Wednesday, March 16, 2011

"I'm Just One Stomach Flu Away From My Goal Weight." -- Emily, The Devil Wears Prada

Thanks to all my wonderful friends and family for your advice and supportive comments. They truly were a ray of light during this dark time. I wanted to answer some of your questions and give a little more insight into my health problems. First, Noelle, I think you hit the nail on the head. I somehow forgot to add anxiety to my list of theories. It should have been close to the top, so to speak. I think there is a very real possibility that switching up my meds at the first of the year caused my anxiety to not only return but to return with such a vengeance that it's actually making me physically sick to my stomach. However, the sickness often comes right after meals, and daily, whether or not I feel anxious at all. I know I could be subconsciously anxious and it's only showing itself through stomachaches, but that scares me because then we've just reached a whole new level of anxiety that I don't know how to deal with. How do I stop anxiety that I'm not even feeling? So...I am going to eliminate the physical stuff first, at least narrow it down. I am going to insist on having an IgG food allergy test done (thank you M-A for enlightening me about that) and discuss my celiac tests from 4.5 years ago. (Wow, has it really been that long?) To review for those who know about this and fill in those who don't, 5 years ago I got the flu and it basically just never went away. From the end of May '07 clear through to October of '07, I was miserable: nauseous, sick to my stomach, dizzy, etc. My dr. tested me for celiac. Shockingly, it came back abnormal (one part showed negative for it, the other positive for it). She said it was a pretty good indication that I had it. So she told me to go off gluten right away and scheduled me for an upper GI. After a few weeks off gluten I felt much better, but then the symptoms came back. However, there were a few glutenous things that slipped in my diet that I didn't realize had gluten. Anyway, when the month passed and I went to a gastroenterologist for the upper GI, he did blood work again. It showed it was still abnormal. Then they did the upper GI (sent a tube with a camera on the end down my throat into my stomach). It showed no signs of celiac, but definite signs of acid reflux. But we wouldn't know for sure until the biopsy results came back. They showed negative as well. Then I get a phone call later from the gastroenterologist's office saying they wanted to test me again, because I'd been off of wheat for a month before the test which could screw up their findings. I was so furious and so not willing to go back to the whole celiac possibility that I said "yeah...no. Not gonna happen." Oddly enough, within the month all my symptoms disappeared. All was well, celiac was dismissed forever.

Fast forward to my stomach issues now. Very similar to that summer of gastro hell. It's been going on for months, no rhyme or reason to it, no explanation, same symptoms. So tomorrow I am going back to my dr. and asking to go over all the paperwork from that whole ordeal, have her walk me through it, and see where I'm at now. I'm sure they'll want to run the blood test again, which is totally fine by me. (M-A, are you just bursting with pride right now? ;) So please, cross your fingers, say a little prayer that this time, for real, once and for all, I'll actually find out what's wrong with me. And if this proves ineffective, I am definitely going to look into the naturopath/reflexologist/bio-energetic route. If NONE of these pans out in any way, then it's off in search of a therapist who actually gives therapy, and back to the psychiatrist for another med adjustment, which I'm actually going to do anyway.

Whew! That was probably way beyond more than you ever wanted to know about my health situation. Thanks to those of you still reading. It's friends like you who make me smile even as I'm curled up in a ball of pain in bed. And that's saying something!

2 comments:

[M] said...

hey, i'm not hoping to be right, just hoping to help you:) i have spent hundreds of hours reading about celiac because i think many people in my fam have it, namely my brother who refuses to get the test because he doesn't want to change his diet (diagnosed with ulcerative colitis). and i have friends who have gone gluten-free to help migraines/anxiety/depression/stomach issuues and it has worked wonders. and they didn't even have a positive test.

regardless, i hope you find answers and feel better soon. there is nothing worse than feeling sick. oh, and i would still ask your doctor about deplin (it's an activated B vitamin that is supposed to be taken in conjunction with depression meds. B12 shots are also helpful for some people...) you might want to have the doc check your vitamin D levels too.

our accupuncturist says that the chinese method of healing is to first heal through food/diet. if that doesn't work, use herbs. if that doesn't work, use accupuncture. (don't worry we still use western med. too). he recommends avoiding gluten and dairy (the two most common allergens/hardest things to digest)for most common health complaints...

keep us posted!

Rachael said...

good luck leeshy-lou! I hope you figure out something, if not, I'll be your friend even if you are broken. I won't donate you to the goodwill of friendships. I like you too much. i really do hope you feel better soon, feeling sick is the worst, the absolute worst...

wv-modgintl-maybe that's what you have...(i hope you post again soon, so i can guess that wv might be what you have too)