Increasingly frequent bouts of nausea

Hi,

Sorry for not having posted anything in a while (I thought everything was “fine” now) and also sorry in advance if some of the following descriptions are going to be somewhat gross…

I’ve been taking Imuran (azathioprine) since October (combined with Asacol) and for several months now things have been great. I went into what felt like almost complete remission. Then, a few months ago, a new phenomenon came along – vomiting.

The first bout of nausea and vomiting started around April, at the time it was shortly after eating some questionable chicken so I figure it was just food poisoning. It lasted several days. Then, about 2-3 weeks later, I had another bout of nausea and vomiting that also lasted several days and figured that maybe it was due to pizza from the local grocery store that wasn’t well refrigerated enough. Then a few weeks later I had another bout, this time I blamed it on cheese I’d eaten and decided to avoid all dairy. The next one appeared to have been triggered by pasta so I decided to avoid that too. The next one appeared to have been triggered by vegetables so I started avoiding those too… however at that point it became pretty clear that just about anything could potentially trigger the nausea.

This is actually going to sound kind of ridiculous but for the past several weeks the only things that didn’t appear to trigger the nausea were all, actually, different forms of junk food… especially very, very simplistic junk food like plain chocolate. Today for example all I had to eat were a few bits of chocolate in the morning for “breakfast” and a few more bits much later on in the day for “lunch”. This is by far not the first time lately where I’ve had nothing but chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner and despite being on a “chocolate diet” I’ve actually been losing weight because I can only consume small amounts of it (I figured having some form of calorie intake is better than having no calorie intake).

Other than the times that appeared to be “triggered” by different forms of food, lately I’ve also been having more and more bouts that simply came out of nowhere and I can start throwing up even on a completely empty stomach. Yesterday, for example, I hadn’t had anything potentially-triggering to eat in days and I hadn’t eaten anything since the night before but still woke up in the morning feeling extremely nauseous… due to the nausea I didn’t eat anything AT ALL and still ended up throwing up just my stomach juices twice, a few hours apart, a few hours after waking up (the first time it was just bile and the second time a saliva-like substance). I also had terrible burning in my esophagus that whole morning so that might have been related. When I finally managed to get my hands on something that’s meant to help against acid reflux both the burning and nausea went away… but idk for certain if this means that the nausea is always caused because of this or what because I’ve taken that same medication for a long period of time before and it didn’t stop the bouts of nausea in the recent past…

I have an appointment anyway with the gastro clinic on the 27th of this month and I’m hoping to be able to ask them about this then… but I was still wondering if anyone here ever had something similar to this? Could it be related to the Imuran? Or perhaps a rare side effect of the UC? Or maybe a not-entirely-related-other condition that decided to flare up all of a sudden?

Tbh, it’s not really so much an online “diagnosis” I’m looking for atm… but rather advice (from anyone who may have had anything similar) on how to keep my strength up? I have a full time job and live on my own. Due to the UC I’ve had several other times when I had to go to work feeling a lot sicker and weaker than this… but even so I’m starting to feel a bit of despair… today I found myself feeling so, so exhausted by the time the day was done and I don’t know if the weakness is simply from not having eaten essentially anything but chocolate for the past couple of weeks, from dehydration, loss of minerals or if the weakness is just part of this new “condition”… any advice would be appreciated…

Post Edited (Lilypad321) : 8/4/2014 11:30:07 AM (GMT-6)

When you see your Dr its important to mention the acid reflux, as you may have GERD, its not uncommon to have more than one problem at the same time..

I scanned through your post (it was a little long for me), but this part stood out to me:


This is actually going to sound kind of ridiculous but for the past several weeks the only things that didn’t appear to trigger the nausea were all, actually, different forms of junk food… especially very, very simplistic junk food like plain chocolate. Today for example all I had to eat were a few bits of chocolate in the morning for “breakfast” and a few more bits much later on in the day for “lunch”. This is by far not the first time lately where I’ve had nothing but chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner and despite being on a “chocolate diet” I’ve actually been losing weight because I can only consume small amounts of it (I figured having some form of calorie intake is better than having no calorie intake).

I found that my healing exponentially went up when I ate what I craved. I don't believe in the science of it, but if you want... Chocolate has cocoa butter, where the fat is primarily oleic acid. Oleic acid alleviates mitochondrial stress and helps with the healing process. study here.

So I guess you should eat what you crave. :)

I had such terrible nausea on imuran that it wasn't worth for me to take. I wanted to die while taking it, because anything, even a full blown flare would have been better than the pain it caused me.

Best.

Please go get your pancreas function tested.

Chocolate contains a lot of histamine. I don't think that is such a good idea IMHO.

It could have been Samonella from the bad chicken. It can live in your colon for many years and cause your problems later. It can also cause UC because it works its way through the mucous layer and causes ulcers. It can also work its way through the colon wall and cause some serious health problems. You should probably have your feces checked for Samonella.

Because it is a bad bacteria that can live in the colon you will want to take a really good probiotic that will keep it at bay. My son takes Ultmate Flora Adult Formula 15 billion. It contains 11 different kinds of probiotic. It keeps my son in remission especially when the seasons change.

Every person with UC should take a really good probiotic. The good bacteria protect the mucous layer from the bad bacteria.