Stomach problems and randomness

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I'm going to vent some more, and then talk about fun stuff.

So, back in 2009 or 2008 -- I no longer remember -- I ate some leftovers from Friday on a Sunday, and I got sick. Really sick. I had nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and of course, mild dehydration. After four days, I still wasn't recovered, and I was in so much pain and so cold . . . I ended up in the ER. They were convinced it was my appendix. Incidentally, when I was in Russia in 1994, I drank some bad water and had bad stomach pain, and they thought it was the appendix then, too. In any case, they checked my appendix, my intestines, my gall bladder, my female organs . . . everything. Two things came up: 1) High white blood count, indicating infection and 2) a strange looking small intestine -- apparently it looked like Crohn's, but Crohn's is usually in the large intestine.

They prescribed antibiotics and urged me to see a GI specialist. The GI specialist wanted me to have a colonoscopy, but then said that a blood test could rule out Crohn's. By then, the antibiotics had worked. I also had a stool sample for the specialist. The specialist told me I had "Travelers' e. coli" in my stools, but that otherwise everything was fine. I talked to my regular doctor, who ordered the blood test.

Thankfully, Crohn's was negative. I thought everything was fine.

A month later, I was sick again. I had some anti-emetics (Zofran), but they didn't work. I went to a Docs on Call type place, and the doctor there was convinced I had celiac. I tried a gluten-free diet, but two weeks later, I was sick again.

We noticed some things at this point in time. The episodes, whatever they were, seemed similar. I had intense abdominal pain first, and then I would start throwing up. After awhile, I was able to sleep (most of the time this occurred either in the evening, late at night, or early morning), and the next day, I would be fine, but sore. Also, if I could go to sleep *soundly* before throwing up, sometimes I didn't throw up at all, and everything was fine. My regular doctor thought it was Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome. That's what it is. You can Google it, but basically, it's recurring episodes that start with some kind of prodrome phase (mine is abdominal pain) followed by vomiting, followed by recovery, and in between, there are no symptoms. It's "diagnosed" when all other conditions have been ruled out, so it's like IBS for vomiting.

Everything fits, even down to the part that when adults get it, it's usually after having a bacterial infection. The only difference is that I (as usual, though you probably don't know this) did things backwards. CVS is much more common in children, and then later, they will develop migraines. I used to have migraines, but now I have this instead (personally, despite the pain, I'd rather have migraines). Also, children usually have around 10 episodes per year and they're relatively short. Adults typically have them only 4 times per year, but they last usually at least 4 days. Thankfully, mine only last half a day or less (my last episode went from 11:30-2:30am), but like children, I get episodes more often than four times a year. On average, it's about once a month, but there have been variations.

So, I've been dealing with this for awhile. Triggers include various foods (that I haven't yet identified) and stress. Unfortunately, our school and our community had a rash of Norovirus this year: the stomach virus. I caught it. Plus, as a first year teacher, I'm more worried and stressed than usual. So, I got the virus in early December (it was very different from my usual "episodes", which alerted me to the fact that it was the virus, and not just an episode). Since then, I was sick again in December, and then three times in February, and again last week. I feel like I have no control and that I will never be able to eat the foods I like (especially hot wings, which are definitely a no-no, even if I seem to be feeling fine). I've been lucky in that most of these episodes haven't affected my ability to be at school, but still: I had it on a Friday, then the next Tuesday, and then the Wednesday after that . . . and then three weeks after that! I just want to live a normal life!

In other news, my Mac laptop is working very well, and I've switched from Baldur's Gate back to Dragon Age: Origins, mainly because I want to finish the game I started. Also, I have the EE, and I'm finding it so hard to choose a character. In a way, I think there might be too many classes/kits. I just want to play them all, so I keep restarting with new characters. That's always been a bit of a problem for me, but it's even worse. I never made it through BG2 (keep dying in the prison) or even BG1 really (I think once I made it to chapter 3) because of the constant "want to try a new character" issue I have. I'm also just terrible at video games, which doesn't help. Anyway, I keep trying to finish BG1 before playing BG2, other than the few bad starts.

This week is good! All my main grading is finished, so I just have late work and remediation (work that students have redone to get a better grade). The quarter ends on Friday. I'm looking forward to it, although I can't believe that I've made it 3/4 of the year, and that I only have 1/4 left.

Good news: I started getting a cold, but I took Airborn regularly, and it's going away. Yay!

 

Yay x2! Otherwise, ouch!

 

Thanks!

 

I hate unexplainable medical problems. I recently had an eye virus that made my left eye swell up like a MMA fighter. Had to go halfway across town and wait in a hospital emergency only to find out there wasn't much I could do about it but ice it and use saline drops.

It went away in a couple days but it really made me appreciate my health.

Sorry that you have to be careful about what you eat Vorona, I hope everything straightens out for you

 

Oh, the eye thing sounds terrible. Were you able to see normally?

 

I knew it had a name, but I couldn't remember what it was! I seem to have a pretty serious case of it. Dragon Age: Origins is the only game I've ever finished. I didn't even get to level cap during my misguided attempt at World of Warcraft.

 

Yes Vorona I was able to see normally which was one indication to the doctors that it was a virus. I was lucky.