I am so sick of doctors

[David LaPell]

Well, here we go again. At the end of November I had a surgery to have a spinal column stimulator implanted, that all went well. However, since right around New Years I have developed an interesting side effect. I have not been able to eat any food what so ever. What ever food I eat and some liquids will not stay down. Sometime they are there for a little while, sometimes a few hours, but it does not stay down. So about three weeks ago I saw my doctor, she gave me some Nexium, because apparently they thought I needed it. I had heartburn, bad for the first week but only because I ran out of my Oxycodone they had me on for the surgery. I started taking Aleve, and for the next two days I had heartburn like sin. After that came the problems of not eating. I have done bloodwork, nothing. Three days worth of "other" specimens, nothing. Last Friday I went for a right side ultrasound and an upper GI. (not enough four letter words to describe that fun). They put me on an anti nausea med, nothing. What I found out from the tests is that I have a fatty liver, something I didn't have before, and severe acid reflux, yet for the last couple of weeks no heartburn, none. No stomach cramps or pain either, nothing. Just not keeping anything down. I have lost darn near fifty pounds and it seems one doctor isn't too concerned. She told me today that diet and exercise will help with the fatty liver, and I had to explain that losing 50 pounds in thirty days just by not being able to keep anything in can't be good for me. So tomorrow I see a gastric specialist. My doctor's office could not get me in until the middle of next week, so I called the gastric doctor and explained the situation, I see them tomorrow morning. Apparently there is a thought that the antibiotic they gave me completely wasted my stomach bacteria or worse. No one has any idea but what irks me is the lack of interest in my doctors office. It's not my usual doc, he won't be in until next week and I intend to give him an earful (he's been my doctor for 20 years and we have a really good understanding) about his female colleague. When she called me to give me the first results last week of some of the earlier tests she said there was nothing wrong with me. I weighed myself this morning and I have gone from 342 to 297 pounds in one month, and this is with me sitting in a recliner recovering from surgery. My wife is very worried and I have to say I was doing ok until I heard the word "liver". They told me to drink Carnation, can't, Ensure, can't. None of that stays. So far the three things that stay in me are soda (I know not good for me but it's better than nothing), water and gatorade. The rest is a **** shoot. Has anyone else ever heard of anything like this? I don't ever feel lightheaded or dizzy and my energy seems to be fine, but I am still not really doing anything. I know I have not had any acid reflux before, not since I had my gall bladder removed more than 15 years ago. I don't eat spicy food, drink (thank God now), and I hate salt and pepper. Most of what I eat is fish, rarely ever fried, ground turkey, venison, potatoes and rice and I like my beans. Who knows what this is, but I can say I am starting to get a little concerned.

 

[DJFaninTN]

paragraphs man .....



Just Kidding!!! But that really sucks for you. Hope they figure it out for you soon.

 

[2hawk]

Dam, that sucks. Can you get any yogurt to stay down? It has the bacteria you need, and it is nutritious. If it stays in long enough.

 

[snubbyfan]

I can relate to all the doctor visits. It seems I spend all my time just going from doctor to specialist to another specialist to another treatment session.
I'm sorry to hear about your problems and I hope they come up with a solution and some kind of a treatment plan.

 

[EugeneNine]

Wife had a pain in her side, went to urgent care and they sent her directly to the ER where they kept her most of the night and didn't find anything wrong and sent her home.
She still has pain in her side and we ow about $2000.

 

[Old TexMex]

Helicobacter pylori is what I had. Three doctors before one found out what it was. Weight loss, inability to keep food down, indigestion, gastric reflux, pain in the back and sternum.
Hope you get well fast, if it is H. Pylori the treatment was antibiotics and took ten days. Most docs don't look for it, as I understand, but just my experience.
All the best.

 

[tomtheturner]

2hawk is right. You need bacteria in your system. If you don't it can cause these symptoms. Yogurt and acidophilus milk has the bacteria in it that your system needs.

I had "similar" symptoms once from antibiotics killing off all my bacteria, and the milk got me back on course.

Good luck with this. It can be very upsetting. I lost 60 pounds once in about 45-60 days.

Best Wishes,
Tom

 

[JcMack]

Acidophilus is available in tablet/capsule form also if you can't keep any yogurt down.

 

[timn8er]

Hope that they figure it out! I was on a "diet" similar to yours
about a year & a half ago, went into the hospital weighing
297 & came out 7 months later weighing 187. Unfortunately,
a lot of that was muscle. I'm still trying to come back from
that. Not a diet I can recommend. Please post again after your
next appointment.

 

[stonehorses]

David, sorry to hear of you medical challenges. I had a similar dilemma a few years ago. This is what I was able to drink when I was unable to keep solids down. Good luck to you sir.

RESOURCE® BREEZE - Shop Weight Gain & Maintenance Nutrition

 

[Vegetaman]

Ugh reminds me of a bout I had of intestinal issues maybe... 10 years ago now. All I could keep down was applesauce and bananas and toast and water. Finally got on to where I could eat minute rice. Survived on that for about 3 months. Was 3 years before I would eat rice again.

 

[dacoontz]

It doesn't sound like the problem is lack of bacteria, that's a lower GI tract problem not upper. Your N&V seems to be originating from your stomach and or esophagus like your cardiac spinchter, door from your esophagus to your stomach isn't shutting. That's why they are going with the reflux problem which would be severe in this case.

You mentioned something about a stimulator being inserted for your spinal column. Have you followed up with that doctor to see if your symptoms are a possible side effect. Your Vagus Nerve (Cranial Nerve 10) is innervated to many of these organs including your stomach and maybe something is firing in the wrong place causing this symptom. It sounds like a long shot but possible. I would want to ask since the symptoms seemed to have started around that time.

Fatty liver is inconsequential to all this and takes years to develop. It would be highly unlikely to suddenly be presenting itself in this way.

Another possibility could be an ileus (spelling?) which is when part of your digestive tract simply stops working, aka no peristalsis. This causes food to simply not move along the tract and down the pipe. This could be why you are tolerating liquids but not solids. This might also be a problem related to the stimulator as the motion of the GI tract is also controlled by the vagus nerve, if I recall correctly. The other cause could have been the narcotics as they are infamous for causing slow motility in the GI tract. Has anyone suggested a simple x-ray of your abdomen. I'd think your ER work up would have included that, but I've seen doctors miss simpler things trying to hit home runs with over the top diagnostic procedures. After all, simple diagnoses often don't lead to the same higher payouts in the medical field. I'm allowed to say that since I work in it.

Good luck, I think the problem may not be to hard to solve once they find the reason. But the temporary weight loss can't hurt as long as you don't waste away and become comatose from low blood sugar. Your body is likely pulling the fat from you liver for energy so this may be a blessing in disguise for the interim. Take care.

 

[LVSteve]

Another possibility could be an ileus (spelling?) which is when part of your digestive tract simply stops working, aka no peristalsis. This causes food to simply not move along the tract and down the pipe. This could be why you are tolerating liquids but not solids. This might also be a problem related to the stimulator as the motion of the GI tract is also controlled by the vagus nerve, if I recall correctly. The other cause could have been the narcotics as they are infamous for causing slow motility in the GI tract. Has anyone suggested a simple x-ray of your abdomen. I'd think your ER work up would have included that, but I've seen doctors miss simpler things trying to hit home runs with over the top diagnostic procedures. After all, simple diagnoses often don't lead to the same higher payouts in the medical field. I'm allowed to say that since I work in it.

Good luck, I think the problem may not be to hard to solve once they find the reason. But the temporary weight loss can't hurt as long as you don't waste away and become comatose from low blood sugar. Your body is likely pulling the fat from you liver for energy so this may be a blessing in disguise for the interim. Take care.

I wondered about this because of all the painkillers Dave mentioned. Years ago the dentist gave me heavy painkillers so I could sleep while a bad root infection cleared up prior to a root canal. They stopped my stomach function dead in its tracks. It wasn't so much that I could not keep anything down, I just stopped eating through no desire. My body basically said there has been no output so there cannot be space for input.

As for the lady doctor's lack of concern, that could be incompetence or simply she is one of those that works on the assumption if the scale says 275lbs or more you need to lose. Docs from this school do not care how tall you are or how big you want to be, either.

 

[TACC1]

Geez, Dave...! Your own doc can't get back soon enough!
Sounds pretty scary from here. Any doctor that would ignore the problems you are having should be run out of town.
Good luck, you are needed right here.
TACC1

 

[LouisianaJoe]

I had a knee replacement a couple of months ago. During physical therapy, a stitch popped and the surgeon opened it up to clean it out and put me on a bunch of intravenous drips of antibiotics. This and the percocet shut down my digestive system. When I got home, I started eating Yogurt that contains probiotics and fruit cups which provided some ruffage. This helped my system get a bit more normal. I now eat a large salad a couple times a week and that flushes my system. If you try this, go slow and make sure that it works before you eat too much.