what in the world?????? - Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Message Board

chegiornata · 11-19-2002, 10:51 PM

I have been suffering with strange symptoms for about 4 years now. I had not really noticed any intestinal problems until I really thought about it recently and noticed that things were terribly awry. The thing that held my attention the most was that about every two weeks I would have horrible cramps in my stomach that can only be compared to imagining that my stomach was a baloon and it was being compressed on all sides and wanted to pop. After a couple of hours of agonizing pain I would begin to vomit. this would continue for 6 to eight hours and I would see every thing I ate that day plus some of what I had eaten the day before and then would have the dry heaves until I finally passed out. This is terribly inconvenient since I am a in college and it would happen so frequently. It was begining to affect my grades. I went to a campus doctor over at the Quack Shack (I got to a large state university in Texas)and he told me that I had IBS and to take some pills that would control the nuasea. The only thing that those pills did was to make me very sleepy which added something else to deal with as I was having one of my spells. It then got to the point to where I would vomit them up before they had the chance to do any good or harm. USELESS! Things got to the worst point when I spent a night vomiting blood. I went back to the campus doc and he freaked out and told me that he had misdiagnosed me and that I probably had a bleeding ulcer and that I was to got to the ER immediately. Not having insurance, I ended up having to pay $1000 for a bag of sugar water to rehydrate me and a blood test. That doc gave me the diagnosis of gastritis and put me on prescription pepcid, which I would recommend that one avoid that stuff as if it were the plague. The side effects are far worse than the condition it is treating. Painful and violent diarrhea, plus confusion (not good since I was in finals and couldn't figure out how to make my key unlock my door so that I could get into my car and drive to a test). Stay away from it! Anyway, I have since been able to get the occurences of the dreaded activity to happen only every 3 month if I'm lucky. I have discivered that when one hits that if I can get home and cool my body down by stripping totally down and pass out before I begin to vomit will usually stop the vomiting and only leave me exhausted which is far better than the vomiting for 8 hours then being exhausted,but it is really getting in the way of school. Is there anyone who can help me chase this problem away???? Thanks.

chegiornata · 11-19-2002, 10:53 PM

forgot to mention that I have frequent pain between spells that feel like they might worsen to a full blown night of vomiting, but then fades away. that happens about once a week.

kristi9101 · 11-21-2002, 06:09 PM

Honey, you need a new Doctor. I have IBS. You can vomit with IBS but it's not that common. Have you ever been checked for Gastroparesis? I have a friend who has that. It is a stomach condition that your muscles in your tummy are very weak so you cannot digest your food very well it sits in your stomach for a long time and causes vomiting. My friend has vomited blood from vomiting too much. I suggest you have a test done called a Gastric Empting Study. I had this test it is nothing scary or to worry about. You just eat whtever they serve you and there is some kind of radio active material they put in your food (it is tasteless) and then they have you lay down every so many hours and they take pictures of how fast or slow you are digesting your food. You could also have a bleedind ulcer too. I don't know but I hope you bet well. God Bless

chegiornata · 11-21-2002, 10:28 PM

Thanks for the information. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with what ever doctor they serve up at the university clinic, so I have to ride this out until I get health insurance. When I went to the ER, they ruled out a bleeding ulcer via blood tests. This was also two years ago and has not happened since. Since that episode I have been able to control the vomiting by passing out first with some degree of regularity. It seems to happen either right before a stressful event such as an exam or on the downhill slide from another stressful event when I am releived at the out come. Just when I think that I can predict one, it changes its pattern. Its very frustrating. It also seems to occur when I am not getting much sleep which is very common for a student who is double majoring like I am. I hate it, but am almost done with school adn am hoping that it will finally go away when I graduate and my stress levels go down.

I will ask my doctor du jour about the tests that you recommended and see if they can be performed at the clinic. If not I will have to wait about another year, unless you know of a place that does this stuff for free. How long does the procedure take? I may beable to go have it done at the Cherokee hospital (9 hours away from me) for free if I could get it done in a weekend and be back in time to get back to classes and work.

Thank you very much for the info. Take Care.

L.