amwood
10-19-2003, 01:39 AM
I was wondering if anyone here has experienced this or heard of something similar...I'll try to keep this brief but I feel pretty lost right now...
About ten months ago my doctor discovered I was significantly anemic after doing a routine blood test. From there, I tested positive for occult blood in my stool and began the GI testing. Over the past few months, I've had a colonoscopy, endoscopy, small bowel series, nuclear medicine study, and the capsule endoscopy. None of these tests really showed anything except for the capsule study, but that was "inconclusive" since the capsule/camera got stuck at some point in my small intestine and that was where the battery eventually died. So, to date they still don't know what's causing my anemia and I've been getting IV iron infusions to try and keep my hemoglobin up.
Throughout all of this I haven't had any GI symptoms, the only symptoms I've experienced have been related to the anemia. Then a few weeks ago I started getting sick (throwing up) every now and then. It's not the flu, and it's not something I ate, and I'm not pregnant...it happens about once a week or so, and there was one night I was up for a few hours getting sick. So, my doctors want to start the GI testing again....
My question is, do you think it's beneficial to go through all that testing again? Are there other tests that I didn't mention above that they can also do? Has anyone experienced anything like this? It just seems like I did all of this earlier this year and they didn't really find anything...Oh, and a little about myself....I'm an otherwise healthy 27 year old female, active, and I try to work out as often as I can (whenever the anemia isn't that bad). I've lost a little weight recently as a result of all of this and so now I'm actually considered underweight for height, but I usually try to maintain a healthy diet. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated...Thanks!
About ten months ago my doctor discovered I was significantly anemic after doing a routine blood test. From there, I tested positive for occult blood in my stool and began the GI testing. Over the past few months, I've had a colonoscopy, endoscopy, small bowel series, nuclear medicine study, and the capsule endoscopy. None of these tests really showed anything except for the capsule study, but that was "inconclusive" since the capsule/camera got stuck at some point in my small intestine and that was where the battery eventually died. So, to date they still don't know what's causing my anemia and I've been getting IV iron infusions to try and keep my hemoglobin up.
Throughout all of this I haven't had any GI symptoms, the only symptoms I've experienced have been related to the anemia. Then a few weeks ago I started getting sick (throwing up) every now and then. It's not the flu, and it's not something I ate, and I'm not pregnant...it happens about once a week or so, and there was one night I was up for a few hours getting sick. So, my doctors want to start the GI testing again....
My question is, do you think it's beneficial to go through all that testing again? Are there other tests that I didn't mention above that they can also do? Has anyone experienced anything like this? It just seems like I did all of this earlier this year and they didn't really find anything...Oh, and a little about myself....I'm an otherwise healthy 27 year old female, active, and I try to work out as often as I can (whenever the anemia isn't that bad). I've lost a little weight recently as a result of all of this and so now I'm actually considered underweight for height, but I usually try to maintain a healthy diet. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated...Thanks!