Digestive issues for 2 years. 140lb down to 90lb

[Ryan83]

Hello my name is Ryan I'm 31 years old I don't drink, smoke, use drugs or engage in alternative lifestyles. I'm just a simple guy from a small Texas town and I live a very quiet life. I've been fighting a mystery condition for two years. I've been to many doctors I've had many tests ran and lots of things have been uncovered, but I still do not have a clear diagnosis and I don't know where to go or who to turn to.

Instead of writing a novel I'm going to keep my initial post short and I'm going to withhold information at first so I don't influence your responses. I'm going to list the symptoms I'm experiencing right now and I'd like for you to give me your first impression. I'll explain things and answer questions as we go.

Note: This came from absolutely no where. August 1st, 2013 I was just fine, but by August 31st, 2013 I was fighting for my life and still am. There has been no improvement.

Current Symptoms - 9/8/2015

▪Flu like symptoms
▪Swollen sore tonsils
▪Tonsil stones
▪Red sores in mouth
▪Blood blisters in mouth
▪Swollen lymph nodes
▪Twitchy muscles
▪Weaknesses
▪Painful tendons
▪Difficulty breathing
▪Heart palpitations
▪Dark green stools (no green food is being ingested)
▪Constipation (Drinking lots of water and juice)
▪Cloudy urine with particles
▪Rashes
▪Hair loss on legs
▪Cold legs and ice feet
▪Purple toes
▪Sores on legs
▪Low blood sugar
▪Numbness
▪Dizziness
▪Sore bones
▪Sore joints
▪Food Allergies (that came from no where)
▪Abdominal pain/pressure/discomfort (right side just under the ribs near the sternum and it seems to worsen after some meals, but moving around makes it worse too).

I went from being an active young man taking care of a farm to being bound to a bed for two years. There's more to the story, but this is a good start.

[TheLightSeeker]

Re: slow heart rate and palpitations when climaxing.
It is normal to have slow heart rate (yours was a little too slow perhaps) as the vagus nerve which is responsible for this, engages right after an orgasm, while your higher adrenalin output after sex is stimulating other parts of your heart and your cardiovascular system, possibly causing the temporary tachycardia symptoms (adrenalin has a very short half life).
I suspect an over- stressed vagus nerve and dysregulated adrenals are playing a key role in this.

Within all your suffering, it is good to know that  there's no significant organ involvement  and that your heart is OK.

Your low CD-4 count has probably due to the flu or other viral infection, at the time of the testing, which caused a temporary CD-4 decline.

Another suggestion, which I forgot to mention is to look into demulcent
herbs,  rich in mucilage which can soothe and protect irritated or inflamed internal tissue. Look into aloe vera, slippery elm, licorice and others.
Also look into the GAPS program and SCD (specific carbohydrate diet),
as I feel you will find a wealth of valuable info.

You need to get your digestion and G/I function normalized , to the point where you can absorb and assimilate nutrients and vitamins much more efficiently, from everyday healthy foods.

My 2 cents of wisdom for today: You are what you assimilate and what you eliminate. Not just what you eat!

And you're welcome.
Niko

[Ryan83]

Thank you so much for getting back with me Niko. I am certainly taking everything you mentioned into consideration. I'm writing everything down and I'm going to come up with some kind of plan.

I certainly agree with you that conventional medicine is not going to help me here because many doctors don't seem to think outside the box. Some of the doctors that do give me prescriptions are only treating my symptoms instead of trying to figure out what it is. It's also very clear to me that my doctors are not communicating or sharing information with one another.

My case certainly has a lot of complexities because of all the possible things that could have come from what I was exposed to in a short period of time. I was just trying to get everything done on the farm so when my dad came home from the hospital he wouldn't have to worry about anything. What happened is he came home and a few weeks later his son started dying from some mystery. My dad actually had to carry me into the hospital that one time because I was unable to walk and was shaking really bad. For no reason... All we were doing was sitting at home watching documentaries when some of this would occur. Nothing stressful or bad, but at that time I didn't know I was having allergic reactions to food and I was just trying to eat like I always have.

I believe those first ER visits were due to the beginning stages of anaphylaxis. Trouble breathing, wheezing, throat closing up, numb all over, and shaking. Doctors were misinterpreting it as a panic attack. They would give me something for anxiety and send me home. Most of my ER visits were basically a waste of time and I'm over $80,000 in debt now thanks to all of this.

This last ER visit a few months ago doctors said via x-ray that it looked like feces was stuck to the wall of my large intestines on my right side and new feces is struggling to get past it and that might be what's causing my abdominal pressure, discomfort and pain. Right, I told doctors in the beginning it feels like I have a bowel obstruction, my bowels are filling up, and my stomach isn't emptying. Resulting in not being able to get food and water in me resulting in dehydration and weight-loss. They ignore everything I say though. Instead of possibly giving me an enema or providing any help or just doing some simple investigation once they said it looked like I had a bowel blockage they gave me a shot of morphine (which makes no sense) and discharged me from the hospital.

I did do a follow up with my Gastrologist a week later and I provided him with this information, but since I'm not able to work and have no insurance he wanted to go the cheap route by prescribing me laxatives instead of doing a EGD/Colonoscopy and actually investigate. So if feces was stuck to the wall of my bowel a few months ago it's still there now.

Note: I have had three abdominal CT scans over the past two years that I insisted should happen. One with contrast and two without. The radiologist says all of my organs look normal. No blockages no nothing. No sign of gallstones, kidney stones, or swelling. They say the adrenal glands, spleen, and pancreas all look normal.

I did specifically request a heavy metal test about nine months ago and the tests came back negative. Although I'm not sure if it was just some basic test or if they seriously looked into it because just about every basic test they run keeps coming back "normal" or "within range." They only find things when they run advanced tests and they wouldn't run any advance tests had I not requested it. Had I not insisted on some tests being ran I wouldn't know anything right now.

When I told them to give me an HIV test they actually argued with me against it. Then when the test came back with abnormally low CD-4 counts there was a big HIV scare. All of my doctors were certain that's what this was. When 20+ advanced HIV screenings came back negative doctors basically told me to stop coming to their office as if I'm just wasting their time. Now they are convinced there's nothing to find, which is basically a death sentence for me if this doesn't get identified.

In the past two years I've been prescribed Flovent, BuSpar, Lorazepam, Pantoprazole, and Sucralfate. I took them for a year and got worse. I've also had Amoxicillin in the beginning when they suspected this was just siunitus and I was prescribed Clindamycin by my dentist before having a few teeth removed.

I'm having some kind of sexual issue strongly associated with this. I've had to stop doing anything sexual. I can't even think of anything sexual without a very severe reaction.

I haven't been in a sexual relationship for nearly a decade, but I did masturbate up until a year ago. Gradually masturbation started to cause very serious symptoms. As I begin to climax my heart slows way down, palpitates, I struggle to breathe, I feel pressure in my abdomen, my chest gets tight and my arms and legs go numb. It's followed by a sudden racing heart of 122 BPM or more. The one time I had to have an ambulance because of it and my heart rate was 32 BPM on the monitor. I thought I was going to die. Anything sexual causes my heart to slow down like that. I'm under the impression that if I had an orgasm my heart would actually stop. It's scary enough to cause me to stop anything sexual the past year. I've been masturebaiting twice per day everyday since I was really young and I never had a problem before.

Unfortunately doctors are misinterpreting my symptoms and not listening to me. This sexual problem has gotten me misdiagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder just because of the fast heart rate that occurs afterwards.

One of the first two doctors I went to in 2013 was a Cardiologist and he said everything looked great after running an 24 hour EKG monitor, nuclear stress test, and a sonogram of my heart and the arteries in my neck and abdomen.


The only additional information I can provide is genetic risk factors.

Genetic Risk Factors

▪PT Grandmother - Colon Cancer (deceased)
▪PT Grandfather - Stroke / Alzheimer's (deceased)

▪MT Grandmother - Stroke / Alzheimer's (deceased)
▪MT Grandfather - Prostate Cancer

▪Mother - Basal cell carcinoma / 12lb ovarian cyst.
▪Father - Kidney cancer, bone cancer, liver cancer, polyps in colon, type 2 diabetes, hepatitis (deceased).

▪ Family history of cancer and high blood pressure on my mother's side.

▪ Family history of gallstones/gallbladder failure
and cancer on my father's side.


That's basically everything. It's a nightmare. I'm not ready to die, but I've already started getting all of my affairs in order. I'm trying to stay optimistic, I have to be realistic. Even if they do find it I'll probably suffer from some long term damage from not getting it identified in a timely manner.

Any additional thoughts or ideas from you or anyone else would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ryan

[Ryan83]

Hi Sharin and thanks for your response. My father did spray a lot of herbicides and pesticides around the farm (gallons). He would often spray much more than the necessary amount in high concentration. In this case he hadn't sprayed anything at the time I became sick since he was in the hospital for nearly a month, but while he was away in August 2013 I did spray a small amount of Hot Shot under the eve of the porch because of the wasps. So this is also a possibility.

Note: Before my dad died of "cancer" he had similar symptoms as me. Rashes, flu like symptoms, trouble eating. He kept complaining that it felt like he had a "never ending cold and strep throat." That's what I keep telling doctors about me. Also, the highest concentration of mold was in my dad's bedroom so if it's mold related he would have had the highest exposure and he is deceased now. When my dad got to the stage I'm at right now with my symptoms my dad only lived for three months.

My theory here would be that perhaps we were suffering from mold poisoning and didn't know it, but the stress of my dad's cancer diagnosis may have stunned our system enough to allow the mold and/or fungus to overtake our system. My dad did supposedly die of "bone cancer," but through my research I've found that fungal infections can be mistaken for bone cancer on MRI scans, which is what my dad was having done. Personally I do not for one moment believe my dad died of cancer. It seems as though he died from whatever is killing me.

When this began I went from 140lb down to 90lb, but my dad went from 244lb down to 110lb before he died. I've explained this to doctors and they ignore it completely because dad had "cancer" and was on chemo and radiation. They believe I'm just a hypochondriac mirroring my dad's symptoms.

I've handed my doctors the actual report from the company that tested my house. The company says if I'm sick I should definitely be tested because there are unusually high levels of mold in my house, but doctors have not ran any mold/fungal tests on me. They instead accuse me of printing a fake report from the internet even though it's 100% verifiable. My case has been mishandled by some fairly incompetent doctors.

Note: The chickens were sneezing and in poor health. The chickens, my dad, me, and my cat were all sneezing a lot in the few months prior to everything going to hell. The chickens basically all fell over dead one right after another mysteriously. My dad usually tended the chickens. I only did while he was in the hospital. I don't know if something like bird flu is possible or not. I've been walking around with this for two years whatever it is so I hope it isn't some kind of transmittible disease. I've been in doctors offices, grocery stores, and around small children. I've been living with my mom for a year and now she is getting down very sick. My step dad is doing the rapid sneezing thing too. This is basically a repeat of what happened to me and my dad on the farm. So I hope this isn't something transmittible. Doctors are not listening to me or taking anything I say seriously. They aren't running tests because they do not believe there's anything to find. They've even accused me of starving myself or doing something to myself intentionally for attention. So the doctors I've seen have fallen off the deep end. Instead of swallowing their pride and admitting they don't know what this is they would rather blame me.

I do live in Texas near Dallas where ebola first broke out in the United States so doctors here do miss big things on an unimaginably incompetent level. For example, one week before my dad was diagnosed with cancer he was diagnosed with a pulled muscle in his neck first. So my dad's diagnosis went from "pulled muscle in neck" to "terminal cancer with not long to live."  

I do not trust the doctors here.

I'm about to reply to Niko and I'll provide a few more details, but poison is a possibility. So is mold/fungus and a dozen other things. Unfortunately...

Thanks,
Ryan

[sharin]

On a farm?? Work with lots of pesticides and such.  I became chemically sensitive about 4 yrs ago. Never had probe in the past using stuff on my plant for bugs or in the house, but all of a sudden I did.
Took 2 years to get diagnosed.
Your symptoms sound so much like mine. Even the bloody sore in throat. Weak, joints ache. Weird bowels. Burning esophagus. Developed neuropathy in my arms and legs, made my feet and hands turn blue and ache. Burning chest and throat. Racing heart, shakiness, exhaustion.  Too much to list.
I now find being around any chemicals like cleaning charms, even some soaps and perfumes and make it worse. Even car exhaust, air freshener plugs ins.   Makes a diff if I can stay in clean environment.   Just using water.  Look up MCS
Multiple chemical sensitivty.
Some drs used to think it was all in the head, so did I,  they are finding that isn't the case.
Look up environmental illness.  
I hope that's not what you have   *****.

[Ryan83]

In this post I'll cover some of the things I was exposed to in 2013 and give you my own interpretation based on actual events.

Going off of the data available it's obvious that my immune system is a huge part of this. So let's take a look at that. My immune system is attacking my digestive system and my immune system is attacking some of the food I eat. So for some reason my immune system is on high alert. I remember from biology class that sometimes when a foreign invader enters the body the immune system is sometimes unable to identify it and the immune system will actually attack healthy cells. Some doctors I've seen say the sudden appearance of these symptoms indicate that I may have been exposed to something and that's the direction I've been leaning in based on events leading up to the sudden explosion of symptoms, but there are other factors to take into consideration.

Let's look at the timeline. August 1st, 2013 I was just fine, but by August 31st, 2013 I was seeing the rapid development of what would become an explosion of symptoms. So what was going on in my life in August of 2013?

First off, August 5th, 2013 my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and not long to live. This news was sudden, but he already had a cancer diagnosis in 2008 and it wasn't a huge surprise that it was back, but it was stressful. He and I lived on the farm together for the past 22 years and while he was in the hospital in August I had to take care of the farm by myself, which means I was exposed to bacteria and chemicals I'm not normally exposed to because I was tending to things I didn't normally tend to.

Note: I did physical work I normally didn't do and it was 106°F outside. I'm usually inside in 73°F air conditioning and I hadn't been exposed to heat like that in years. I did about three months of farm work in three weeks. There was a moment when I got so hot, dizzy, and exhausted I didn't think I would make it back to the house. I haven't felt right since.

So now I'm going to list all the realistic possibilities based on what was going on, what I was exposed to, what the test results show, and how I was feeling then and now. Then I want to see if you or any one sees anything that may fit.

▪Stressful event (Dad's terminal cancer diagnosis) - Adrenal Fatigue
▪Mowing the farm breathing massive dust clouds - Valley Fever
▪Eating salad during the Cycolaspora outbreak .
▪Eating Blue Bell ice cream during the Listeria outbreak.
▪Eating hamburger meat that didn't smell or taste right - Salmonella or E. coli.
▪I tended to chickens and may have breathed feces dust - Histoplasmosis.
▪I was exposed to mosquitoes - West Nile. (they have tested positive here)
▪I was exposed to ticks - Lyme Disease.
▪I was exposed to very sick small children during the Endovirus D68 outbreak.
▪I was working with heavy machinery lifting and straining - Hernia.
▪I've worked with very sick animals loaded with worms - Parasites
▪After my dad died 4/23/14 I had the house tested - Positive for mold.
▪Family history of gallbladder failure on my dad's side. The pain/pressure in upper right abdomen just under the ribs near the sternum points to this as a possibility.

So what we're looking for is something that can impact the digestive system, overload the immune system, and cause the symptoms in my previous posts. This may be something simple that doesn't become this severe when treated early.

The Story - How the symptoms began.

Now that you know all of that let me explain how my symptoms began. I mowed the farm the last week of August 2013. It took me three days so I was exposed to a lot of thick smoke like dust and the morning after the third day of mowing is when I noticed I was short of breath. I felt like I wasn't getting enough oxygen and any activity made it worse.

During the first week of September 2013 I began struggling to get solid food in me so I switched to a liquid diet expecting things to return to normal in a day or two, but it didn't. I gradually became less able to get liquefied food and water in me. It was like my stomach wasn't emptying. I became dehydrated and went from 140lbs down to 90lb through September 2013 to October 2013.

I immediately went to a Gastrologist. That's where the EGD biopsies revealed "Eosinophilic Esophagitis." I was told EoE is a rare autoimmune disease that develops as a direct result of continued exposure to something I'm allergic to and that's when I went to the Allergist and blood tests revealed sensitivities to many foods.

Why? All of a sudden (poof) I'm allergic to three major food groups and I develop an autoimmune disease... Out of nowhere. One week I'm fine and the next week I'm fighting for my life...

As of right now it feels like I have a never ending cold with severe strep throat. Obviously after two years nonstop this isn't a cold.

There is more to the story, but I just posted a lot of information in my reply to Niko and in this post so I'll hold off on posting anything else. If you have any questions or if you would like me to explain something better please ask or let me know. If you'd like to see photos let me know.

Thanks,
Ryan