Health problems led to major depression...

My son has exactly the same symptoms. He has been in the er four times in the last three months. He has nausea almost all of the time and shortness of breath on the days when he throws up. He has no appetite. The throwing up can last as long as 14 hours. CT scans and X-rays revealed little. Blood and fecal tests revealed no infections or parasites. He is about to have a double air high contrast CT to look for a polyp that could be causing a narrowing in the small intestine. If that does not show anything, he will have a colonoscopy to examine the large intestine. Blockages happen when food cannot fit through narrowing anywhere in your intestines. Narrowing can happen from polyps (usually benign) or scarring. Blockages cause nausea and sometimes throwing up for many hours. Culprits can be mushrooms, cheese, fruits, raw vegies, nuts--just about anything that takes longer to digest. Stick to easy to digest foods until your GI can do more tests. The best diet guideline for this that I like is at the Mayo Clinic website. It is called a low residue diet. My son now takes Zofran for the nausea. It stops the nausea within 20 to 30 minutes. You can request it from either your primary care physician or your GI.

Get plenty of sleep! Lack of sleep increases nausea according to my son.

This is kind of an interesting condition for doctors to look at because it is a change from their usual routine and only seems to be effecting young people. Most of us who experience blockages have had colon resectioning or semi or full colon removal. For me the best treatment is Zofran, grape juice and a heating pad. This does not work for my son. For some reason, more and more 17 to 25-year-olds without any history of colon problems are showing up at our GIs office with the same symptoms. BTW, whoever did your blood work will fax it to your GI for free. Just give them a call.

I am proud of you for sticking with it until you find a diagnosis that can be confirmed or ruled out. These symptoms are tough for most primary care and er physicians to catch because it is not common.

about the emotional roller coaster: Plan ahead for the bad days with a pile of good books, silly movies you want to watch or anything you can do that will lift your spirits. Surround your bed with beautiful pictures or momentos of good times. On the bad days remind yourself over and over that it is temporary. You will find a diagnosis and a cure. Make a list during each bad time of things you are grateful for: it could be a song, a color, a friend, a photo, whatever means a lot to you. You may find other people with the same symptoms in the ibs, ulcerative colitis and ostomy forums. Ranting and raving about your frustration is expected!

GI's can be very thorough but they are only human and make mistakes. If the diagnosis, does not "feel right," get back on the forums and ask for more opinions. I am usually on the ostomy website even though I have a j-pouch. This forum is also a great place for support. Anxiety, panic and depression are not at all uncommon with IBS and IBD conditions. Many people find that counseling and/or meds can help make dealing with these issues a lot easier. Having an unpredictable body is very scary, but we are here to listen and support you.

Many virtual hugs,
Subzero

Lindsay - First {{{HUGS}}} I am not going to say that I know how you feel, because I do not. However, I have felt a similar frustration. I have had things going on with me that is stumping doctor after doctor. My regular doctor just refers me to specialists now (the most recent being a chronic pain specialist). The doctors are finally narrowing down what might be going on with me. The 4 types of doctors that are still in the loop are my neurologist, my two ENTs, my Rheumatologist and my gastro doctor.

I know some of this has been mentioned in this thread, but to be totally honest, my brain is foggy and I can't remember what was mentioned and what I was thinking, so I will cover it all. :) Sorry if I repeat anything already said.

I have always been a curiosity to doctors. Medicines do not work right with me and I never present anything like most people do. My blood work almost always comes back normal (or a weird abnormal and sometimes contradictory) and my symptoms seem to be all over the place. It all finally blew up on my at the beginning of the year. I have had a huge deal of stress, and my body had enough and rebelled. I didn't know what was going on with me. I had already been seeing a neurologist for migraines, but when all this started to happen, she was perplexed. In the spring I had to have eye surgery because my retina was not right (the original surgery was for something else, and they discovered the weak retina while in surgery). My hair was falling out, I was exhausted, I was hurting and feeling sick to my stomach (and passing out and getting a full feeling in my head). The most common thing that the doctors say is: "Well, this is normal to happen, but it typically does not happen in someone your age (I am almost 40).

I ended up making a list of every single symptom I had - related or not. Since I have a bit of OCD, I grouped the symptoms by type (head, gastro, ears, etc - I color coded them too, since I Was bored at the time). Most doctors love my sheet because I have my current symptoms, any diagnosis that other docs have made, test results and a medication list. In fact, I did not bring one to my last Rheumatologist appointment, and they questioned me on where it was. The list has helped tremendously in helping them figure out what is going on. I have been to so many types of doctors, but I feel I am finally coming down the home stretch. My remaining doctors have finally decided to communicate (most of them at least) and figure out what is going on. They do believe that I have Fibromyalgia and some type of connective tissue disease (They are leaning towards Lupus, but since they do not know, they are calling it undifferentiated). I also have something going on that I never expected, and I am thinking that maybe you should look at yourself. With a lot of what you have described, it sounds like what my one ENT is thinking might be an inner ear problem. He is working me up for things that I have no idea what they are (and I like looking into medical terms and conditions). If you go the route of looking at the ears (and the ears can cause almost all the symptoms you have described), make sure you see an ENT (The name is something that starts with an "O" -ologist) that actually knows something about dizziness and balance. That is why I see two... One specializes in the sinuses, and the other is for the dizziness issues.

Also, I do have to agree with people. Do try to not stress yourself out over what is going on. I know from experience that that is much easier said than done, but it is good to let the doctors figure things out. I have found that it is okay to question them (mine love questions), but try not to say "Oh, this is what is going on." They don't like that (again - personal experience). I happen to be one of those strange people that actually feels less stress when I am researching what could be wrong. For me, it is almost therapeutic. But I do have times that I have to stop looking and take a break. It is so easy to go down a path that is not what is going on, but it feels so right. It is best to look at common issues first, and see if the less common issues (like mold possibilities) might be it down the road. It is hard to wait. Believe me. I have had to wait to see if medications help me before I see my rheumy again. It is hard when you are the one feeling the symptoms. The doctors are not the ones feeling or experiencing them.

about a counselor... I hear that you say that they are an hour away. I hear that you say that you do not want to see one because you do not feel one could help. You may be right, but honestly, everyone should see one at some point in time. They help you work through issues that you may be having trouble with and don't even realize it. A counselor is not going to give you drugs... that is what a psychiatrist does. They will only help you work through any stress or anxiety that you may be having. I used to go to a therapist who was an hour away. I will tell you that those drives home were great (unless I had a hard session, then I Was just tired - coffee helped that). It was a long drive, but in my opinion, it was worth it. Even if you do not feel you need to, you may want to give one a try. :)

Fine. Good luck!

That is exactly what a blockage feels like but who knows could be something else. When you get rid of a blockage it feels wonderful. I had ten polyps removed the first time. I felt ten years younger and cleaner. Keep searching, eventually you or your doctors will figure something out.

Just checking in to say I'm still hanging in there. For the past few days I've been alternating between feeling great and feeling sick, but definitely better than I was a few days ago.
I got it in my head that I might have parasites which would explain why I feel the need to eat more even though food never sounds good. So right now I'm trying an herbal mixture that's supposed to help kill parasites and a natural supplement that's supposed to lower cholesterol but can also bind to mold toxins in the body. I know I'm trying some pretty off the wall stuff but I have honestly lost most respect for doctors now that I know they can just stamp "anxiety" on your forehead when they can't figure out what's wrong. It makes me wonder how many people are like me and suffering with something that doctors just don't have a name for yet.
The internal medicine doctor gave me Buspar to try for anxiety and said it would last longer than the hydroxyzine. I don't even feel anxious and the possible side effects are horrible (while hydroxyzine has none and also helps settle my stomach) so I haven't taken it yet. They actually said in some people it backfires and causes severe panic attacks and almost always causes crazy dreams. Definitely not what I need right now!

Thanks, you do have a point there. Being sick at the beginning could have just put so much stress on me that I got into a cycle of symptoms that won't go away.
I do think there is something going on in my body, though. I just wish doctors would listen. It's SO hard because when I describe it, it doesn't sound that bad. They just think "eh, her stomach hurts sometimes and she has some gas. She's fine." I wish they could experience the way I felt before (healthy, young, full of life) compared to the way I feel now!

The main thing that makes me want to rule out anxiety is that I've had anxiety for a while and I know how my body reacts to it. The year before last I shared an apartment with horrible roommates, fought with my boyfriend all the time, and was ridiculously busy with school and work. I was anxious all the time and it gave me some nausea and I felt worn out all the time but I could still live my life. When I moved back to my dad's, all the physical symptoms went away. Now there's nothing making me anxious and the symptoms aren't going away, and the digestive problems are completely different.

No I haven't but they seem great! I will definitely try some. Couldn't hurt to try one more thing.
It's ridiculous how much my appetite fluctuates... tonight I have eaten a TON, mostly junk food. I wish I felt as good during the day as I (usually) do at night.

Well I have good days and bad days... some days I can eat anything and other days the thought of food makes me sick. Last week I was throwing up and couldn't eat much at all. I think I just take advantage of feeling better on the days I do and eat a lot of the stuff I liked to eat before.
I'm not under any more stress during the day than I am at night since I don't go to school or work. Maybe I'm just more laid back at night. I don't always feel better at night, but a lot of the time I do.

Post Edited (lindsay0891) : 9/30/2012 11:09:04 PM (GMT-6)

Well, I feel relieved now. I talked to a doctor on another website (I paid to ask him a question last month but he said I could come back with more questions) and he said there is nothing about either of those levels in my blood that he would be concerned about. Apparently they don't worry about calcium levels unless they're over 12 (mine's 10.4), and 418 is not a very high platelet count at all. He said his own count was 450.
I feel pretty good physically today. I listened to some music and meditated a bit before bed and it made me relaxed so I slept very well. I hope I can continue to feel better.

I have to say that I want to reinforce what Trina said about self diagnosing. It isn't a good thing to do. It causes anxiety bad... Mindfulness. Please look into it.

I hope that you are feeling better.

Hugs, Karen

I am so happy to hear that you calmed the anxiety down. That is huge...

I hope that you find out soon what is causing the stomach aches. It is nice to hear that you had some good days. I seem to have more good days this time of year. I love autumn. I have been taking a lot of walks.

I am glad that you are figuring out the difference between anxiety and actually being sick. Though I do believe anxiety to be a health issue too. It is nice to know when we are having anxiety so we can combat it.

When this thread reaches 100 posts, it will be locked and a new one started. So if you see a lock on this thread, look for the new thread. It will be a continuation of this one.

Remember the mindfulness. You haven't responded to that, so I am wondering if you are practicing it. If you have any questions about mindfulness, just ask me or Trina. Or go to mindfulness.org.

Again, I am really glad that you are feeling better.

Hugs, Karen

Lindsay,

That is exactly what mindfulness is for. It is wonderful that you are doing it on "your own" it is a testament to your strength. However, it would be easier for you if you had skills and "tools" to help you through the journey. Life does not have to be so very hard.

Trina