Mysteriously ill

[Sairs05]

Hello. My husband has been ill for 2 months now.  He was first diagnosed with H.Pylori.  He was treated and still felt sick.  They retested, including parasite tests.  They said it was now C.Dificil (sp?) and they treated that.  Now he tests negative for both but is still ill.  He feels sick to the stomach all the time though he still eats, less, but he eats.  He had diahrrea at first but hasn't had that issue for a while. He is just exhausted, sick to the stomach, has abdominal pains and cramping, and he's losing weight rapidly.  He's lost 24lbs in the last 2 months and lost 8 of those lbs in just the last week.  The Dr's are puzzled though no one has bothered to do any tests such as an endoscopy or an xray of his stomach or a colonoscopy.  They are having a hard time getting a specialist to take him to do those tests immediately. I just don't  understand why this isn't more important to be addressed more quickly.  The 1st appt. they could get him is the end of March (unless of course he starts "having blood come out of either end" as his dr. so eloquently put it).  He's only 35.  He's so skinny now and his clothes just hang off of him.  We are getting scared.  Any ideas? Please?

[georgie439]

It cant hurt to try the suggestions made by gregg, because they can only help!!  And you may make him feel a lil better even mentally knowing he is working on this and not crawling into bed (projecting that is what I'm doing)
End of March isn't soo bad. Does he have a gastroenterologist (digestive dr.) yet?
If not try to get one that works with a "bigger" hospital that has state of the art diagnostic
testing!! Usually the ct scan is very easy to get today, as opposed to years ago, no prep
and there are alot of imaging places around. I would be mostly concerned with the "recent" weight lose, especially that they are saying no more infections.
jcd111 did state that blood tests could probably detect pancreatic problems, but what about colitis or crohn's disease, I'm not positive but do think you can loose weight from both ...........hope its treatable or just a long flu  !!!!!!      hugz.........georgie

[jcd111]

My sister had the same problem before she got diagnosed with crohn's disease. It took them almost a year to diagnose her and she was down to 80lbs. If he is eating normal and losing weight the some common things would be a problem with the pancreas (but blood test usually explain that) crohn or ulcerative colitis. I am sure there are other stuff but those are the one I hear associated with weight loss the most.

[ggreg]

Well, H.pylori can be hard to get rid of, even if it shows up negative on a test.  So, I think while you wait for the other exam, get him tested again by another doctor, you can either go in the ER or the county health clinic (they have labs), and if they believe he needs more medication, they might give him stronger and different antibiotics than the first time.

Also, he's been sick two months with all this.  Could be he is indeed free of infection, but his body hasn't recovered yet.  He especially sounds like he's got gas.  If my husband was like yours, I would most definitely do at least (a), (b), and (c), and the rest you can try or not.  These are fairly well-known ideas, but I just want to help:  

(a) see will he drink an alka seltzer once a day for a few days, (b) he should drink some Acidophilus milk from the grocery store (restores good bacteria that the antibiotics killed), maybe with a bowl of cheerios (has oat fiber) and no more than 4 oz of juice, once a day for a few days, (c) make him do some easy walking with you in the neighborhood, even tho he won't want to, (d) include proteins with his meals, eggs are great, protein milkshakes are better than nothing, (e) fix him things that kids like, which are very soothing to a sick stomach, including ice cream, Krispey Kreme donuts with a glass of milk, hot dogs, a BLT sandwich cut in quarters, (f) have him lay down flat on the floor or bed in a darkened room, and give him a deep but not too forceful massage of his back and shoulder muscles, and then roll him over with a pillow under his head and covers all around him, and then smoothly and continuously rub his tummy on the skin with warm hands, around in a clockwise fashion starting from his right side, going up, around, down, and back to the beginning, for several minutes, then pull up the covers and leave the room so he might nap (g) and either make him take a very warm bubble bath to soak and/or keep him under an electric blanket, because heat will heal his worn-out body.

Hope some of these ideas help.