4 days in hospital and still no answers
 

I spent the last four days in the hospital and I still have no answers.

I've got major pain in my right abdomen that hits for 5 or 6 days and then fades. This happens every few days. The pain in intense and focused in one area. This time I'm crapping some major blood.

I had gyn workups inside and ultrasound. I've had colonoscopy, stool cultures, cat scans, celiac panel. Everything is negative. I'm supposed to go have a barium enama as soon as I can get it scheduled. I was on a clear liquid diet the whole time I was in the hospital. There are no signs of hemorrhoids.

There was a comment made by my xray tech. She said she had the same episodes every month for 9 months or so. They found out it was her appendix. My appendix looked fine in the cat scan. However the dr said my pain is centered on my appendix, a celicac something and something else I can't remember.

To confuse things, I started my period at the same time. This caused them to wonder about endometriosis that might have eaten through my bowel. They rechecked my colonoscopy and there is no sign of that. The period stopped but the bowel blood has not.

One dr mentioned the pill camera but they don't do that here so will have to travel for that. One dr mentioned a laporoscopy and but not to vehemantly. One dr mentioned that barium enema. My family dr now takes Friday afternoons off as well as Wednesdays. I couldn't call her yesterday when I got out to discuss this stuff with her.

So my dear internet experts, what do you all think? The drs are stumped but are you? What do you know about long term appendix attacks? If it blows and I don't know it I'm sunk. What do you know about any of this other stuff. This has been going on for almost 7 months. I'm pretty desparate.

Thanks.

Marcia

I would hope that the appendix is something they keep checking on...just to be sure.
But other than that I don't have any ideas...
I hope others will have something more to add for you soon.

(((((((((Marcia)))))))))

A long time ago on another forum a man was writing about his wife having intense abdominal pain, and it turned out to be from having taken a lot of Advil, or some other over the counter pain medication.

If I remember correctly, Epsom salts baths helped some, and so did Methylcobalamin lozenges, but neither was a complete, quick cure.

I tend to have bleeding when I'm low on B12: gums, nose... when I was younger I would get my period, very heavily, even though it wasn't time for it.

You're probably in overwhelm, but it would be good to keep a few notes, every day, to record what's happening so that you can go back over the notes and see what things might have changed that could have an affect. For instance, were you under more stress and did it get worse? (I would think that you are under tremendous stress from these episodes alone.)

(((((((((Marcia))))))))

Thanks guys for keeping up with me.

I did follow one advise I was given and started to take B12 pills. The reason being that diarrhea can lead to malabsorbtion of B vitamins. I probably didn't take it long enough for it to work cause another attack hit. I will keep taking it. I had hoped it would pep me up some but it didn't.

I guess the only consolation is that when my abdomen almost has me doubled over, my tos and back don't hurt as much. That is so stupid.

I can't see that this is stress but it could be. I'm on SSD so I sit around the house alot. I do laundry, make dinner, take care of my now teenage kids and husband. I've gotten to the point that if I don't feel good, the house doesn't get done and we order out. We eat a few scorched meals at times too. No one yells at me thank goodness. I've been miserable for almost 8 years with the tos and back stuff. What's one more problem that no one can find a cure for???

Thanks for all those hugs. I can use every one.

Marcia

Hi Marcia,

when you say, "pills" it worries me that you got some cyanocobalamin and took the pills by swallowing them whole.

That is not the most efficient way to take B12.

For years I've been telling people about B12, and those people who get the cyanocobalamin most often tell me that it does nothing so they stopped taking it.

Actual B12 does work, it is very effective, but you have to get it to your body and swallowing it puts it in line to not be absorbed. If you use sublinguals the B12 goes right into your system. and if you use the methylcobalamin it does not have to be converted to methylcobalamin because it already is methylcobalamin.

((((((((Marcia)))))))))

Hi again, I forgot to mention that stress is slightly more complicated than the obvious stress of being yelled at.

It can be stressful if you want to do things and can't because of your health.

There was a book a couple years ago, The Status Syndrome, that talked about how people who were unable to lead fulfilling lives died younger... I forget exactly how it was stated, but if someone could not do or get things they wanted over a long period of time, then they had reduced life expectancies.

It's a good book, I should go find it and quote to you exactly.

But, my point is that you may be leading a very stressful life and not giving yourself credit for surviving all that stress.

(((((((Marcia))))))))

I can definately see your point about not living my life. I've been frustrated for 8 years. I just can seem to accept that this is me. I can't seem to smile on the way to the bank to get my SSD money. I can't seem to be grateful that I'm at least able to put money into the family finances. I've spent 8 great years raising my kids cause I could stay home with them due to the SSD. However, they've had to put up with all my problems. So, yes, there is tons of mental stress in my head!

Yes, I think it must be very hard on you. I've been sick since 2004 and sometimes, well, sometimes it's hard.

But see, on the whole I don't mind being alone. I like to garden and work on my website and I have these horrific legal problems.

I'm really sorry, but I don't know what TOS is. I thought you were a computer geek and it meant, "Terms of Service" -- but I take it that it's a disability of some sort. What is it?

One thing that's helped me a lot is to garden. The improvement in my health is so slow that ... well, I tend to be tempted to give up hope of being able to drive again and stuff. When I garden, then I can take a horrible bit of my back yard and change it, and it makes me feel so good to see the difference. The difference comes so slowly as the plants grow that it gives me hope that my body is slowly healing. (Methylcobalamin actually regenerates nerves, but not very fast. I mean, yes, fast, but not overnight.)

Do you have ridges on your fingernails? or are you losing your moons? Those can be signs of low B12, and if you have those signs then possibly you're not feeling happy because of the depression that's often a part of low B12.

It sounds like you have a lovely family, so it would be good if you could enjoy them more and not be down because of a deficiency in a simple vitamin.

I really could not believe that it was that effective, but now, with all my experience, I wish I'd had a LOT more earlier on. I think that would have made an enormous difference.

(((((((((Marcia)))))))))

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.......if it is on her dominate side, it will interfer with all ADLs.....and any crafty sort of thing....non dominate, maybe not so bad, but the pain in and of itself, interfers....even with sleep......

Yep, that's me. Severe bilateral thoracic outlet syndrome. Had the left rib and scalene muscles out about five years ago. Also have three herniated and two bulging discs in my lumbar. So unfortunately gardening is out for me. Can barely run the sweeper and fill the dishwasher some days.

Man, my side hurts tonight! Can't sit, lay down, nothing. Just took two vicaden about 8 and it's not touching it.

Had good news to cheer me up though. Our library had a tree decorating contest. We put in a tree with the proceeds to go to the SPCA. I knitted a bunch of minature ski hats and we decorated the tree with them. Also put on a few scarf/hat sets as garland, assorted sizes. We started our bidding at 20$. Some little girl loved it so much she talked her grandma into paying 50$ for our tree.


M

Hi, I was just reading your post. If the camera test is what I think
your talking about I would definately find a place that does that.

Its something that I had done. And it was something that my
doctor's found very helpful for what we were using it for.

I have pain in my abdomin(SP?), and its not something I like.
I can totally relate. But I even know what it probably is, but
the surgeon wouldn't agree to take the stupid gall bladder with 15
stones out. I also need to see a Women's specialist or something
for a ovarian cyst because its bigger than I was told.

And I'm tired of waiting on the surgeon to decide. I see my primary
next week. So I'll check with them about a new person.

Donna

tut tut ......i presume by "running the sweeper" you mean a vacuum cleaner?
this is a big no-no with lumbar issues, and "aint no good" with TOS either...
would suggest good mats at all doors into house, and if you have a place to do it, no shoes in the house, keep slippers for every one at the door.....

Dmom - Had my gallbladder out two years ago. Probably didn't need to though. Was having major vomiting/diarrhea/FOUL smelling burping. Had gallbladder out and was still having above symptoms. I told my gastro that I was tired of vomiting garbage. It was like a light bulb went on in his head. He sent me for the "fried egg sandwich" test. They put a tracer in the food and you lay on a table for 2-3 hrs with an xray machine over your stomach. Turns out a normal stomach empties in 1-3 hrs. Mine was taking 10 hrs to empty so my meals were literally turning to garbage as they layered on top of each other. Turns out it was the morphine doing it. Since I didn't give up the morphine after the gallbadder went, the symptoms didn't go away. That was quite a mystery solved but it took about 4 months to do it and alot of misery.

pabb - I've got 10 (yes 10) cats that just anihilate any area rugs that I get. They seem to think they're urinals. Plus cat hair everywhere. I do have two teen age daughters and a husband. However, I never trained them to do much housekeeping. They know where to plug the vacume in and they know how to run it, but they don't help much around the house. The kids are high honor roll so I aways figured that was the trade off. Also, I felt so guilty for screwing myself up in a car wreck, that I never really forced the issue. The kids were only 8 and 7 at the time. I sweep about once a week and take lots of breaks.

the mats i mean are door mats. outside the doors,,,to catch some of the dirt....

That is SO COOL!!!!!!

It sounds so cute! Did you take a picture of it? Can we see????

Thanks for explaining, I appreciate it. ... but... what's ADLS?

((((((((Marcia)))))))) You made me feel so sad when you said you feel guilty about your car wreck. You are suffering from it, there's no need to feel guilty. There's nothing you can do, except be as happy as you can.

I missed a hearing yesterday that was really serious. I didn't get any notice about it, so I didn't know to go. But yesterday morning I was up before 5 a.m. because I couldn't sleep, and then during the day I was freezing cold, I mean just freezing. Now I think that somehow my spirit knew about the hearing and that's why I was so cold, because today was colder and I wasn't cold at all.

I feel guilty, and there's nothing I can do. So I made myself a coffee with Grand Marnier, which I love, and I enjoyed it. I'm trying to not feel so bad. But it's scary, so I know where you're coming from. I should have called the judge's chambers and ask when the hearing had been rescheduled for. I've been scared about it, so I feel like I had an internal warning. But, there's nothing I can do now. I wrote a thing saying I didn't know, and please vacate the order from the hearing and reset the hearing, but I don't know if that will help.

So I've been thinking since I found out about the hearing that things change so radically. We're going along feeling good, or worrying, or whatever, and all of a sudden something happens that changes everything.

((((((((Marcia)))))))))

Consider this: Sorry you missed your hearing. I hope you can reschedule.

I was driving through road construction one night. There was a break in the pylons and I thought it was the exit. I wasn't reading signs, I was reading the road constructon. On the other side of the break was a 8 ft x 8ft x 1 1/2 foot deep hole. I saw it but it was too late. Stupidly I clenched both arms on the steering wheel and braced my legs. The hole swallowed my whole car. Both air bags were blown. Car was a little neon and was totaled. As they were towing my car out, another car did the same thing further down the road. PennDOT was called out to shut down the highway and redistribut the barrels. Many other people had done this over the months they were doing the construction. Several people that were following me were saved from the same fate since I was already in the hole. Lucky for them.

You would not believe the people that blatently laughed in my face for driving into that hole. Every time I walked into a room hilarity was everywhere. I hated it. The police consistently told me it was not my fault.

The mysterious stuff was right before I made the turn, I heard a voice in my head telling me to be careful. It was too late though. I didn't have the kids in the car thank goodness. Had only had the car about three months. The previous car was old and didn't have any airbags. If I hadn't had the airbags, my face would have been crushed from the sudden stop. The old car was much longer and might have flipped when it hit the far wall of the hole. I was working three jobs at the time making them schedule around my family. My only injury that night was a sore hand. The injury just started crawling up my arms, around my neck and onward.

The sucky part was that according to the lawyers and police, if I had been the second car instead of the first, PennDOT would have been forced to pay much more than they did. After my medical bills were paid, my "winnings" were 10 grand. My husband got laid off not long after that and the 10 grand made it possible for us to use as a down payment on a house at his new job.

More mysterious? I found a pain dr in our new town. He is the one that diagnosed the TOS and found me a TOS expert. We were in this new location for about 1 1/2 years. Just enough time to find this pain guy, a TOS expert, have the surgery and leave not long after again due to another layoff.

The same pain dr helped me get my SSD through on the first round with no lawyers. When I sent in my ap, I attached every available piece of paper proof that I had. Firing/resignation letters, time sheets etc. All my medical records. They didn't have to request a thing. 3-4 months later I got the call that I'd been accepted.

So after that whole mess, I had no jobs anymore. I could spend alot more time with my kids. Was there when they went to school and there when they got home. Had my own income and income for the kids thanks to Unkle Sam. Another silver lining, I guess. The guilt comes up when the bad days kick in. Scaring them when I had to take some nasty pain meds. I think they've come through it alright. You may see them on Dr Phil or Oporah some day. But I doubt they'll be on Jerry Springer.

It's bad now with this new abdominal issue. I'm sure it freaks them out when I'm doubled over in pain and don't know what to do about it. If I thought it would help, I'd keep going to the ER for pain meds. The shots only last about 4 hrs. But then, anyone with chronic pain normally gets that look. Add abdominal pain in and the look is even harder. Sounds dumb but thank god my blood pressure shows I'm in actual pain. Plus you can't fake blood gushing out of your bowels.

We're supposed to go to the mall on Saturday for xmas shopping. My daughter is "requesting" that I make it through the whole jaunt without crapping out. I really can't guarantee this. It'll be awful but I may have to break down and rent a wheelchair to go around in. I don't know if I can stand the embarrassment of it. I'm stubborn that way. Plus I'll have to hit the restrooms for three or four rounds of diarrhea while we're there. It about a 3 hr round trip car ride as well. I don't want to be the cause of ruining their xmas fun.

Sorry this got so long. I guess I needed to do some venting. For those of you who've been chatting through this post, I thank you for your willingness to listen to me.

I'll have to scan the picture if you're really interested. It's in black and white so not real clear. Some of the smallest hats had safty pins in them for hanging on coats and such. I have this image of the little girl passing them out to her friends. Am keeping my eyes open for them around town.

There was one tree at the library that didn't get a single vote. The money was to go to the library. So we put the 25$ requested on the tree, packed it up and brought it home. It had some really nice decorations on it. Even dated ones for 2008. So now we have an extra tree for next years shindig. We have nice dated ornaments to put on our tree. The library can buy toilet paper or a nice book with our 25$ We also have the satisfaction of knowing the SPCA got their money as well. That's about all the donating to a good cause we'll be able to afford this xmas. We can start making plans for next year's contribution.

Sorry again, I'm blabbering. I best try to get some sleep. Hopefully my ambian will work tonight.

Thanks again for the ears you all offer. Hope I didn't overuse my welcome.

Marcia

Wow, that's a really horrible accident to have had. I sure don't understand why the second car would get more. 10k isn't very much. For my whiplash accident I got 23 or 25, I forget. It's been several years, over a decade. I didn't use a lawyer so I got to keep it all.

Yes, I really would like to see the pictures of the tree. :)

I'm glad you got your SSD so quickly. That's really good.

You should call the mall and ask them if they have an electric chair that you can use. I used those all the time for years, and actually they are quite fun if you think of them sort of like a carnival ride.

The diarrhea thing makes me think you may have a B12 problem. When I was low on B12 the doctor I saw after I'd been living in the hydrogen sulfide said that I just had to get used to having diarrhea if I was B12 deficient because it was an ongoing symptom, and permanent.

Only then a woman who was a... darn it, I forget, but some kind of chemist, wrote to me because of my website and told me about this Eat Right for Your Blood Type diet, which she had been doing for some time. She convinced me to try it. Well, actually I was convinced when I read on the site that people with certain blood types are more prone to having pernicious anemia. I knew that was at least partially true because I'd read independent research saying as much. So I tried it, and brown rice was a big thing. The woman had told me she'd lost a lot of weight after she switched to brown rice. I'm so not writing clearly, I'm sorry.

Anyway, after I started eating brown rice the diarrhea went totally away.

Brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice, but it's really good and worth the wait. I try to eat some every day. It's really good with chicken.

I talk a lot about brown rice on my slimming page (weight loss) on my site. I can't remember how long it took for it to start working when I first tried brown rice, but I think it was only a couple of days till there was some improvement.

I would get that for sure, get the organic, it's so much better. I get the Lundgren's in 25 lb bags, which last a long time.

I think it's horrible that people laughed about your accident. Just horrible. It makes me so angry when people are so idiotic and mean.

That probably made the whole thing much more stressful, and that would make it much harder for your body to heal.

Get the 5mg methylcobalamin, and brown rice, and keep notes. Oh, the other thing with pain, if you eat chicken or some other protein with the brown rice, that will help reduce the pain, too. I can't remember exactly how it works, but there's research that shows that protein is involved in pain reduction ...

I wish you had the brown rice right now. I wish you could have some for lunch. Any way you can do that?

(I'm worried about the court thing. Thanks for mentioning it. That reminds me, like you were saying about the voice in your head, something about being careful, I had this feeling I should call the court and ask about a hearing, when it was scheduled for... only I didn't do it, I was thinking I was just being paranoid. I think as beings we can know a lot more than we ordinarily "allow" ourselves to know. I wish I'd listened to the voice in my head telling me to call the court.)

((((((((((Marcia))))))))))

I hope you are okay, and didn't overdo it when you went to the mall with your daughter(s).

Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas, as I see some of you might be having a hard time

Merry Christmas, Marcia.

I sure hope you are okay.

((((((((Marcia)))))))))

Thank you all for the good wishes and right back at you all!!!!

To catch you up, I was supposed to go for a barium enema the 18th. Unfortuately my Dr's nurse gave me the wrong instructions NPO instead of "flush 'er out". So I could not have the test. I really wasn't too bumbed. At the same appointment with my dr, she put me on amitryptoline again. It's been about four years since I was on it last. My dr seems to think I'm wired strangely. It's possible that the abdominal pain might be a new and permanent chronic pain that I will have to learn to live with. Crapolla! So I started the ami at night and it wires me up too much so switched it to am. I've felt a few twinges in the abdomenal area but nothing like it was before. It either kicked it out the door OR I'm between attacks and I just have to wait and see. The ami is also solidifying my bowels. Hopefully I won't have to start my constipation days again. I was up to 6 days at a time at some points.

As for the mall shopping, I borrowed a mechanical chair to get around in. I was never so embarrassed in my live. I felt like everyone was watching me. It was really busy with shoppers and they had to move out of the way for me. After about an hour of shopping, I became a "18 wheeler" carrying all the bags of stuff we had bought. I was then trapped to the thing without even the option to get up and look around. So I gave it up about an hour later, made my hubby take the stuff to the car, and hoofed it the rest of the time. It certainly made me open my eyes and give me more resolve to stay standing no matter how much it hurts. It truely was a great lesson learned.

So thanks again for the good wishes. I wish for all or you a Happy Healthy New Year!

Son of a gun! I should have known it was too good to be true. Had some twinges in my abdomen and now I'm crapping blood again. I just don't understand it. I guess I was due for another "spell" as I call them. Nothing has changed to have brought it on. The ami is keeping the pain in check thank goodness. At least for now. So I guess I'll have to go for the barium enema (fun, fun) after all. I had really hoped I wouldnt' have to.

Oh well.

Happy New Year !

I'm so glad to hear from you, and I'm SO glad that the pain has been reduced. :)

Now, see the electric chair things are fun for me. When I see people I know, or knew, I give them huge grins, and to lots of people I smile and say "Be careful, I'm not a very good driver!"

I think for a lot of people they aren't sure how to respond, so I think they like a smile that they can relate to.

The electric chairs really are fun, on a purely physical fun level.

But, the day I had to stand in line to get a refund, there was no way I could do any shopping after that if I had to walk. So the chair was dynamite.

Well, sorry to go on about me.

I am Delighted that you are feeling better!!!!!!

OMG! Darn!!!!!

Darn it!!!!!!

I was so happy after reading your other message.

This is an aside, but whenever I was or am low on B12 I bleed: nose bleeds, spontaneous periods (not anymore due to age), I forget what else.

I associate bleeding, for me, with low B12.

It's possible that you were so happy about the ami that you had a very positive reduction in stress and healed yourself.

I should go back and read this whole thread, but I don't think I will right now. I can't remember if you have ridges on your fingernails or have lost your moons, and I can't remember what you said about other low B12 symptoms.

The moons had come back on my index finger, middle finger and ring finger of my right hand, but it's been so cold... I'm not upset by the cold, I'm doing fine, it's just that my hands have been going very numb again and I just saw that the moons have disappeared for the most part where they had returned.

B12 is not a static thing.

Also, it can take a lot to bring a return to "normal".

((((((((Marcia)))))))