I am a forty year-old male, and for 2 years I have been in Medical Purgatory. It all started in early May 2008, with a cheeseburger, 6 hours later I had moderate RUQ abdomine pain and I was nauseated. When I got home I vomited (sorry if this is gross) this muscusy gelatinous bownish mass of something and 10 min. later I drank broth. I instantaniously had a severe seering pain in the same location an 8 on the pain scale. I remember before I had symtoms I vomited a yellow-orange extrordinarly bitter, chalky substance that felt like it stripped the enamel from my teeth and received miner burns on my lips. I can replicate my symptoms with hamburgers , coffee, and other high fatty foods, but now almost anything can set off an attack. Laying on my right side and sleep is impossible during an attack, unless I am sedated, and one time my pain and vomiting was so bad I took Phennigan, Ambien, and 2 5/325 tabs of Percocet and still could not sleep. The pain is a sharp stabbing pain like 3-4 chef's knives stabbing me. Sometimes I feel like I have this ball inside and some hand is just squeezing it to death this pain is pulsating and just takes my breath away like someone hitting you solarplexes. I have these pains nightly anywhere from a 7-10 on the pain scale. When this happens the pain not only radiates to my R. shoulder sometimes both, and R.arm to elbow, but the R. sight of my chest. The pain is worse when I raise my R. arm above my head, walk, swim, take a deep breath, laugh, and twist. When the pain is at it worst there is no position I can get in that decreases the pain heating blankets and hot showers provide only temporary relief. I wake up in the morning going right to the toilet either having diarrhea, having to vomit, or both at the same time. In two years I have vomited what I believe is bile 6 times (not including that 1st time I described earlier). I eat something I am vomiting 30 min-3 hours later. I have soft to watery stools everyday for the most part I believe I have Chronic Diarrhea. When this started I was averaging 20-30 BM's a week and I thought that was a lot. I am now averaging 80-100+, and when I am vomiting a lot that # changes to 50-70 BM's. The only medications that help my vomiting is IV Zofran and Phennergan any other form is ineffective for me. I have had chills, night sweats, I had a condition were my lips, fingers, toes, and knees were blueish/purple and shivering uncontrollablely. It was like I was hypothermic or something but my temp. at it's lowest was 96.5.
My situation is complicated by the finding of Ulcers about a year ago and I sure that's healed by now, and the fairly recent Diagnosis of Gastroparesis. Gastroparesis literally means paralyzed stomach. Nerves connecting to the stomach send messages from the brain telling the stomach muscles to contract when eating. The nerve responsible for this is called the Vagus Nerve. So when people have this syndrome their nerve is either impaired or permenantly damaged. This leads to slow Gastric-Emptying food just sits in the stomach too long, and causes vomiting. Diabetes is the main cause of having this diagnosis, also use of narcotics, anti-depressants, benedryl, eating disorders, viral infections, their are other causes too but can't remember the others, also theirs those for which a cause is not known. I have had Narcotics, Anti-Depressants, and 2 1/2 years ago Shingles, but my GI Doc seems to want to blame the narcotics use and these were prescription narcotics. For more info go to any reputable medical website, or ask your Doctor.
I don't know what to do anymore, I am suffering, my kids 5 and 4 deserve better than I can give them right now. There's days were I sleep for 13 hours and I feel like I can sleep for another 8. How can I be a good parent like this? I was labeled with IBS early on and I am still under it's web now. I have numerous tests all came back normal, my first HIDA Scan was 44% and my second was 99%. I don't know how because that test sent me to the E.R. right after I could not stop vomiting and the pain was through the roof. My Doc' s won't order any more tests, the surgeons won't touch me unless something that specifically points s to a Gallbladder problem, and I had one Doc actually believe me but he's been all but ignored. Sorry for the length, but guess I'm just supposed to suffer with this, until something critical happens.