Still Sick
My stomach continues to defy medical analysis. My duodenitis (aka ulcer) flared up two weeks ago, but after one bad day it seemed to settle down. It didn’t go away completely, but it was manageable and I was able to keep exercising. My doctor’s tests didn’t show any underlying infection so I chalked it up to the stress of starting the new job. Then, yesterday, it came back with a vengeance. I don’t know what set it off, but by 4:00 I was in agony. I rang the doctor and left work early. I honestly don’t know how I managed to get home without puking. It was that bad. My regular doc was booked out so I had to see somebody new, which meant he had to get the whole two-year-long saga of the diagnosis. Yes, I have been tested for h.pylori. No, multiple tests for it have been negative. Yes, I know that’s really weird, because I have every symptom of a classic ulcer EXCEPT for the bacteria. I was nearly in tears telling him about it. It’s just so frustrating, because there doesn’t seem to be anything I can *do*. If I tested positive for the h.pylori then they could treat me for it, but without that, all I can do is take more Nexium (which doesn’t seem to help much).
So the upshot of all of it is, he wants me to have another endoscopy and another round of blood tests. Oh, and no more caffeine and alcohol. Joy.
neek
April 16, 2008 — 1:26 pm
🙁 that’s terrible *hugs* hope you feel better soon. chocolate is still allowed right? 🙂
Bex
April 16, 2008 — 2:18 pm
i have to ask…. have you asked MetaFilter?
Hope you feel better…
spider_knit
April 16, 2008 — 6:51 pm
Ahhh .. I used to have similar symptoms. I was eventually diagnosed with (iirc) “PrePeptic Acidity” – my doctor explained it as “an ulcer, without the bacteria that causes ulcers. My father also suffered from it, an apparently you can be genetically predisposed to getting it. Exacerbated badly by stress. (Uni was awful for me).
Emily
April 16, 2008 — 7:57 pm
How crappy for you. You on a PPI? (omeprazole etc). Though thry sometimes cause abdo pain.
How very not-helpful medicine can be. fingers crossed it gets sorted asap.
Kris
April 17, 2008 — 7:25 am
Yeah, I think the Nexium is a PPI. They all seem surprised that it isn’t helping me more than it is. I’m now splitting my 40mg dose and taking half in the morning, half at night to see if that helps. (Since my worst attacks come late in the afternoon.)
eileen
April 17, 2008 — 7:43 am
Sucks. I hope you feel better soon.
brigita
April 17, 2008 — 10:39 am
Could the problem be…lower? Don’t you wish we had smarter guts that did what they were supposed to?
Kris
April 17, 2008 — 2:01 pm
Nah. Every time I go in the docs are always very careful to pinpoint exactly where the pain is. It’s really high up on the left side, right over the duodenum. I think they get worried it could be my pancreas or gallbladder or something, but it never affects those areas. (And I had them all ultrasounded a while back.) And, well, the plumbing seems to be working okay… (Thanks to you, I pay more attention than I used to!)
brigita
April 18, 2008 — 4:27 am
Very glad to hear it. Sucks when the wheels start falling off this early!!
Ferret with Ex Fizzy Tummy
April 19, 2008 — 10:15 am
I’ve had this problem too and had the whole endoscopy investigation as well ages ago.
I don’t really have major issues anymore like being woken up every night.
For me it ended up being i wasn’t drinking enough liquids and would have too much tea which of course probably just irritated it more. Though the fact i could go through the whole day with only drinking one glass of water probably didn’t help either.
Only thing i can suggest to try which is what i do at the moment is no soft drinks and i only drink tea/coffee/beer/water.