Hi. I have a question I really hope to get some advice on.
Since being diagnosed with MC I have had bad nausea at times, but I always have diarrhea as well. About 2 weeks ago I got the worst, most intense nausea I have ever had. It is way worse than ever before. It literally feels like a giant hand is grabbing my stomach from the inside and squeezing it. I have not kept any food down at all, barely can keep water down. But I have very little diarrhea, my stools are "normal" when I have them.
I went to the doctor today and they are doing a CAT Scan tomorrow. They dont think it is from the MC, they said nausea would never get this bad with MC, and esp. if I dont have diarrhea. Now I am terrifed that I have liver disease or some type of cancer.
Can anyone tell me if they have ever had the most intense nausea one can imagine, the kind that makes you just lay on the floor and moan until the worst of the spasms have passed? But had very little or no diarrhea? Is that possible with MC? I dont seem to have the other signs of liver disease but the doctors are convinced this is not an MC flare.
It is so bad that I am on temporary disability from work. While I have missed work during MC flareups, I never had to miss this much at once. I have not even been able to do my workout at gym for 2 weeks.
I would really love to hear from someone that this could be MC. Never thought I would be happy to have MC but liver disease or cancer is terrifying me. I dont know how I will sleep until I know the results of the CAT scan but I was hoping someone on here could tell me this is very possible with MC.
Thanks in advance.
Question about intense nausea
Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
forgot to add:
I forgot to add that because I live in Vermont I have been taking a vit D supplement for months. It turns out that my vit D got extremely high, all the way up to 145 and I think it is supposed to be below 60. I have been off the D for over a week, at first I thought my nausea was from the vit D overload but it has only gotten worse in the past week, not better.
Also, my blood work shows a slight elevation in my liver tests. Originally my doctor said not to worry about it, it was just a slight elevation. But now that I got so sick they are concerned about liver, or other things and want me to have the CAT scan.
Also, my blood work shows a slight elevation in my liver tests. Originally my doctor said not to worry about it, it was just a slight elevation. But now that I got so sick they are concerned about liver, or other things and want me to have the CAT scan.
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Joefnh
- Rockhopper Penguin
- Posts: 2478
- Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 8:25 pm
- Location: Southern New Hampshire
Hello from New Hampshire Andi. I know when my MC started to really flare last April I had pretty bad nausea, but it was combined with D. Certainly I understand the issue of having to lay on the floor until its over. There is a form of MC called collagenous gastritis but I am not sure if it would only produce nausea or D as well. That's good your liver tests were relatively normal. The next question would be pancreatitis or gall bladder issues which I believe can both cause severe nausea. Do you have any pain in your upper abdomen or a fever?
--Joe
--Joe
Joe
Hi Wayne,
Thanks for the reply. Where in NH are you? We are outside of Montpelier in VT.
My doctor said she thinks it is gallstones as well, but I have not had any pain, just severe nausea. I am worried it is liver but if it is the numbers are at least on the low end of elevated.
I have had MC for about 5 years now, I know how awful it can be the first few years.
Thanks for the reply. Where in NH are you? We are outside of Montpelier in VT.
My doctor said she thinks it is gallstones as well, but I have not had any pain, just severe nausea. I am worried it is liver but if it is the numbers are at least on the low end of elevated.
I have had MC for about 5 years now, I know how awful it can be the first few years.
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Joefnh
- Rockhopper Penguin
- Posts: 2478
- Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 8:25 pm
- Location: Southern New Hampshire
Hi Andi. I am in Manchester.. not too far from Montpelier at least as the crow flies. I have only been dealing with this since last April. I did have symptoms of joint pain and uveitis for about 10 years and occasional unexplained D. In April I was dxd with CC and Crohns. Overall still fairly new to all of this, but have been learning quite a bit from Wayne and all the other great people here on this site.
My guess is that you have been getting a bunch of this snow over the last week.
--Joe
My guess is that you have been getting a bunch of this snow over the last week.
--Joe
Joe
grannyh,
Yes, I am definitely sure I am dehydrated. They gave me some heavy duty anti-nausea pills today so I am finally able to keep water down. I dont have an appetite though.
Joe,
I am sorry about your Chrohns, that must be horrible. What are you doing to deal with it? I do know there is some great advice on this site. I come and go but really learned a lot from people on here. More than from doctors most of the time.
I used to go to Manchester often for work before my MC. In my job I cover VT and NH. I am an entomologist, I keep invasive insects like Emerald Ash Borer and Asian Longhorn Beetle from coming into NH and VT and killing the forests.
I work for the Fed. Ag. Dept. but we work very closely with both NH and VT State Ag. We had lots of meetings in Concord and Manchester over the years.
I dont travel as much for work or do much of the field work anymore because of my MC.
We did get a ton of snow here and are expecting more later this week and early next week. I guess it is really winter in Vermont now.
Yes, I am definitely sure I am dehydrated. They gave me some heavy duty anti-nausea pills today so I am finally able to keep water down. I dont have an appetite though.
Joe,
I am sorry about your Chrohns, that must be horrible. What are you doing to deal with it? I do know there is some great advice on this site. I come and go but really learned a lot from people on here. More than from doctors most of the time.
I used to go to Manchester often for work before my MC. In my job I cover VT and NH. I am an entomologist, I keep invasive insects like Emerald Ash Borer and Asian Longhorn Beetle from coming into NH and VT and killing the forests.
I work for the Fed. Ag. Dept. but we work very closely with both NH and VT State Ag. We had lots of meetings in Concord and Manchester over the years.
I dont travel as much for work or do much of the field work anymore because of my MC.
We did get a ton of snow here and are expecting more later this week and early next week. I guess it is really winter in Vermont now.
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Joefnh
- Rockhopper Penguin
- Posts: 2478
- Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 8:25 pm
- Location: Southern New Hampshire
Andi thanks for reply. Certainly the Crohns adds to the CC. I will have to say that when the Crohns is in control, the MC is actually worse with all the dietary restrictions and reactions. When the Crohns is acting up though it does hurt quite a bit, and it also does not react well to fiber or hard to digest foods.
As far as treatments I started with 9mg of Entocort and a GF/SF diet with limited dairy. I took the Entocort for 7 months and the testing showed that the Crohns was still becoming worse. The location of the Crohns is in the jejunum, which is the middle portion of the small intestine and unfortunately the Entocort does not treat that area very well.
Just recently I switched over to Imuran which is working great for both the MC and Crohns.
Coupled with the meds and the diet I also see an acupuncturist twice a week and what a difference that makes. That's another new treatment I learned about here on PP - initially not in my comfort zone LOL
Entomology really is an interesting field, the work looks into an area that most of us barely understand. The interaction of both the destructive and symbiotic species upon the ecosystem is just amazing.
Keep shoveling and stay warm Andi LOL
--Joe
As far as treatments I started with 9mg of Entocort and a GF/SF diet with limited dairy. I took the Entocort for 7 months and the testing showed that the Crohns was still becoming worse. The location of the Crohns is in the jejunum, which is the middle portion of the small intestine and unfortunately the Entocort does not treat that area very well.
Just recently I switched over to Imuran which is working great for both the MC and Crohns.
Coupled with the meds and the diet I also see an acupuncturist twice a week and what a difference that makes. That's another new treatment I learned about here on PP - initially not in my comfort zone LOL
Entomology really is an interesting field, the work looks into an area that most of us barely understand. The interaction of both the destructive and symbiotic species upon the ecosystem is just amazing.
Keep shoveling and stay warm Andi LOL
--Joe
Joe
Hi Andi! Long time, no see!
I am so sorry to hear about your problems. You didn't mention how you are treating your MC.....I am wondering if you have been doing dietary management with the elimination of gluten, dairy, soy? Long term ingestion of gluten can lead to problems with almost every organ - gall bladder, pancreas, brain, etc. I would imagine liver too. We have noticed here that vitually every part of the body can be inflamed with MC - skin, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, etc. I will keep my fingers crossed that it is nothing serious. If it is any consolation, liver disease and cancer are usually relatively painless. Please keep us posted. And take care.
Love,
Polly
I am so sorry to hear about your problems. You didn't mention how you are treating your MC.....I am wondering if you have been doing dietary management with the elimination of gluten, dairy, soy? Long term ingestion of gluten can lead to problems with almost every organ - gall bladder, pancreas, brain, etc. I would imagine liver too. We have noticed here that vitually every part of the body can be inflamed with MC - skin, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, etc. I will keep my fingers crossed that it is nothing serious. If it is any consolation, liver disease and cancer are usually relatively painless. Please keep us posted. And take care.
Love,
Polly
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.
grannyh,
I am drinking pedialyte. Sometimes it stays down, sometimes it does not. These anti-nausea pills are helping some, but not completely.
Joe,
I am so sorry for how sick you get, it seems you are worse than I normally am, even when I am sick. I tried going GF, but I am also a vegetarian (I live near Montpelier after all!) and it was getting to the point that all I could live on was air and water.
My sister is an acupuncturist in Tucson, and it does do wonders. I spent a year (on the weekends) studying massage therapy, and acupressure and Chinese medicine. I use natural healing whenever I can. I am glad to hear it is helping you.
Well, I am going to try to get some food down me.
I truly hope you continue to do better, let me know.
I am drinking pedialyte. Sometimes it stays down, sometimes it does not. These anti-nausea pills are helping some, but not completely.
Joe,
I am so sorry for how sick you get, it seems you are worse than I normally am, even when I am sick. I tried going GF, but I am also a vegetarian (I live near Montpelier after all!) and it was getting to the point that all I could live on was air and water.
My sister is an acupuncturist in Tucson, and it does do wonders. I spent a year (on the weekends) studying massage therapy, and acupressure and Chinese medicine. I use natural healing whenever I can. I am glad to hear it is helping you.
Well, I am going to try to get some food down me.
I truly hope you continue to do better, let me know.
Hi Polly,
Just saw your reply. Thank you for your thoughts. It is helping me feel a little less worried.
I just never knew I could be this nauseous, it is beyond the normal MC nausea I have felt.
For the past two weeks I pretty much eliminated all food from my diet because nothing will stay down. If i try to eat, after 2 bites I cannot handle any more food.
It is pretty bad.
Just saw your reply. Thank you for your thoughts. It is helping me feel a little less worried.
I just never knew I could be this nauseous, it is beyond the normal MC nausea I have felt.
For the past two weeks I pretty much eliminated all food from my diet because nothing will stay down. If i try to eat, after 2 bites I cannot handle any more food.
It is pretty bad.
Hi Andi,
It's good to see you posting again - I just wish that it was for social reasons, rather than health reasons. I agree with Polly, that the type of pain you describe wouldn't be likely to be associated with the types of cancer that you are concerned about.
Your symptoms closely match the symptoms of vitamin D hypersensitivity, (IOW, hypercalcemia), though they are probably not due to a vitamin D overdose. Did your doctors check your blood calcium level? Is it normal? Vitamin D hypersensitivity syndromes are often mistaken for vitamin D toxicity. This rare syndrome can occur when abnormal tissue subverts the kidney's normal regulation of endocrine 1,25(OH)2D3 (calcitriol) production. There are numerous possible causes. Aberrant tissues, usually granulomatous in nature, convert 25(OH)D into 1,25(OH)2D3 causing high blood calcium. The most common of such conditions are sarcoidosis, oat cell carcinoma of the lung, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but other problems, such as primary hyperparathyroidism, can cause the syndrome, also. It can take several months to wind down from such a syndrome, so that makes it fit the boundary conditions in your situation. I hope your doctors are checking out this possibility, to rule it out.
If that possibility is ruled out, here are some others: The nausea, (and other symptoms), sounds as though it might be due to gastroparesis. Do you by any chance have diabetes. If so, that is likely the problem. If not, then we have to look elsewhere. Gallbladder disease is a possibility, but the pain should be most severe soon after eating a meal that contains some fat, and it should eventually resolve in say, 6 or 8 hours, afterward.
Collagenous gastritis, (CG), is a possibility, but with that issue, the mucosa of the stomach tends to bleed very easily, so that anemia is often a problem, and some CG patients tend to vomit some blood.
Are you by any chance taking one of the 5-ASA drugs, (such as Asacol, Pentasa, Colazal, Apriso, Lialda, etc.? If so, chronic pancreatitis is a possibility. It's not common, (and most GI specialists are probably unaware of it), but we have at least a couple of other members who have developed that problem after using Asacol, or one the other 5-ASA drugs.
There are some other possibilities, but the point is, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't be overly concerned about cancer with those symptoms - there are many other more likely possibilities. I hope you can track down the problem, and resolve it, soon.
Tex
It's good to see you posting again - I just wish that it was for social reasons, rather than health reasons. I agree with Polly, that the type of pain you describe wouldn't be likely to be associated with the types of cancer that you are concerned about.
Your symptoms closely match the symptoms of vitamin D hypersensitivity, (IOW, hypercalcemia), though they are probably not due to a vitamin D overdose. Did your doctors check your blood calcium level? Is it normal? Vitamin D hypersensitivity syndromes are often mistaken for vitamin D toxicity. This rare syndrome can occur when abnormal tissue subverts the kidney's normal regulation of endocrine 1,25(OH)2D3 (calcitriol) production. There are numerous possible causes. Aberrant tissues, usually granulomatous in nature, convert 25(OH)D into 1,25(OH)2D3 causing high blood calcium. The most common of such conditions are sarcoidosis, oat cell carcinoma of the lung, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but other problems, such as primary hyperparathyroidism, can cause the syndrome, also. It can take several months to wind down from such a syndrome, so that makes it fit the boundary conditions in your situation. I hope your doctors are checking out this possibility, to rule it out.
If that possibility is ruled out, here are some others: The nausea, (and other symptoms), sounds as though it might be due to gastroparesis. Do you by any chance have diabetes. If so, that is likely the problem. If not, then we have to look elsewhere. Gallbladder disease is a possibility, but the pain should be most severe soon after eating a meal that contains some fat, and it should eventually resolve in say, 6 or 8 hours, afterward.
Collagenous gastritis, (CG), is a possibility, but with that issue, the mucosa of the stomach tends to bleed very easily, so that anemia is often a problem, and some CG patients tend to vomit some blood.
Are you by any chance taking one of the 5-ASA drugs, (such as Asacol, Pentasa, Colazal, Apriso, Lialda, etc.? If so, chronic pancreatitis is a possibility. It's not common, (and most GI specialists are probably unaware of it), but we have at least a couple of other members who have developed that problem after using Asacol, or one the other 5-ASA drugs.
There are some other possibilities, but the point is, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't be overly concerned about cancer with those symptoms - there are many other more likely possibilities. I hope you can track down the problem, and resolve it, soon.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Tex,
Nice to hear from you again. You are certainly a wealth of information.
I think my blood calcium was ok. I dont have diabetes or anything. I was on asacol a couple years ago but went off because it did not help me at all.
But you put my mind at ease, I was worried about cancer. I am still worried about liver disease though. I agree I dont think it is gallbladder eventhough my doctor seems to think so. I have had no pain, just intense nausea.
I am going for a CAT scan in an hour, I am in the process of drinking the Barium. I had to go to the doctors last nite (doctor on call), just to get some heavy duty anti-nausea pills or I would not have been able to keep the barium down.
This has been a very difficult couple of weeks.
Things were going great. I am to be married in July to my longtime partner, Dave.
After I get the results of the CAT Scan I will let everyone who has been so helpful know what they are.
How are you feeling these days?
Nice to hear from you again. You are certainly a wealth of information.
I think my blood calcium was ok. I dont have diabetes or anything. I was on asacol a couple years ago but went off because it did not help me at all.
But you put my mind at ease, I was worried about cancer. I am still worried about liver disease though. I agree I dont think it is gallbladder eventhough my doctor seems to think so. I have had no pain, just intense nausea.
I am going for a CAT scan in an hour, I am in the process of drinking the Barium. I had to go to the doctors last nite (doctor on call), just to get some heavy duty anti-nausea pills or I would not have been able to keep the barium down.
This has been a very difficult couple of weeks.
Things were going great. I am to be married in July to my longtime partner, Dave.
After I get the results of the CAT Scan I will let everyone who has been so helpful know what they are.
How are you feeling these days?