vomiting, diarrhea, pain

[wagsky]

My mother (63 yrs) has a condition that has left every doctor baffled with what her condition is.  Over the past two years, she has been told that she's dveloped food allergies.  Almost everything she eats is creating diarrhea.  things are getting worse.  She is now being doubled over w/pain in the lower abdomen, severe nausia, vomiting constantly, and bloody diarrhea.  Over the past six weeks, she has been in the hospital 4 times - had 3 colonoscopy, upper GI, blood work, stomach biopsy, colon biospy.  They determined that she has ischemic cholitis.  The last colonoscopy said this condition was "healing nicely" but less than 1 week later she is back in the hospital - and worse than ever! She is weak, vomiting, diarrhea etc.  

No one knows what to look for.  Are the "food allergies" causing this?  Why are all tests coming back normal, but we are watching her become weaker and weaker...

HELP!  

[TJfromBrum]

Re your possible systemic lupus erythematosus, although the conventional treatment is to treat the symptoms (not the cause) with medicines, you might find that your sle is caused by allergies, especially to gluten & other cereal-derived toxins & to related proteins including dairy.  Your GP or consultant might be enlightened enough to refer you for tests for this (http://www.coeliacsmatter.com/digestive_conditions_coeliac/cd_causes_general/cd_causes_gen_articles/cyrex-tests-bailey-11-12.html  do comprehensive testing)  or you might have to track down your allergies on your own using an elimination diet - if so, be aware that on the reintroduction stage, severe physical & mental symptoms can occasionally occur, so always have a trained first-aider & an anti-histamine at hand - loratadine works better than cetirizine in most people.  Hope this helps.  Best of luck.

[JKF38]

hi...im only 22 and have had the EXACT same problems as your gram...instead they tell me i may have sle lupis. im misserable every day....im in the hospital all the time and no doctors can seem to figure out if it is actually lupis....im DESPERATE for help so please if a doctor reads this tell me where i can go in or near ct. the worse part is for about a week now my spine is swollen and hurts so bad i cant move. ive been "sick" sence i had my daughter 2 years ago....please help

[boron]

I can only suggest few things:

1. Food allergy is a specific disorder, it goes with face flushing, lips swelling, skin itching and...diarrhea. IgE antibodies and eosoinophils (a type of leukocytes are found in the blood). If this is not the case, she doesn't have allergy. Common food allergies in adults are to fish, shellfish, tree nuts and peanuts and to some antibiotics.

2. Ischemic colitis causes pain in left lower abdomen, and it may cause intestinal bleeding. The cause is usually atherosclerosis of one of the intestinal arteries. This can be checked by abdominal arteriogram (contrast x-ray investigation of abdominal arteries). Such blocked artery can maybe be dilated, but this is a question for gastroenterologist or maybe a specialist for vessels (cardiologist?).

3. If she gets BLOATED, it can help, if she make two diet trials:
a) LACTOSE FREE DIET (she simply excludes everything containing lactose - dairy, and (check labels) some sauces or pre-prepared foods with lactose.
b) LOW FRUCTOSE DIET - she eliminates all fruits and any fruit product, also every food product containing fructose (check labels for fruit syrup or high fructose corn syrup) and sorbitol which is in many 'low-calorie' fods and drinks.

She can have lactose-free diet for two days, and see if it helps. If not, she continues with ADDITIONAL low-fructose diet for 3-4 days. If she has fructose malabsorption, described diet should help in this time.

So, she can have above diet trials. About the tests: they can make:
- stool culture test for bacteria, and for parasites
- stool reducing substances (finds lactose or fructose in the stool)
- breath test for fructose/lactose intolerance and for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.
- I assume they've already done alergy tests.

If there is blood in the stool, she has low left abd. pain, and is not bloated, then she just have to think from ischemic colitis on. So, arteriography in this case.