Dear Dr. Joshua, ?
I have been ill since March of 2005, I have explained my symptoms to other doctors that I have seen and have been ignored, or they only treat my current symptom. I have been frustrated and want an intelligent theory instead of drugs. I am 26 now, have asthma and heart palpitations, considered a healthy weight(slight belly pudge), and I’ve had a history of bladder infections and migraines. My husband is a massage therapist who studied acupressure and alternative healing. He is very familiar with anatomy, but does not diagnose, only suggests. He helps with my diet to ensure I am getting proper nutrition as well. ?
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We moved into our first house in August of 2004, it was a 1964 home that was in good condition. In march of 2005, I went for my annual PAP smear and they discovered that I had a bladder infection. Being allergic to penicillin they gave me Bactrim, which after 5 days I became severely allergic to and swelled up nice and red with hives, nausea and a fever. I went back to the doctors and received a Benadryl shot (Leaving a permanent numb spot on my arm). That took me a few days to get over, but came out OK. ?
About two weeks after I recovered, I was bitten on the inner thigh by a black widow, I spent about 2 days with severe pain going through my thigh, and a mild fever. We found the spider in our bedroom and killed it. ?
After a week from my black widow recovery, I began to vomit. It usually happened after eating lunch, no matter what I ate, I would become fevered, then chilled, and then vomit. The whole episode lasting about 30 minutes before I could return to work (customer service rep in a call center). I spoke with my doctor, and they put me on FMLA for migraines and said to just use it when necessary… I changed my lunch to try several foods, it seemed the vomiting was worse when I ate meat so I tried a vegetarian and then a vegan diet with some luck. I took multi vitamins to ensure I was getting what I needed since I didn’t have a fully balanced diet. ?
After about three to four months of my new diet, I took a turn for the worse. My vomiting returned with diarrhea, fevered chills and sweating. At one point I was in the bathroom for two hours, unable to move because I felt so ill. My husband suggested seeing an acupuncturist since I was having no luck with my doctors, which I received a new diet of rice and vegetables, a weekly treatment of acupuncture and some home therapies for relaxation. This helped stabilize my stomach, but I was not cured. ?
I had four weeks of acupuncture, and was able to work OK, but now I was having a problem with the 30-60 minute commute to work. I would easily get car sick, dizzy, hot and cold sweats.. When I rode the bus, I would get chills and become very nauseous to the point that I carried a bag with me, just in case. And the same on the way home. I started getting diarrhea after I would eat anything and I noticed small black balls in my feces, like black peas. The worse my illness, the more black things I found. ?
At this point, my husband suggests it could be a parasite, so I go through six weeks of Para-Rid, a program of pills that kills most, if not all, intestinal parasites. I tried to pass of my nausea at this time as part of the program, but nothing really changed. I was still having diarrhea and nausea. ?
I was also finding that my immune system was really weak. So I had several colds once the weather turned cooler. I even had strep for three weeks, then a week of no strep, then strep again. I tried a different doctor, explained everything to him, he swabbed my throat, said its not the really bad strep and gave me antibiotics for an ear infection, advising me to use them only if I get an ear infection from the strep… At this point, it was November, nearly 10 months from my original illness, and I was forced to quit work because I couldn’t come in anymore. I had lost my voice for another three weeks and I was still getting nausea when I ate, but not vomiting. Sadly, this caused us to lose our health plan.?
Another thing I noticed was after January 2006, my neck and back muscles would become very swollen and sore with a mild fever. It would only happen for a few hours and then go back to normal. This still happens on occasion, but has decreased in warmer weather. ?
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(I know, this is really long and I do apologize, I want to give you as much information as possible so you can make a well informed theory.. )?
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Just last month, we moved from our home into an apartment, thinking the home itself was causing my illness. We changed to an organic diet and I had two weeks of normal feelings, no diarrhea, no nausea, I even felt good enough to start working out and even lost some pudge on my middle. But week three and I’m getting diarrhea again, with the same black balls and nausea. A few days ago we had peas and within five minutes I had diarrhea and saw undigested peas in the toilet. I am worried about malnutrition since I am not digesting most of my food, and I am tired of living with this unknown illness. ?
I was told once that I was too stressed out, but I can’t see how because I did enjoy my job and the people I worked with. We had no pressure on finances and my husband was finishing school with straight A’s. Another suggestion was Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but I haven’t been able to find much information on that and no doctors were willing to run any tests for it, if there are any. ?
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I can only hope for a theory from you if you were able to read through my entire story. I hope I was detailed enough and didn’t bore or bother you. I know its a very long story with a lot of happenings, I just don’t really know where to go at this point. I thank you very much for at least reading this, and I hope you can find some possible answers for me. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Dr. Joshua’s Answer:

Most of your symptoms seem to be related to eating, and mostly you have gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea. Also, chills, fever, dizziness. There are also some unusual symptoms such as the back muscles becoming sore and swollen along with mild fever.

From your symptoms alone, I can’t make any attempts at diagnosis. Before doing anything else, see your primary care physician, let him/her examine you and then he/she will make the proper referrals if needed. If you find that your PCP can’t help you, and since the main complaint is gastrointestinal symptoms, I recommend that you see a gastroenterologist. You need to have a thorough evaluation of your history and a physical examination. A lab test series with the usual CBC, CRP, creatinine, electrolytes, TSH, etc…should be done. Infections should be ruled out by fecal culture and blood tests for antigens. Gastroscopy may be needed if gastric ulcer is suspected. Abdomen lab tests for liver, gallbladder, pancreas function may be needed. If ulcerative colitis or other colon disease is suspected, a colonoscopy is needed. If a chronic infection or an autoimmune disease is suspected, you might need to consult an internist and/or a specialist in infectious diseases.

I realize that it may be hard for you to get all these consultations done especially as you have no health insurance, but I don’t see how else your symptoms could be diagnosed. I’m sorry that I can’t be any more specific. Good luck, and keep me posted.