Posted 3/1/2014 3:56 AM (GMT 0)
This a lot i know! But i really do need some advice, and ive been though a lot so i want to be thorough.
To start I am a 21 year old male, 5'10, 145 pounds, very active. Sooo, it all began with flu like symptoms including nausea, mild chills, and abdominal tenderness right below the sternum that are worst in the morning and very bad when lying down, just a wave of nausea and head rush as I lean back to lay down (it's like getting the flu every morning and it starts to wear off through out the day), also i have excessive burping all day long some are deep from the gut and some seem to just be air burps.
I have seen 4 different family physicians and 1 Gastroenterology. The first doctor thought I had allergic sinus drip (which I did used to have bad reaction to dust mites when I was younger, and went away after smoking cigarettes for a while), who gave me medicine which I stubbornly didn't even get from the pharmacy before moving to the next doctor. One doctor told me it was IBS and to adjust me lifestyle (since then I have stopped smoking cigarettes, and eat much healthier). Two other doctors had told me I have acid reflux or GERD, which makes perfect sense but after trying all medicines possible I found that omeprazole is the only significantly improving drug, unfortunately it gives me horrible fluttery feelings like if you're going down the big hill of a rollercoaster and the feeling never goes away. Prevacid barely works but it gives me bad digestion problems. I tried Zantac, Pepcid A/C, Tums, Rolaids, Mylanta, Maloox, etc etc. One strange thing is that I feel no heartburn, i never have except when i discontinued prevacid i felt heartburn for a few days after that was very easily cured with pepcid a/c.
The one thing that saved me was a supplement called d-limonene that is used for all sorts of GI distress. So I definately had been convinced it was acid reflux. But then i was referred to GI doctor because although my symptoms were better with the pills they weren't getting any better really. So the GI doctor gave me an upper EGD and found nothing wrong at all. He told me that he doesnt believe it's an acid issue at all and that im just getting sucked into a typhoon of the sickness, which is complete BS, sorry to say. Another thing, when taking d-limonene you are not supposed to smoke or else you are reversing everything you're doing so after feeling better on the supplement I went back to smoking, it didnt last long before i started to feel sick again, and after lets say... wrestling with my girlfriend and smoking a cigarette after my sickness was back in full force (i didnt eat anything prior to it). So since then I quit smoking cigarettes, have taken d-limonene again and got myself back to "normal". Also, if i eat nothing but vegetables ill find some relief but other than really fatty foods, i dont have any trigger foods.
I have had blood tests that came back negative for food allergies, pancreas issues, liver issues, h. pylori, and tons more. I had an upper EGD, abdominal xray, and abdominal ultrasound that all came back negative (gallbladder had a polyp that they told me not to worry about) So after 8 months of this hell I have a few things that I believe it could be, i know now my issues are nausea when; lying down, I am a delivery driver and sitting down in my car after taking a delivery ill feel it, also when leaning over, "wrestling", and upon waking in the morning (worst when i roll around before waking up): constant burping, diarrhea quite consistently (could be from the stress) and a bunch more but those are the most consistent symptoms. So i have a few idea of what could be the issue:
1- Acid Reflux - Makes sense for it to be, but omeprazole is the only medication that helped. But no heartburn, no gastric scarring or inflammation, and after a day of 3 zantac's, 2 pepcid ac's, and 2 full rolls of rolaids without the slightest bit of relief i can say i dont believe it's acid reflux.
2- Anxiety - I'm no the person to be anxious, i like to think im a relaxed person and i tend to deal with situations while staying calm, but this all began when i started a relationship a girl, where it has so far been the most serious relationship ive had. In which i felt really jealous when this all began which i think contributed but not quite caused it.
3- Drug abuse - I've been heavily smoking cannabis more and more over the past few years and symptoms seem worst while high, but i believe it may be because im focusing on it more.
4- Post nasal drip - I dont really feel anything dripping down my throat, but the first doctor thought it was the case so i gave it a shot and began taking antihistamines, claratin did nothing but allegra actually has seemed to help, also a neti pot seems to help but i also did it with the allegra so im not quite sure if it did help.
5- Inner/Middle ear infection - Mainly because my problems seem to be sensitive to my body positions, I have always had ear issues, i had tubes in my ears as a baby (which one fell out early apparently) but i have lots of wax build up in one ear and i get the dizzy spells, ringing in ears, and sometimes my one ear hurts when i burp. Also my mother had a calcium build up of some sort in her ear that made her have hearing loss and they told me i should get checked out aswell.
I know this is a lot of information, and im sorry if it's too much to read but I really just want to feel normal again and any opinions or ideas would be greatly appreciated!!