YANMD but any guesses what is up with my GI tract?
May 4, 2019 8:15 AM   Subscribe

I have a baffling array of upper and lower GI symptoms. I will be going to my actual doctor next week, but in the mean time I am going crazy trying to deal with all these symptoms.

This was me a couple weeks ago. I pushed fluids, vitamins and electrolytes and started taking probiotics and felt much better after a few days. Started eating normally again, all was well for about a week. Then, this week, down again.

Monday I felt just a little off all day, and when I got home from work experienced chills (no fever at any point), and extreme non-localized abdominal pain. I dry heaved a bit, never threw up, was up much of the night, and by the next morning felt pretty bad but not terrible. No appetite. I didn't eat much that day, stayed home from work. The next day I stayed home again because I still didn't feel like eating, but by the end if that day I started feeling moderately better. I went back to work Thursday and felt good enough to eat regular food for dinner. Then a couple hours later: chills, abdominal pain, misery, which lasted a blessedly short couple hours and then I was able to fall asleep. The evening pain seems more in my intestines. It feels like I'm full of writhing snakes, there's lots of gurgling noises. It feels a bit better if I lie on my back than my side. Yesterday I made a very concerted point to eat only bland white foods. Bread, rice, oatmeal, all in small quantities. Again right before bed: writhing abdominal pain that lasted an hour or two before I could fall asleep. Things were gurgling and uncomfortable most of the night, but not so bad I couldn't sleep through a lot of it.

This morning, woke up, had a small bowl of white rice and tofu for breakfast, now a couple hours later my stomach is burning and I feel shaky and weak. My legs are quivering.

This is getting ridiculous. I have a job and a kid and being unable to eat and unable to function normally is getting very old. I've lost 5lbs since this all began with that initial illness 3 weeks ago (and I do not lose weight easily). I'm starting to feel like this may not actually be a viral stomach bug after all.

Anyone have any ideas what is happening here? Any magic words to say to get my doc to take me seriously on Monday?
This is unlike anything I've ever experienced. I've always had a pretty iron stomach previously.
posted by soren_lorensen to Health & Fitness (15 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Ask to get tested for parasites? This sounds not unlike how I felt when I had one.
posted by Valancy Rachel at 8:31 AM on May 4, 2019 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Note: I keep backyard chickens. Have for about five years, never gotten sick from something they were carrying before but I suppose there's a first time for everything?
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:36 AM on May 4, 2019


Maybe giardia? P.S. sorry you are feeling badly. I am going to look up backyard chickens and stomach bugs.
posted by Oyéah at 9:15 AM on May 4, 2019


here
posted by Oyéah at 9:17 AM on May 4, 2019 [1 favorite]


Are your BMs consistant? Or are you constipated?
posted by Fukiyama at 9:32 AM on May 4, 2019


I would recommend calling ahead to your doctor and get their protocol for bringing in a fecal sample rather than having to make a second trip.

It should be sufficient to tell your doctor you're not fully functional to get attention paid, but you might also put together a timeline on paper as a presentation aid. It's not unusual for a really fierce gastrovirus to leave you off-kilter for weeks, maybe even a couple of months, but the fact that you're still having pretty intense pain is a red flag that something is still going on.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:32 AM on May 4, 2019


It feels like I'm full of writhing snakes

I'd use those exact words.
posted by danceswithlight at 9:33 AM on May 4, 2019 [8 favorites]


Response by poster: Fukiyama: nothing much exiting out the back door, as not a whole lot is going in the front. My initial illness was severe apocalyptic diarrhea for about 12 hours, but since then that's been the one thing that's been functioning fairly normally.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:38 AM on May 4, 2019


Maybe gallstones? When a gallstone gets caught in a bile duct and/or when a gallstone gets passed, the symptoms are very much like what you had a couple of weeks ago. And the symptoms can linger (and come and go) as the excess bile gets absorbs/flushes. Gallstones can be seen in an abdominal utlrasound.
posted by Pineapplicious at 9:51 AM on May 4, 2019 [3 favorites]


2nding gallstones. Both my father and father-in-law presented like this. It went on for a long time before doctors put
it together and caught it on imaging,
posted by xo at 10:02 AM on May 4, 2019


Are your poops grey or greyish? Gallstones block bile from getting from your bile duct into your small intestine, and bile is what makes poops orange-brown. Grey poops can be an indicator that something is up with the bile duct. See a doctor, in any case.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:19 AM on May 4, 2019


This is exactly how I felt before I began the long process of getting diagnosed with Celiac disease which kicked into high gear after I got giardia.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 10:23 AM on May 4, 2019


In my case similar symptoms went on for three months, escalating to vomiting drops of blood, while a GP insisted it's nerves or (then-impossible) pregnancy. I finally got directed to another doctor who prescribed antibiotics - turns out it was a recurring bacterial thing. Get tested lots.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 11:04 AM on May 4, 2019 [1 favorite]


Any chance you've been ingesting arsenic?
posted by flabdablet at 11:25 AM on May 4, 2019


Diverticulosis, flaring into full diverticulitis?
posted by doctor tough love at 10:11 PM on May 4, 2019 [1 favorite]


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