Posted 5/15/2012 1:12 PM (GMT 0)
Okay, I've been having a lot of stomach trouble recently which makes me very sad as I thought I finally had it somewhat under control. And I need help because the doctors simply are not helping me. I don't know what to do and I can only go to certain ones because of my 'insurance.'
It started when I was 16. Well I'd always had bad stomach pains, ever since I was a small child, but lets just say it started when I was 16. I was waking up nauseous every morning very early, unable to get back to sleep. I'd throw up. It had no effect. Around 1PM the symptoms would disappear like magic. After two months of this one of my parents took me to the hospital where they stuck their finger in my butt for some reason. After that they scheduled an endoscopy. During the endoscopy the doctor found that my stomach had "bumps" in it. He said that of all the thousands of stomachs he'd done he'd never seen them and didn't know what they were. They were not polyps really but he didn't know what so he called them bumps and did a biopsy which came back fine. I was put on Acifex which helped a bit. In a few months I came back and they did another one to see if there was any change. There was none and he said he would take the pictures to an upcoming seminar to get the advise of his colleagues. But then my insurance ran out and his interest in my case suddenly did too. The past ten years have been spent switching from one over the counter acid reducer to another and experiencing bouts of intense illness.
A year ago Celiacs disease was suggested and I cut wheat out of my diet and consequently some other things like most fast food etc... It seemed to work! Mostly. But most medication, any form of capsule, many gluten free flour substitutes, popcorn, icecream, and a number of other seemingly random things will set it off again. Sometimes it just decides to go off for no reason at all. These days I try to eat good. No caffeine, fruits, vegetables that I can digest occasionally. Bland tacos my stomach seems to love recently (its all I can eat!). And red meat. Oddly. Meat is one of few things I could eat pounds of and not be sick. But I can't afford it. This seems strange to me because others say to cut meat out of your diet for a healthy stomach.
My symptoms are thus: Nausea (lasting until noon or all day), stomach pain (like a hollow feeling above my navel), diarrhea and a flaky lose stool that floats a little, gas occasionally, extreme hunger or no appetite at all.
The doctors I have seen keep running the same tests to see if I'm absorbing vitamins and apparently I am, which means I am perfectly fine and it's all in my head! However, I feel like crap. I own ever over the counter nausea medication there is and nothing helps. I have phenergen too, eat ginger, drink chamomile and do everything short of smoke illegal substances which I've been assured would help nicely and darnit I'm about ready to try. Diarrhea medication makes my stomach feel like it's on fire for days so I can do nothing but... drain. I keep losing weight and can't get it back (I'm a skeleton of a girl and it's not pretty. People keep asking me if I'm anorexic). And I don't know what is safe to eat because everything in my fridge is a hand grenade!
Does anyone know what's wrong with me? I've been doing research for years. I've been seeking help for years. I'm hungry. I'm sick of looking and feeling sick. Anyone got any ideas?