Rotten egg/sulfur foul burps and intolerable nausea

[cknob101]

Hi everyone.  I have been visiting this board for a few months now but never joined.  I have a condition that has been mentioned extensively here but never adequately addressed.  I suffer from terrible smelling rotten egg burps that accompany almost intolerable bloating, nausea and vomiting.  Twelve hours into the attack, I begin to have lower GI problems as the poison moves south.   I am a 50 year old male living on the east coast and I have suffered from this terrible malady several times a year since I was 10 years old.  The symptoms are so specific and so awful, I was certain as soon as internet searches became comprehensive enough, I would find the clinical explanation for this.  All I have found are other sufferers in the same predicament.  Fortunately, this doesn't happen often enough to have a significant impact on my life but when it roars, it is almost unbearable.  My most memorable incident was on my honeymoon, lots of rich food and drink...stress...out of routines etc...and the second day of the attack I got to a point of desperation on the bathroom floor that I began praying for relief.  I genuinely felt like I was dying.  It's not so much the pain and discomfort but the unrelenting nausea akin to being terribly poisoned that is the most unbearable.  Every GI doc I have visited has looked at me like I am nuts.  One went as far as to tell me, when I described feeling like I was dying, "Well, you've been getting them since you were 10 years old so don’t worry about dying". What a jackass and this was a friend's colleague, the chair of the department of medicine at a large Philadelphia hospital!  After that, I gave up looking for an answer.  When I told another GI guy about the foul smell he said "well a sulfur smell is digestive juices."  Oh really?  I would have loved to have belched up a wonderful bubble of my best egg gas at that moment just to have seen the look on his face.  This is not the smell of normal digestion...it's the smell of poison or disease.  For six months I followed the advice of another GI doc and religiously took fiber every day and watched the protein content of my diet.  Then at my son's birthday party, I had one slice of pizza and one piece of cake and I was sick for 2 days.  Some answer.  The attacks seem to come and go in waves.  I actually went about 5 years without an attack between 1990 and 1995 and I can tell you I was doing anything but watching what I ate during that time.  It's not GERD as I've been on every PPI in the book.  It's not giardia because I've been cultured...I'm even negative for H pylori...it's not a food allergy as it doesn’t happen consistently enough and it can't be solely genetic as it seems others have the very same symptomology.  What the hell is this thing?  It has to be a medically defined syndrome as the commonality of symptoms among sufferers is too specific to be coincidental.  

[Chznbutterfly]

I have the same thing and my doctor had my gall bladder checked and I ended up having it removed and still have it at times after rich foods. I was getting some gas tabs and saw a bottle of peppermint pills and decided to give them a try since pure peppermint candies would help sometimes and they really do seem to help. I take one before I eat and if I wake up from sleeping and have a sulfur burp I will take one then and most of the time it works. The bottle does say be careful if you have ulcers taking them.

[Shelbyw1234]

I've had this exact problem. Probably the first time when I was a kid. Then again throughout my 20s. It would happen like clockwork once every few months. Then it started happening to other members of my family. Husband, son, daughter.  Then it went into remission. It's currently Happening again. I think it's dormant giardia. Which can go undetected in stool samples. I'm currently trying to decide if I just give up and just try to treat symptoms of go full throttle and try to treat with natural remedies or go again to the DR and be seen as a crazy lady and beg for a RX  without a positive giardia result. Also praying it doesn't effect the health of my kids long term. This thing is awful. I'm interested to know if my fellow long time sufferers share any other chraracteristics. Bloated stomach, smaller limbs?

[Lhoran91]

I was diagnosed with sphincter of oddi dysfunction and the symptoms were similar.  Unfortunately, diagnosing and treatment aggravated my pancreas, which was likely the issue all along.  Now, 20 years later, I am living without my pancreas, half my stomach, small intestines gallbladder, biliary tree and spleen.  On a good day, I have to take 40 pills when I eat to breakdown my food, since I now lack the organs that do that.  I am a brittle diabetic. Infections land me in the hospital for weeks.  

I know the two or three days of pain and nausea are horrendous.  Trust me, I do.  But-- see if you can treat symptoms instead of invasive things.  One of my daughters has the same issue.  We use an anti-spasmodic med and pain meds at the first twinge of pain.  It helps a lot.  If I could go back twenty years, I would never have worked so hard for an answer-- just a way to manage it.  

[viseman]

I have had these same experiences with the horrible smelling burps and gas.  I have traced it down to eating things with high sugar and dairy.  If I eat ice cream and cake, or alot of sweets of any kind, the gas starts and usually lasts several days.  My advice, get off the high sugar foods all together.  Actually, I have the gas right now, but I ate some cake and ice cream at church. :( So it is my own fault.
Hope this helps.

[louminator]

I too have been reading these posts and have come to the conclusion that its my eating at night.  I ingest big bouts of cereal Kashi cereal and milk which has almonds honey and 10 gr of fibre contributing to the bloating. Twice I had this sulfur bloating burp, vommitting and wow I cant breath when I start puking as the heaves are horrible when the sulfur smell arrises .
I also ate two brownies maybe three, so the chocolate contributes to the sulfer smell and indigestion. ITs got to be the fermenting of all this **** in one basket. I can tbeleive there are so many with this problem and no name for this sensitivity.
over

Lou

[cknob101]

They are PUTRID and my family is well aware when I'm sick.  My attack progression seems to be similar to yours.  It occurs mostly but not exclusively in the AM, vomiting usually gives temporary relief and overall sensitivity lasts 2-3 days.  During the gag reflex just prior to vomiting, I usually expell huge amouts of stomach gas that is the foulest of the foul.  The emesis is always yellowish in color and highly acidic.  After 16 hours or so, the upper GI nausea ends as long as I put NOTHING including any liquids in my stomach.  About 24 hours after the onset of the initial symptoms, very loose and yellowish bowel movements begin and last for about a day.  If I can eat on day 2, it has to be very light and super bland...dry crackers, toast...things like that.  This has been going on for 40 years.  There has to be a reason.

[Servasia]

Thanks for repliing, it can be quite embarrassing and intolerable sometimees. Since having my gallbladder removed these attacks have occoured more frequent. I do find that it happens usually when i've eaten a larger meal the night before. Which seems to wake me in the early mornings with terrible nausea, almost have to force myself to be sick to take away from the pain. IT seems to releive some of the pain and nausea for about an hour and comes back through out the day. I'll also be sick to my stomach for the next 2-3 days, at the time with these foul smelling burps happening (it's disgusting) and not being able to eat very much. i've quit eating eggs totally figured that was it lol. I'm waiting on a refferal to a GI specialtist at the moment to figure out if an ERCP would be the right thing to do. My regular GI surgeon doesn't deal with that type of procedure or condition (SOD). I do hope for you to find out what may be causing this alement. It is nice to know i'm not the only one with these intolerable sulfer burps.

[cknob101]

I've gone the lactose intolerance route...I've strictly limited lactose intake and used lactaid milk to no avail...in fact...the milk substitute seemed to make the situation worse.  I refused to let them remove my gall...I've never tested abnormal for anything to do with my gall and I didn't want to go thru surgery and still have the problem in fact, one GI doc said he could remove my gall bladder but he couldn't guarantee it would make any difference.  When it hits, it feels like nothing can get out of my stomach for hours upon hours.  I can go 16 hours without food after the start of this thing and I still have audible, sloshing contents in my stomach.  Just terrible and I sympathize with your plight.  This affliction is a terrible thing to have to live with.

[Servasia]

I have also suffered from this since i was about 10 years old i'm now only 23. I've had a couple of sulfer attacks this past year but was fine for about 2 years prior.And most of them last 2-3 days with nausea and bad bottom half cramps etc... I have had my gallbladder removed and I am being tested for SOD and pancretituos. I was told that it could be a lactose intolerance thats causing the problem, not to sure though. Maybe the sulfer might be a symptom of those disease's. I would love to know why it happens and what makes it happen. Then i would be able to avoid them.