Thank you for your inquiry. Short answer: no real news. Longer answer below for those interested...

GI prescribed trial of pantoprazole 40 mg orally daily for 3 months, but I stopped it after 2 weeks as I didn't notice any change at all and I didn't feel it was appropriate to take it if I had upcoming tests which might hide any underlying issues. GI wasn't too thrilled with that but let it go.

Had my scheduled "limited" u/s of the upper right quadrant of the abdomen last July, which was unremarkable. Gastric emptying scan later same month showed an abnormality in the 4th/final hour, which GI remarked as "slightly sluggish" and wasn't concerned. Colonoscopy/Endoscopy in August was also fairly unremarkable other than a "small serrated adenoma", which again the GI wasn't concerned with. Upon f/u at his office in August we went over the results and I was prepared to go for the CT next, but he commented he just changed his mind, and he thinks it's all related to diet. Gave me a big pamphlet on the FODMAP diet, which I joked I will really start dropping weight if he wants me to give up all these foods for months! I requested a stool culture at that time, which he wrote the orders for to detect bacteria/parasites/inflamation, but he warned they will not accept a sample if it isn't "loose" stool. At the time I didn't think it would be a problem, since my stools were still frequently loose. He also wrote orders for "Pancreatic Elastase-1", which I believe is part of the stool culture, and a celiac disease complete panel.

To date, I haven't completed any of the above orders. September was busy and I was finally able to take a first real vacation in some time - I don't know if it was the release of stress or what, but over the course of that week away my stomach issues seemed so much better, and when I came home the stool issues seemed pretty resolved. Thinking I could not get the test done without "loose" stools, I decided to wait and pursue if they returned, and they have not, though I have had some episodes of constipation again which I never really had a problem with until the last couple of years. That said, there are some things that haven't really improved - the "rotten" feeling in my core is still quite omnipresent, at times more noticeable or "larger" feeling where the discomfort is distracting but not debilitating. My weight continues to fluctuate oddly, and doesn't really seem related to my diet. GI commented that when I came in at August I had put on 6 lbs, but since then they've fallen away and built back up several times, which seem more to me to be related to bloating episodes than food, but I haven't really kept track. To be honest, for a long while I just wanted to forget all of this and just hoped it would go away by itself since most of the tests came back fairly unremarkable.

However, returning/continuing episodes of nausea, fluctuating weight, and "rotten" core feelings, at times now possibly radiating to the back (? this is so hard to pinpoint b/c I have a history of lumbar injury and my back is frequently acting up over something, and I also push myself hard physically and sometimes overdo it), got me to thinking of contacting GI again... reading online, I came across something I hadn't heard of before, which is Necrolytic migratory erythema (glucagonoma syndrome) - reading this made me freeze, as it is a circular "ring" rash which spreads outs and develops a central clearing. I have been experiencing rashes like this for years now. I was embarrassed of it and thought it was some kind of systemic tinea; although anti-fungal treatments did not seem to help at all, and I didn't want to go to a dermatalogist who would just want me to put chemicals all over or take an internal med. I heard of and began using Amish black salve, and that did the trick in addressing it. Whenever it returns (feet and hands years ago, but in the past 6 months several episodes over the lower back), I use the salve and it goes away in a week or so, but it seems to resurface every few months.

I know there are other ring-shaped rashes that I can be confusing it with, and I should just go get seen by a professional when it flares up again. However, if anyone has info on this, I would be very interested.

This is as far as the news gets....best of luck to all on your journeys.