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Medical Mystery
I am a 19 year old college student who should be in perfect health. Unfortunately I have been experiencing interesting symptoms off an on for over a year now. Each time when they come back the sympoms are worse and last longer. Recently these symptoms have gotten so worse that I was forced to withdraw from college until I get better. I have seen several doctors, surgeons, and specialists on this matter and no one can offer a clear solution or anything to help. I decided to post my symptoms in the off chance of finding out something new or something that can help.
Initially I felt a pain in my upper-right abdomen, right at the bottom of the ribcage which caused me to seek help. it was a stabbing pain that would act like a cramp but hurt much more. It was accompanied with a nausea that very rarely ended in vomitting. We thought it could be a gall bladder issue, but after an ultrasound and radioactive scan in my gall bladder and liver there seemed to be nothing wrong.
Without knowing what it could be, I was passed on from my university doctor to a digestive specialist. In this time my nausea got much worse. I would experience it all the time, most notably when I woke up and after I ate. I started paying more attention to any other symptoms I could have and realized I was experiencing a variation diahrrea and constipation. The constipation normally would make my feces pellit-like. I was also very gassy, especially in the form of burping. I also realized this burping would temporarily make me feel better. I would even wake up and first thing in the morning that would happen would be a burp.
Test under this doctor included an upper GI scope that showed a bit of GERD and swelling in my throat, a lower GI scope that showed only non-cancerous pollips, a test where I had to eat radioactive material and watch its movement for several hours (I couldn't do it because I couldn't keep the eggs down), and half of a CT scan (I could only down half of the barium because I felt too sick). I began taking dexilant for the GERD and was given a stomach spasmatic that I had a severe allergic reaction to. The CT scan may have shown intussusception of my jejunum in my small bowel, but it was not a clear view because I didn't drink all the barium. My specialist decided to go with that result and send me to a surgeon.
This would all make sense! I have an issue with digestion. The food would ferment in my stomach which caused the nausea and burping. My body would work hard when it can't get food through and it would cause diahrrea, and when it can't go through I would experience constipation.
By this time I had withdrawn from college because I could no longer stay in my classes. I left early every time for fear of getting sick in class, and my grades began to suffer because of it. I also began losing weight because I couldn't eat anything (or didn't feel like it because I felt too sick), at one point losing about 10 lbs in one week. I spent a week without consuming dairy and another week without consuming glutton and didn't feel any different afterwards. I took an food allergy test and it only showed a potential allergy to shellfish.
The surgeon agreed that there could be intussusception but wanted to take a better look at my small bowel. For some reason I started to feel better in between appointments with this surgeon. I no longer felt any of these symptoms for about a week before this next test. I then took an x-ray test that involved drinking barium, and it went fine. I found out that I don't have intussusception. Oh no... what else could it be? The surgeon decided to give me another stomach spasmatic to keep things moving, but right now I am only being treated for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
I know its not IBS. I haven't read anything about IBS being this severe or lasting this long. I do know that my nausea gets worse when I feel like I'm in a situation that "I can't escape from" or get away from in case I get sick, but being enough to cause me to miss all my classes? I already made it through one year of college, why would this happen the second year? The CT scan would have shown if I have Inflammitory Bowel Disease, Crohn's, or ulceratice colitis, but those were negative.
Additional information would be that zero nausea medicine has been helpful to me. Pepto, tums, and about 4 seperate perscription pills. I don't know what to do anymore and school starts up again soon (quarter system). I'd like to get this figured out. At least one of my tests (probabaly the CT scan) has to have been wrong. Any suggestions or possible solutions?
Initially I felt a pain in my upper-right abdomen, right at the bottom of the ribcage which caused me to seek help. it was a stabbing pain that would act like a cramp but hurt much more. It was accompanied with a nausea that very rarely ended in vomitting. We thought it could be a gall bladder issue, but after an ultrasound and radioactive scan in my gall bladder and liver there seemed to be nothing wrong.
Without knowing what it could be, I was passed on from my university doctor to a digestive specialist. In this time my nausea got much worse. I would experience it all the time, most notably when I woke up and after I ate. I started paying more attention to any other symptoms I could have and realized I was experiencing a variation diahrrea and constipation. The constipation normally would make my feces pellit-like. I was also very gassy, especially in the form of burping. I also realized this burping would temporarily make me feel better. I would even wake up and first thing in the morning that would happen would be a burp.
Test under this doctor included an upper GI scope that showed a bit of GERD and swelling in my throat, a lower GI scope that showed only non-cancerous pollips, a test where I had to eat radioactive material and watch its movement for several hours (I couldn't do it because I couldn't keep the eggs down), and half of a CT scan (I could only down half of the barium because I felt too sick). I began taking dexilant for the GERD and was given a stomach spasmatic that I had a severe allergic reaction to. The CT scan may have shown intussusception of my jejunum in my small bowel, but it was not a clear view because I didn't drink all the barium. My specialist decided to go with that result and send me to a surgeon.
This would all make sense! I have an issue with digestion. The food would ferment in my stomach which caused the nausea and burping. My body would work hard when it can't get food through and it would cause diahrrea, and when it can't go through I would experience constipation.
By this time I had withdrawn from college because I could no longer stay in my classes. I left early every time for fear of getting sick in class, and my grades began to suffer because of it. I also began losing weight because I couldn't eat anything (or didn't feel like it because I felt too sick), at one point losing about 10 lbs in one week. I spent a week without consuming dairy and another week without consuming glutton and didn't feel any different afterwards. I took an food allergy test and it only showed a potential allergy to shellfish.
The surgeon agreed that there could be intussusception but wanted to take a better look at my small bowel. For some reason I started to feel better in between appointments with this surgeon. I no longer felt any of these symptoms for about a week before this next test. I then took an x-ray test that involved drinking barium, and it went fine. I found out that I don't have intussusception. Oh no... what else could it be? The surgeon decided to give me another stomach spasmatic to keep things moving, but right now I am only being treated for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
I know its not IBS. I haven't read anything about IBS being this severe or lasting this long. I do know that my nausea gets worse when I feel like I'm in a situation that "I can't escape from" or get away from in case I get sick, but being enough to cause me to miss all my classes? I already made it through one year of college, why would this happen the second year? The CT scan would have shown if I have Inflammitory Bowel Disease, Crohn's, or ulceratice colitis, but those were negative.
Additional information would be that zero nausea medicine has been helpful to me. Pepto, tums, and about 4 seperate perscription pills. I don't know what to do anymore and school starts up again soon (quarter system). I'd like to get this figured out. At least one of my tests (probabaly the CT scan) has to have been wrong. Any suggestions or possible solutions?
Welcome to the gastroenterology community! I would recommend trying to get the CT scan and the gastric emptying scan (the one where you eat radioactive material) done again to see if you can drink the material and keep it down. I would also recommend that you get a colonoscopy and endoscopy to make sure that everything is okay there. Have you had blood tests for celiac disease?
i had the colonoscopy and endoscopy already and everything turned out to be ok. i havent had blood tests for celiac disease which is still a possibility. i think right now another ct scan is the best option but who knows
I would recommend getting a full celiac blood panel. Do you know if they took biopsies to check for celiac disease during your endoscopy? I definitely think that repeating the CT scan and the gastric emptying scan is a good idea.
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