What is wrong with my husband?

[trystme]

Hi. My husband is 45 years old. He has had chronic nausea, general stomach upset, and fatigue for a couple of years now. He is a smoker. It seems like it all started when he tried to quite smoking for the umteenth time two years ago. He started feeling like crap and we attributed it to not smoking. He was doing the patches. He finally quit the patches and then started back smoking.

But, he still felt really bad all of the time. So he went to our pcp and had blook work done and that all came back normal. He went to a gastrointestinal doctor who did a scope again. He has been diagnosed with GERD and takes Nexium which takes care of the heartburn but this is not heartburn at this point. The scope showed that his asophagus had healed since he had started on the medication and the scope showed no other stomach problems. He burps A LOT and always has ever since I've known him. Gross but true. He burps no matter what he eats and he burps when he hasn't eaten anything.

He has lost about 25 pounds since this all started. He just doesn't feel like eating. He doesn't feel like doing anything. He forces himself to go to work. He is losing clients and not going after new clients and his income has decreased a good deal.

He also drinks a lot. He has cut down and he is quitting completely this Wen. We've both gotten into the habit of having two vodka martinis before dinner but he was drinking much more after that some nights. He also drinks way too much coffee in the mornings and doesn't eat breakfast. Maybe it is all just catching up to him?

He cried last night and said that he is just so fed up with feeling like crap all of the time. I tried again to get him to go back to the gastrointerologist but he said no. I tried again this morning to let me call to make an appointment. He thinks it is just the drinking and once he stops doing that then he'll be fine. I hope that he is right, and I'm sure that the drinking makes it worse, but I just have this feeling that it is something more.

Does anyone have any opinion or experience with anything similar?

[velvet48]

i am so sorry your hubby is going thru all this. has he been tested for lyme disease? also, they should look at his ebv leverl. (ebstein barr virus)
the symptoms for lyme and cfs are almost the same, so i would look at both possibilities. get more blood work done and ask to be tested for both of these as well. i hope you find an answer
karen

[Njank]

Maybe your husband should try to get a 2nd opinion. It cant hurt. I have a slight case of Acid Reflux and I oftern burp/hiccup for no reason too. Now that I think about it, it started 6 months ago when I also stopped smoking. I think it is just a coincidence though. I have heard of people vomiting often from acid reflux. Maybe he should try a stronger prescription like Protonix.
Hope things work out.

[trystme]

Thanks guys. I don't know exactly what his blood was tested for but I think that it was just for levels of enzymes and stuff like that rather than for any particular disease like lyme disease.

I think that he has taken Protonix before but I could be wrong. It was something that started with a P though. I'd love to get a second opinion if I could get him to go to the doctor at all.

Maybe when he realizes that he still feels this way after having quit drinking for a while he'll go back. I also wonder if he is giving the doctor's any information because when I ask him he just says "I don't fee good." I have to prod and really probe, asking time after time for specifics to get anything out of him.

[siren1024]

My former pastor was very ill with mysterious digestive ailments for over a year. He lost tons of weight and energy and looked like a walking dead man before they finally diagnosed him with a massive internal yeast infection. His symptoms were alot like that. I'd definitely seek a second opinion.