Chronic nausea? Pain? Help :(

[kayrose21]

Hello,
I am an eighteen year old female.  I am exactly 5 feet tall and weigh around 107 pounds.  I have been suffering so much lately.  I have been dealing with chronic nausea on and off for about three months now.  It is taking over my life to the point where I cannot even complete simple mundane tasks because I feel so horrible.  It is causing me to feel severely depressed and distraught.  I ended up having a friend take me to the ER about a week ago because I was feeling so awful I could not calm down. At the hospital they gave me morphine, pepcid, and zofran via IV.  I had not been able to sleep or eat at all.  Upon leaving the ER, I received two prescriptions; one for zofran and one for pepcid.  I have been taking the pepcid every night as directed, and I take the zofran only when absolutely necessary because it is very expensive-I believe around 30 dollars a pill which is quite outrageous.   In addition to that,  I had an Upper GI series done to see if it was GERD or perhaps a stomach ulcer but the test came back absolutely fine.  There was nothing out of the ordinary.  As you can imagine, it is very frustrating.  :(  I feel like the medicine is not helping anymore.  I am back to not being able to sleep or eat.  I just feel awful. I do not understand what is wrong with me but I am so upset, I just do not know what to do.  I just need help.  What could be wrong with me??  This waves just seem to happen every other week.   It is awful.  Please help me. :( Please!

Additional details: I do have major depression and anxiety so could that have something to do with it??  I was prescribed zoloft but I am just hesitant to take it-1, because my psych said it will make me feel sick for the first week or so.  Hello?! I am trying to get better!! Not feel worse!! Should I start taking the zoloft?? I just don't know anymore.

I just need some advice and I want someone to tell me I am not alone.  I feel like my friends cannot really understand the physical distress I am in when I feel so ill.  I just don't want to feel this way anymore. I want to be able to go out with my friends and have fun and be young and adventurous like I used to.  I have to miss out on so much now because I never feel well.  

I am sorry this is such a novel.  I just really need some guidance or advice...something....anything :(

-Rose

[FurballsMom]

Yes, anxiety and depression will contribute, but I also agree with the post above.  I deal with anxiety and depression myself, so I know it's only part of the picture.  Do ask about this test.

One home remedy you can try is making a decoction (a way of making tea from roots and seeds) with ginger root.  It is easy to make and inexpensive.  It either works for you or it doesn't, but at least it isnt outrageously expensive like the Zofran is.  It will be a few years more before Zofran will be covered by insurance carriers for conditions besides cancer or kidney patients.

Simply use the smallest saucepan you have.  The one I have only holds about 4 cups water total.  Give or take.  Fill the saucepan and bring to boil.  Meanwhile, cut off about 1 inch of the ginger root.  Use your paring knife to peel the skin off of the ginger root.  Thinly slice the ginger root across the grain.  Add to the water, then simply allow the water to keep boiling until half of the water is evaporated.  Remove from heat.  It will work best without adding sugar, but you can add sugar if you don't like it without sugar.  But, for chronic nausea, I don't advise using sugar.  Also, especially don't use artificial sweeteners.  I've noticed they are much more upsetting to the stomach than just natural cane sugar.  Table sugar bothers me much more than natural cane sugar.

I can't use this remedy any more because of sulfite sensitivities.  Ginger is a natural sulfite, as are garlic and onions.  Grapes are, too.

As I deal with a lot of nausea, I thought it was worth mentioning the natural ginger tea remedy, because it's easy and affordable.  It either works or it doesn't, but it's worth a shot.  

This isn't to do instead of finding what is wrong, but it should hopefully help make you a bit more comfortable.

[patient915]

Welcome to the gastroenterology community!  I would recommend seeing a gastroenterologist and asking for a gastric emptying scan to check for gastroparesis which is slow emptying of the stomach.  Does your nausea get worse when you eat?