Didn't wanna leave anyone out there wondering, just because I'm supposed to be on a break.
Got my biopsy, bloodwork, and other test results today.
Basically... I'm fine.
He said the EGD showed serious irritation in my stomach, but all the biopsies came back negative. Meaning, no cancer, no infection, no virus, no Crohn's disease, no celiac disease, and no evidence of any food allergies. Bloodwork showed all enzyme levels normal.
So he's declaring it a variant of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and basically told me that I should take my new medication to control the symptoms. Twice daily. For the rest of my life.
I'm not exactly satisfied with that answer.
Meaning, I had to hold back the tears.
Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful to be told that there's nothing wrong with me. It's just that... clearly something is wrong.
And, while I certainly appreciate and value what modern medicine can do for us, I already feel like I'm taking too many medications, and would really prefer not to be taking a medication for the rest of my life just because they can't figure out what's wrong. It's one thing if they can pinpoint a diagnosis. But to drug myself permanently to treat symptoms? I'm not really into that.
My sister has suggested I see if my insurance will cover a second opinion, and I suppose she's right, so I need to look into that.
In the meantime, dear readers, I ask for your help. I know several of you are familiar with homeopathic / natural healing sorts of things. If you have any resources that you would personally recommend, I would appreciate it. Yeah, I know I could google it, but I would have no idea which references to trust or not. So instead I'm trusting your recommendations.
There's my quick update. And a big Thank You to ya'll for your support thru this, and a Thank You in advance for any references ya'll can provide.
Have a great day!
6 comments:
Yes, while it is wonderful to hear what is NOT wrong with you it is so frustrating to be told to merely treat a symptom and never get to the bottom of it. That would be unacceptable to me as well. I don't have any pinpoint advice on this issue since it has not been one of mine, but I can say that a food allergy/sensitivity can really wreak havoc in your system and until it gets treated/illeminated you may suffer immensely. Do not stop until you are satisfied with the answers that you get. You will know when you have hit on the right thing for you.
I am anything but a believer in homeopathy or "natural" cures, but I do believe that if something is irritating your system, you should be able to figure it out. I don't know about your other medications and dietary restrictions, though, so I am hesitant to offer advice. What I would want to do is clear out my system (maybe only eat something fairly well tolerated by everyone like oatmeal for a couple days) and then start adding things back one by one like they recommend for babies. See what triggers an attack. Maybe you can do your own investigation ... If it doesn't endanger your health in some other way.
I figured out we seem to have developed a wheat intolerance.
I had what I figured was ITBS for a few years, assumed it was just part of growing older. Mom and Aunts and sisters had/have it, too.
Then my husband started in with pretty much the same thing. His seemed worse, though. He was seeing blood and had a constant pain in his abdomen that no one could find a cause for.
I googled something like "pain on left side abdomen" and came across alot of postings for wheat intolerance. Like Celiac, but not the same.
One of the symptoms was an elevated liver enzyme found in testing, which my husband has had for a couple of years, with no obvious cause.
So I said, what the heck, we'll try this no-gluten thing and see what happens. So for a couple of weeks we cut out breads and pasta, and we both noticed a huge difference. I can now eat out without worrying about having to find a bathroom right after, and he's not going as much, and the pain is gone.
Haven't sent him back to the doc to about the liver enzyme yet, but hopfully that will have normalized.
We're not strict-strict no wheat eaters, because alot of foods has hidden wheat labeled under other names and I'm not all about delving that deep into it. We just cut out probably 99% of the wheat intake and it's made a huge difference.
They said you didn't seem to have any food allergies, but I know one can develop intolerances to stuff they've always eaten.
My Grandmother got lactose intolerant after drinking milk and eating cheese her whole life.
areyoukiddingme makes a good suggestion, if it's feasible, go on a bland diet for a few days and see if that makes any difference. If so, try adding things you eat back in once at a time and see if any of them cause a reaction.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=592931611 Hope this link works. She started out working for Dr. vesper, moved with Dr. Foad and is now at another office all together, She is very much into homeopathic / natural healing things and may be able to either help you or guide you, I would try to contact her through Facebook if you can or I could probably put you int ouch with her. If you don't remember her, just tell her I recommended you.
I would go to an allergist and get tested for food allergies. They can run a blood panel for just about anything; I think it runs somewhere around $100, but it'll test you for allergies to almost every type of food known to man. Don't know if the gastroenterologist did that or not, but that may be a good alternative. Did they test you for H-Pylori? My guess would be yes, but just wondering.
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