I was sick for almost two months with what I thought was sinus problems, but now I think is deeper than that. I thought I was better, but turns out I'm not. I got sick again while I was on vacation last week, then was okay for two days, and now have been sick again for three. I'm making myself crazy trying to figure out what is going on. Here's my story:Basically, I wake up every morning with extreme nausea, and then spend a few hours dry heaving and having diahrea. If I take pseudoephidrne before bed, or when it starts, it will allevite it. However, I've been taking it so long it's starting to lose it's effectiveness. I have an almost constant post nasal drip, and I'm assuming (and the docs I saw agreed) that is what is causing the nausea and such in the morning. However, what the hell is causing the post nasal drip? At this point, and thinking back over my history, I don't belive it is a virus at all. I think it is an allergy, to food or something. I'm sensitive to dairy and wheat, so that would be an obvious trigger, however, sometimes these attacks occur when I haven't had any wheat and diary for months.......and
sometimes I have wheat or dairy and nothing happens. I very rarely have wheat or dairy, I'd say maybe once a month. Then, I thought it could be an allergy to dogs that's gone undiscovered and is becoming worse because now we live in a tiny house and the dog is inside most of the time. However, I've had a few "attacks" while out and about-
no dogs around. I'm totally at a loss. I have an apt. with a new doctor next week who specializes in womens health. I'm hoping she can help. I can't take drugs every day. And, the ONLY drug that works is pseudoephidrine. Not other allergy drugs (tried them all,even some heavy duty rx ones and they did NOTHING), and not even anti-nausea drugs.
I've tried every natural remedy possible. Some will temporarily
help, but none work. I need to find the root of this and don't know how. Has anyone been through this? I'm completely incapacitated everyday. I can just lay in bed; my ds1 has to take care of ds2. It's taking so much energy to even sit up and type. I've lost 16 lbs in two months (which is nice, but didn't want to do it this way)
from not eating much. I'm attaching my "notes" that I wrote down today to bring to the dr. Please read and lmk if you can point me in a direction. Oh, I've tried the elimination diets, and nothing ever happens......I'm trying again right now, though. I'm concerned because this problem is getting steadily worse; I've had a few "attacks" over the past year, but now it's almost constant.
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Health Journal
I've been having stomach problems (severe nausea, vomiting,
diahreaa) that I originally thought was a virus. However, it's
getting worse and more frequent, constant lately, and I think it
could be an allergy (food or other) or sinus problems. The symptoms
seem to be directly related to a constant post nasal drip I have. I
didn't make the connection with the post nasal drip until
recently.
Also, some episodes are more random than others, come on without
warning, and aren't related to the nasal drip, but, once they
symptoms start the nasal drip does too. During all of this, I
haven't had any nasal discharge. It all goes down the back of my
throat, I'm constantly swallowing mucous. My ears don't
hurt, but
do feel constantly clogged, like I need to clear them. I do get
occasional sinus pain, but mild and very intermittent. I am
sensitive to wheat and dairy, so thought that perhaps this was
related to eating them on occasion; however, many of these attacks
come on when I haven't had wheat or dairy for weeks or months.
These episodes of nausea/vomiting/diarrhea completely wipe me out
and leave me feeling weak and flu-like, without and appetite. I
weighed 149lbs in late August and now weigh 133 from not eating.
When thinking about the past, I have had some occasional issues with
diahrea, however, they were intermittent and didn't effect my
daily
life. I have, for as long as I can remember, always felt nauseos in
the mornings, even as a child. It's always been very difficult
for
me to eat in the mornings, even though I'm hungry, as I feel
incredibly full and nauseos. I'm okay with liquids, but the
thought
of food repulses me, yet I am hungry. I usually have something to
drink, and then force myself to nibble on something, fruit or egg
whites. I chalked this up to blood sugar or something, but now I
think it may be tied into the postnasal drip (which I think I've
always had, I just never knew what it was) causing the nausea.
As a baby/child, I was severly allergic to milk and citrus. As an
adult, I've had milk and dairy products without a problem, but
didn't have them often. The past three years, I've rarely
had
milk/dairy at all, and have also been mostly wheat free. I thought
that this problem might be related to occasionaly ingesting
wheat/dairy, but only some of the episodes could be triggered by
them, as I rarely eat them.
April 2004
What I thought was a stomach bug, diarrhea, nausea, off and on for
two weeks. Continued w/out the diarrhea but with nausea on trip.
On last day of trip, on the way home had sudden, severe diarrhea
lasting for 3 hours, nausea also. More nausea and mild diarrhea for
the next week.
Late June 2004
Sudden, violent diarrhea lasting about three hours; weak, stomach
upset for a few days.
July 2004
Intermittent stomach upsets all month (diarrhea, constipation,
nausea, etc.)
August 2004
Week of aug 23 got sick and still haven't fully recovered. Began
with nausea/vomiting/diarrhea. Lasted one day, felt fine the
following day. The next morning (day three), felt horrible again-
severe nausea, diarrhea, vomiting (dry heaves) for about three hours
in the morning. Felt very weak remainder of the day. This repeated
every day for two weeks. I would feel somewhat better during the
late afternoon and evening, though weak and nauseous. I would be
fine during the night, yet wake up around 6:30 with the horrible
nausea, vomiting (dry heaves and bile), diarrhea. At this point, I
realized that the nausea might be related to the post nasal drip I
had, which I didn't even realize I had- but I did realize that I
was
constantly swallowing mucus. I didn't feel clogged at all in my
nose, but did have some sinus pain/pressure. I tried taking
pseudoephidrine, and it did help- it lessened the post nasal drip
and if I took it before bed would wake up without the vomiting and
diarrhea, but would still feel nauseous, though only slightly. If I
stopped taking the pseudoephidrine, I would have all the symptoms
again. During this time (two weeks), I lost six pounds from hardly
eating. I didn't have an appetite at all. I went to see Dr.
Hastings, as I was having no signs of improvement. He thought it
might be a virus, and prescribed "D Allergy" tablets,
"Flonase" and
an antibiotic that I should take if there wasn't any improvement,
in
case I had a sinus infection. During this, I didn't have any
discharge at all- just the awful post nasal drip. I took the
antibiotics and they didn't help at all. The allergy medication
didn't do anything AT ALL- I still had the horrible nasal drip.
The
flonase seemed to thicken the post nasal drip, and it felt like it
was opening the nasal passages. I was getting worse, and losing
more weight, so that weekend I went to the ER and was admitted.
They said I was slightly dehydrated and slightly low on potassium
from all the vomiting/diarrhea, so they gave me a potassium tablet
and an iv drip. They took a urine sample and ran a blood panel, and
all results were good. The dr thought it was viral, as my white
blood cells were normal, and no indicator of a bacteria. He said
that the nasal drip could certainly cause all the nausea/vomiting,
especially in the morning. He gave me a prescription for Phenagran
for the nausea. The Phenagran did NOTHING for the nausea/vomiting.
The ONLY thing that worked was the pseudoephidrine, I assume because
it dried up the mucus. Eventually, I was taking the pseudoephedrine
every day, before bed (the 12hour one) so that I could function in
the morning. Doing this, I slowly, over a few weeks, got better.
During this time I'd experiment with not taking the
pseudoephidrine,
and I would always have the morning nausea/vomiting if I didn't
take
it. Eventually, in October, I was able to only take the
pseudoephridine on occasion, usually every other day...and by the
second week of October I wasn't taking it at all. I kept my diet
free of allergy triggers (wheat and dairy), and drank tons of water
and took vitamins. I did salt water up the nose to get out
anything in my sinuses; it did loosen things up and I was able to
blow out clear mucous, but it was an effort to blow it out. I
thought it was gone. However, on Oct. 15th I ate a piece of cake
and a biscuit, and the next morning all the symptoms were back. I
took the pseudoephidrine late night/early morning, and was okay. I
took it on the 16th and 17th as I still felt bad, but no episode. I
didn't take it on the 19th or 20th and was fine but felt nauseos
all
day. On the 21st, woke up feeling fine. At around 3pm I ate some
kuegel (noodles), and later, at about 7pm I had sudden, violent
diarrhea and dry heaving that lasted two hours. I took
pseudoephidrine and unisom and was fine. Queasy and weak the next
day. I ate cautiously that day, but had the symptoms the next
morning. Took the pseudoephidrine and was fine. I had to also take
it on the 23rd and 24th. I was fine on the 25th, fine on the 26th,
and didn't eat any wheat or dairy. However, woke up with all the
symptoms on the 27th, 28th, and 29th. Took pseudoephidrine after
each incident and it quelled the nausea. This morning, the 30th, I
also woke up with the symptoms, but didn't take anything. I had
them for three hours and was wiped out all day, very weak, nauseous,
no appetite. Still have the drip. I feel so weak, nauseous, and
tired, even though I slept all day. Starting a food journal today
in case this is food related.
