowsy so I couldn't take it every day.
-The esophagus/throat issue progressed to get worse in late May. It would start at night with the feeling of the lump in my throat, then the chest pain would happen. Then my esophagus would start to constrict near where it connects to my stomache and I would hardly be able to swallow or get water down.
-The esophagus/throat issue was so bad that it would keep me up for the entire night until about 10 or 11 am the next morning. I would produce so much saliva that I couldn't sleep, I had to be near a garbage pale to spit out the saliva. I was constantly trying to belch, but I could never get relief from the gas. When I did swallow saliva it was really foamy, which would make the gas problem worse, and make the esophagus/stomache area act up even more. It was a viscious cycle of producing an insane amount of saliva, spitting, burping, and trying to force water down a constricted esophagus.
-This more severe symptom started about once ever 3 weeks, and is now (as of November) happening at least once a week, sometimes multiple times a week.
Mid June 2009
-I stuck with my exercise regime and eating plan, and started seeing great results!
-I learned to deal with the hives by this point.
-The esophagus issue at this point was getting worse. The 2nd time it happened to me where I was kept up all night long, I went to the emergency room because the symptoms got worse.
-Along with the chest pain, constant belching, throat/esophagus constriction, overproduction of saliva, I started feeling like something was moving up into my esophagus from my stomache.
-I had been on a google frenzy by this point a few times. I learned that the overproduction of saliva is a symptom of having an issue with your esophagus. I read about people with hives that also had this issue. I read about GERD and acid reflux sufferers. I read about anaphylaxis symptoms, I still didn't know what this was though.
-Unfortunately, the doctors at the emergency room didn't know what to tell me either. The doctor said that my hives were probably caused by the shock to my immune system when I caught the norwalk like virus in March, but had no insight into what the bizarre esophagus issue was being caused by.
-They told me that my throat issue was not anaphylaxis, rather it was something else that they weren't sure of.
-They gave me an appointment to get an camera down my esophagus for September (3 months down the road!)
-They prescribed me ranitidine, he said it may help.
I'm 27 years old and I have been experiencing bizarre and debilitating medical issues over the past 6 months, that started flaring up out of the blue. These flare ups disrupt my life, and it happens more frequently every month. It started happening once a month, now it's once a week. When I get a flare up, it usually happens around dinner time, and keeps me up all night until about 12 PM the next day. Then I usually sleep away the day - so it puts me out of commission for 2 full days a week.
I have always been a very health person, rarely had to visit the doctor, rarely got sick with even colds.
6 months ago I started to get a lot of really crazy symptoms that nobody can seem to diagnose or explain. I've spent a lot of money trying to figure out what is wrong with me, but I'm not getting anywhere on a diagnosis from traditional or alternative health care professionals.
Here is a history of the last 6-7 months.
mid March 2009
My wife and I caught some sort of gastrointestinal norwalk-like virus. We were sick with vomiting and diarrhea after we both ate some bad salad at a local restaurant. We went to the hospital and they kept us over night hooked up to IVs so we could sleep. They did some tests and never told us what it was, they just said it was a norwalk-like type of gastrointestinal food poisoning virus.
Early April 2009
-About a week and a half after the food poinsoning, we started pottery classes, and I started working out at a local gym for a couple of weeks.
-I started getting an extremely itchy scalp. My scalp would get small protruding bumps on it, and the more I scratched, the more it spread on my scalp. It started behind my ears where my glasses rest, and spread to the back of my scalp - it rarely went to the top of my head, and never went on my face or neck.
Late April 2009
-A week or 2 after dealing with the itchy scalp, I was itching my back, and I had my wife look to see if something was there, and we were both surprised to see huge hives on my back.
-Since then I started getting hives all over my body at least once a day. I would put ice packs on the hives which would tame them.
-I assumed that the itchy scalp/hives were due to either the pottery class or the local gym, so I stopped going to both. The itchy scalp and hives kept up even after stopping pottery classes and not going to the gym anymore.
Early May 2009
-About 3-4 weeks after the initial itchy scalp symptom, the itchy scalp faded away and the hives were the predominant issue.
-A couple of weeks after the hives started appearing on my body, I started having internal issues, around the same time that the itchy scalp faded away.
-At night only, I would get a feeling of a pill being stuck in my throat. My chest would go really tight as if I needed to crack my back, and I would get really gassy (burp) but no matter what I did I would get no relief from the chest pain, feeling of a pill stuck in the throat, and I couldn't burp up the gas. This would happen once a week until it progressed to a worse symptom in late May.
Late May 2009
-I started on a healthy eating plan and an extreme fitness program called P90X. It consists of working out for an hour to an hour and a half, 6 days a week, for 90 days.
-I went on a low carb diet to shred body fat. I mainly ate really clean healthy food like lean meats and veggies - very little sugar and very little starchy carbs (no white breads or pastas etc)
-I was still getting hives, and by this time I narrowed it down that the hives were caused by friction, not food allergies. I had found some relief from these hives with Benadryl, but it made me drowsy so I couldn't take it every day.
-The esophagus/throat issue progressed to get worse in late May. It would start at night with the feeling of the lump in my throat, then the chest pain would happen. Then my esophagus would start to constrict near where it connects to my stomache and I would hardly be able to swallow or get water down.
-The esophagus/throat issue was so bad that it would keep me up for the entire night until about 10 or 11 am the next morning. I would produce so much saliva that I couldn't sleep, I had to be near a garbage pale to spit out the saliva. I was constantly trying to belch, but I could never get relief from the gas. When I did swallow saliva it was really foamy, which would make the gas problem worse, and make the esophagus/stomache area act up even more. It was a viscious cycle of producing an insane amount of saliva, spitting, burping, and trying to force water down a constricted esophagus.
-This more severe symptom started about once ever 3 weeks, and is now (as of November) happening at least once a week, sometimes multiple times a week.
Mid June 2009
-I stuck with my exercise regime and eating plan, and started seeing great results!
-I learned to deal with the hives by this point.
-The esophagus issue at this point was getting worse. The 2nd time it happened to me where I was kept up all night long, I went to the emergency room because the symptoms got worse.
-Along with the chest pain, constant belching, throat/esophagus constriction, overproduction of saliva, I started feeling like something was moving up into my esophagus from my stomache.
-I had been on a google frenzy by this point a few times. I learned that the overproduction of saliva is a symptom of having an issue with your esophagus. I read about people with hives that also had this issue. I read about GERD and acid reflux sufferers. I read about anaphylaxis symptoms, I still didn't know what this was though.
-Unfortunately, the doctors at the emergency room didn't know what to tell me either. The doctor said that my hives were probably caused by the shock to my immune system when I caught the norwalk like virus in March, but had no insight into what the bizarre esophagus issue was being caused by.
-They told me that my throat issue was not anaphylaxis, rather it was something else that they weren't sure of.
-They gave me an appointment to get an camera down my esophagus for September (3 months down the road!)
-They prescribed me ranitidine, he said it may help.
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