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Unexplained Weight Loss/Inability to Eat
Digestive Health | Last Active: Feb 17 2:59pm | Replies (22)Comment receiving replies
Around mother's day last year i started having really bad heartburn a couple days pass and I wake up with gas trapped in my stomach really bad and I bought gas meds and for the life of me couldn't pass the gas. A day or so after the gas pressure started, I started regurgitating everything I tried to eat or drink. Very quickly I stopped eating completely in fear that I would make the problem worse, but still every time I would take even a small sip of water I would burp it back up with yellow bile. At that point I took my first trip to the urgent care. They took blood and did a cat scan with contrast and couldn't find anything wrong but told me I potentially had colitis. They prescribed Omeprazole, sucralfate, and dicyclomine. To this point I still hadn't been able to pass the gas that had been trapped in my stomach for nearly four days straight. After I took the Omeprazole the next day I was able to pass the gas and felt a tremendous amount of relief. Later that night the gas returned with a vengeance and I toughed it out til morning then went to another hospital to the emergency room where I was admitted for two days for observation where they did nothing other than another CT with contrast and they wouldn't allow me to take the Omeprazole so I checked myself out took the Omeprazole and had some relief again. To sho ten this I went nearly two weeks without eating anything at all because I was so scared of what it would do to me and in that time I was in and out of the ER about 8 more times admitted a couple due to dehydration. In the last 8 months I've had two colonoscopies and egds and the first time they found nothing but bad gastritis and a small hiatal hernia, the second time still a lot of gastritis with 6 polyps that were removed from my colon. Basically I had tried quite a few different foods in the beginning all of which were causing me extreme pain and bloating and all ive found that I can eat with minimal issues and when I say minimal issues this is still galaxies away from being normal my stomach still hurts all day every day and bubbles with gas all day, eggs toast and bananas are all I eat and nobody can tell me what's wrong with me. I hav what looks like coffee grounds in my stools always and I've lost about 70 pounds. I look like I've aged ten years in the last year and my quality of life has completely depleted. Please I need some advice
Replies to "Around mother's day last year i started having really bad heartburn a couple days pass and..."
@nathan1124 - I wanted to let you know I moved your post here to this existing discussion:
- Unexplained Weight Loss/Inability to Eat https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/unexplained-weight-lossinability-to-eat/
Although we can't give medical advice in this patient community, I think that others may have some thoughts for you from their own experiences. Hoping that here you can connect with others who are talking about some of the same symptoms you've mentioned, including unexplained weight loss @mikey1oregon @tuckerdoodle @graceym1. I'd also love for you to meet @jlharsh.
@nathan1124
Ask for a barium swallow test.
@nathan1124 Nathan all the scans in the world will not show EPI ! Your symptoms sound like mine when I went to the hospital a few times with intestinal obstructions. The scan for me...ended up being just a "possible" obstruction but they sent me home. Then went to another hospital within a day and another scan, yes obstruction. But the reasoning WHY was a three stooges of things, where no one could figure out the cause and just gave me recommendations. Don't eat fibre....jeez what book did they get this from? I know you say you have fecal tests. But did they do the ELASTASE tests.
EPI= cannot digest food due to insufficient pancreas enzyme quantity. Losing weight, and pain and feeling full quickly when eating are the main of the many symptoms. Hope you got or will Get a poop test done(elastase test). 6 doctors missed my issue. 2 were G.I. docs. Sometimes can't find a good DR when you need one. They were going to do surgery when I had 3rd blockage because they did not look at my "history". FYI-Long term diabetics have a higher % of EPI than the general pop. Third Blockage, It cleared quickly w/o surgery. But symptoms during eating were there. FINALLY a nurse practitioner figured out my issue. Confirmed with the poop test. But it can happen to anyone.
@nathan1124
Those are the same symptoms you get with chronic mesenteric ischemia. It is a condition where one or all 3 of your main arteries have stenosis. Celiac, Iliac and Mesenteric.
It can only be diagnosed by a CT scan with dye to view the mesenteric arteries and a doppler ultrasound to listen to the force/pressure of the blood flow through those arteries. My mother-in-law had this. It requires stents to those arteries just like stents to your coronary arteries if having a heart attack. If left untreated, it can become a life or death emergency. It is a rare condition.
A GI doc can order those tests. Then see a Vascular surgeon once you get your test results as the Vascular surgeon would need to diagnose it.
If you do not have stenosis in those arteries, there is also a condition where the arteries could be compressed by another organ, which can cause the same symptoms.
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perhaps a pet scan will show better what is going on? must be frustrating. losing that much weight can't be normal.
positive thoughts for you.