prior medical history to speak of. I started having these episodes about 31/2 years ago. Mine would start like this
1) wake up in the middle of the night with a weird feeling ( like cold sweats, like when you have the stomach flu,)followed by stomach pain
2) Then started the "burps" ..the most horrible sulfur/rotten egg tasting/smelling ..sometimes flatulence too (also with the sulfur smell)
3)Vomitting
Once the burbs started, I knew what was about to come, and its very scary knowing what your in for. I would sit on my bathroom floor, drinking bottle after bottle of water, because I found that If i flooded my stomach with water, I would only need to throw up about 3 times to get everything out, whereas if I didn't drink water, I would throw up little bits at a time, and it would take HOURS until it was all finally out. I noticed that my first round of vomiting usually showed undigested food, and the last 2 rounds had bright yellow bile in them.
I only had diarrhea on one occasion. My episodes usually never made it into my colon/intestine, as it seemed to start in my stomach, and once I vomited (several times) I usually was able to fall asleep. I will say that after these episodes, I am totally out of it. My body needs to sleep for a long time to recover.
I went to my family doctor who referred me to a surgeon. My surgeon said it sounded like my gallbladder, as I noticed these attacks would happen after eating high fat foods. He wanted to do a HIDA scan, just to make sure. The results of the HIDA scan did show that my gallbladder was putting out the enzymes at a slower rate, so I was scheduled to have my gallbladder removed. I did ask my surgeon what the sulfur smelling bile was, and he said "bacteria"
That was 3 years ago. I still to this day have episodes. They are usually not as bad as they were before my surgery, but I can't say that Im "cured" I find myself spending hours on the internet...googling my symptoms, and have come up with TOO MANY possible diagnoses...including candida, Leaky gut, H Pylori infection, Giardia, GERD, Peptic Ulcers..you get the point.
Why is it that SO many people have the same/similar symptoms, yet there is no exact medical term for what we are all experiencing. Maybe its something different for each individual as I can only assume that is why this has not been nailed down to one specific issue.
I did want to add that I also have undiagnosed IBS, which has just started in the last 6 months.
Also, I wanted to mention a couple of things that seemed to help me at times.
1) When you start to get the burps, start drinking LOTS of water.
2) On occasion, baking soda and water helped (other times it did not)
3) One ER visit I was giving a "cocktail" with Donnatal in it, also know as Bentyl. Its a barbiturate that helps to relax the stomach and intestine. It comes in liquid and pill form, and is often used and given to people who suffer from IBS, colitis, peptic ulcers, and many other digestive issues.
4) Keep a food journal. Log everything you eat/drink. I find a correlation with my attacks and certain foods.
5) When you feel like your doctor can't give an answer, or keeps chalking it up as "acid reflux" ....get a second opinion. Some doctors are just ignorant!!
I am a firm believer in prayer, and trust me, it has gotten me through MANY nights. I am praying for all you "egg burb" sufferers!!!!!
prior medical history to speak of. I started having these episodes about 31/2 years ago. Mine would start like this
1) wake up in the middle of the night with a weird feeling ( like cold sweats, like when you have the stomach flu,)followed by stomach pain
2) Then started the "burps" ..the most horrible sulfur/rotten egg tasting/smelling ..sometimes flatulence too (also with the sulfur smell)
3)Vomitting
Once the burbs started, I knew what was about to come, and its very scary knowing what your in for. I would sit on my bathroom floor, drinking bottle after bottle of water, because I found that If i flooded my stomach with water, I would only need to throw up about 3 times to get everything out, whereas if I didn't drink water, I would throw up little bits at a time, and it would take HOURS until it was all finally out. I noticed that my first round of vomiting usually showed undigested food, and the last 2 rounds had bright yellow bile in them.
I only had diarrhea on one occasion. My episodes usually never made it into my colon/intestine, as it seemed to start in my stomach, and once I vomited (several times) I usually was able to fall asleep. I will say that after these episodes, I am totally out of it. My body needs to sleep for a long time to recover.
I went to my family doctor who referred me to a surgeon. My surgeon said it sounded like my gallbladder, as I noticed these attacks would happen after eating high fat foods. He wanted to do a HIDA scan, just to make sure. The results of the HIDA scan did show that my gallbladder was putting out the enzymes at a slower rate, so I was scheduled to have my gallbladder removed. I did ask my surgeon what the sulfur smelling bile was, and he said "bacteria"
That was 3 years ago. I still to this day have episodes. They are usually not as bad as they were before my surgery, but I can't say that Im "cured" I find myself spending hours on the internet...googling my symptoms, and have come up with TOO MANY possible diagnoses...including candida, Leaky gut, H Pylori infection, Giardia, GERD, Peptic Ulcers..you get the point.
Why is it that SO many people have the same/similar symptoms, yet there is no exact medical term for what we are all experiencing. Maybe its something different for each individual as I can only assume that is why this has not been nailed down to one specific issue.
I did want to add that I also have undiagnosed IBS, which has just started in the last 6 months.
Also, I wanted to mention a couple of things that seemed to help me at times.
1) When you start to get the burps, start drinking LOTS of water.
2) On occasion, baking soda and water helped (other times it did not)
3) One ER visit I was giving a "cocktail" with Donnatal in it, also know as Bentyl. Its a barbiturate that helps to relax the stomach and intestine. It comes in liquid and pill form, and is often used and given to people who suffer from IBS, colitis, peptic ulcers, and many other digestive issues.
4) Keep a food journal. Log everything you eat/drink. I find a correlation with my attacks and certain foods.
5) When you feel like your doctor can't give an answer, or keeps chalking it up as "acid reflux" ....get a second opinion. Some doctors are just ignorant!!
I am a firm believer in prayer, and trust me, it has gotten me through MANY nights. I am praying for all you "egg burb" sufferers!!!!!
well i'm "happy" to see that i'm not the only one. but very sad discovering that we'll still suffer from this illness :'(.
I hope comes a day when doctors will figure out what the problem is with our duigestive system because this is ruining my life :( i can't eat as i will and I m always watching my food. I developed a phobia. when I Wake up late in the night with those horrible burps i wish dying rather than living my night and day like a zombie vomitting every 10 minutes :'(. please dear God make doctors discover the cause of this sickness from hell
I am 63 year old male and have experienced for 40 years (over 200+ attacks) the symptoms laid out in all the comments. Usually 2-4 times a year but sometimes more frequently. After recently having upper UI and intestinal tests, blood work and urine tests, the Dr came back with nothing physical he could see. He is recommending Elavil as he is thinking it may be a rare disorder called Cyclic Vomit Syndrone (CVS). I am also going to focus on what I think may be contributors:
1. Reduce fatty meats - I love them
2. Stress reduction - Restructure my professional career a bit
3. Practice new patterns for sleep and sleep preparation - I have sleep apnea and a weak bladder which means I awake too frequently.
4. No late night meals
5. Major reduction in cheese and dairy products
6. Focus on healthy foods and limit my crustaceous veggies like broccoli and cauliflower.
When I look back on some of my explosive events, it was usually around stressful upcoming or recently past events. I also see a trend of heavy fatty meat intake. These are 2 I want to watch moving forward. I have joined this community so hopefully I can report back in 6 months as to whether I see some curtailment or not.
Good luck to all. It is good to have a place to read and share about this.
i have had this exact problem since i was pregnant with my son in 2010. they couldnt do anything but put me on prilosec during the pregnancy, so i constantly sat in extreme pain with my pregnancy. but a month after he was born i had another episode. i was hospitalized for a whole week. they finally did a scope of my stomache and told me it was very red and raw. and diagnosed me with gastritis. so im on ranitidine 150mg and protonix. when i feel the stomache pain coming i take it imediately. and it seems to be a great relief for me. they told me to stay away from caffine,ciggaretes,chocolate and spicy food, and anything else that i find out that would trigger it. and so far working really well. but they said there is no cure. it is something i will just have to deal with for the rest of my life. i hope this helps.
New here, but I am a pathologist and I have been having this problem for about a year. I think I have a solution, at least for me. Having had four episodes in the past year, I knew when I started having the burps about five days ago that I was in for another. I had been theorizing that perhaps it was due to Helicobacter pylori, mainly because of the burps and knowing that H. pylori in its metabolism produces urea, a gas at body temperature. So without taking the time to run tests to make the diagnosis, I instead just started on the typical regime for eradicating H. pylori: clarithromycin (Biaxin), metronidazole (Flagyl), and omeprazole (Prilosec). Within a few hours the burps were gone, and now five days later I have not had the nausea or the diarrhea. I think this is good evidence that I was right. At least for me, the problem is H. pylori. Time will tell if this keeps me from having a recurrence (the treatment is ten days of the three drugs). There could be other causes of this syndrome for other people, but for me right now I'm convinced that it is Helicobacter.