ktimerding
Jun 4, 2012, 09:33 PM
The medical condition I am describing is not my own, but rather my boyfriends.
I have been with him for a year and a half now, and for our entire relationship he has suffered from a severe chronic stomach illness. I am trying to figure out what it could possibly be, can anybody help me out and give me some ideas? I cannot say if he has had these problems before our relationship or not, but I have noticed it since the very beginning. However, whatever it is is definitely stressed induced, it's gotten far worse in the past 9ish months due to heavy amounts of school work. He almost failed the year from missing so much class.
So the biggest symptom is obviously the intense excruciating stomach pain. It hits him out of nowhere like a brick... sometimes in the middle of the night, and sometimes triggered after eating, but usually he wakes up in the morning with it. On a pain scale of 1-10, he defines it as a definite 10. He can't move because of the amount of pain he's in. The pain is more located in his upper GI tract, in the stomach area... however, the pain used to be in his lower GI tract directly in his bowels. There is no change of stools although rarely his pain is accompanied by diarrhea. The pain is always accompanied by nausea and dry heaving, he isn't always able to vomit though. He also becomes extremely sweaty and trembles. Sometimes he feels a bit dizzy upon trying to stand or sit up while he's having his pain attack. He also has bad gas and bloating frequently, even if not during an attack, as well very bad breath on a regular basis even though he actually has very good oral hygiene. In fact, his dentist told him he appeared to have a thick coat of bacteria on his tongue for whatever reason.
Obviously he needs to get to a doctor, but the reason I am here looking for answers is because my boyfriend is a minor and cannot take himself to the doctor. His mother is single and frequently is at work, and when she is home she simply just doesn't remember to call. We finally got him to a GI specialist a few weeks ago, he said it sounds like acid reflux. Something tells me this is a little more than acid reflux. Now the tricky part is getting him to a follow up appointment with the GI.
Now here are some additional, yet seemingly irrelevant symptoms that come along with his pain episodes. Frequently he will get an excruciating headache in the back of his head. This made his pediatrician wonder if the issue was nerve related, and not stomach related. So now we are looking at GI and Neurologist appointments I guess. He had a CT Scan and everything came back normal. A very recent symptom is his trouble sleeping at night due to a problem with his eyes. He describes it as staring straight into a bright light... even though it is night time, and he is in his room with his lights off and his eyes shut trying to sleep. It bothers him and is robbing him of sleep more than he already is... he has been an insomniac for as long as he can remember as well. Completely bizarre.
Any ideas?
I have been with him for a year and a half now, and for our entire relationship he has suffered from a severe chronic stomach illness. I am trying to figure out what it could possibly be, can anybody help me out and give me some ideas? I cannot say if he has had these problems before our relationship or not, but I have noticed it since the very beginning. However, whatever it is is definitely stressed induced, it's gotten far worse in the past 9ish months due to heavy amounts of school work. He almost failed the year from missing so much class.
So the biggest symptom is obviously the intense excruciating stomach pain. It hits him out of nowhere like a brick... sometimes in the middle of the night, and sometimes triggered after eating, but usually he wakes up in the morning with it. On a pain scale of 1-10, he defines it as a definite 10. He can't move because of the amount of pain he's in. The pain is more located in his upper GI tract, in the stomach area... however, the pain used to be in his lower GI tract directly in his bowels. There is no change of stools although rarely his pain is accompanied by diarrhea. The pain is always accompanied by nausea and dry heaving, he isn't always able to vomit though. He also becomes extremely sweaty and trembles. Sometimes he feels a bit dizzy upon trying to stand or sit up while he's having his pain attack. He also has bad gas and bloating frequently, even if not during an attack, as well very bad breath on a regular basis even though he actually has very good oral hygiene. In fact, his dentist told him he appeared to have a thick coat of bacteria on his tongue for whatever reason.
Obviously he needs to get to a doctor, but the reason I am here looking for answers is because my boyfriend is a minor and cannot take himself to the doctor. His mother is single and frequently is at work, and when she is home she simply just doesn't remember to call. We finally got him to a GI specialist a few weeks ago, he said it sounds like acid reflux. Something tells me this is a little more than acid reflux. Now the tricky part is getting him to a follow up appointment with the GI.
Now here are some additional, yet seemingly irrelevant symptoms that come along with his pain episodes. Frequently he will get an excruciating headache in the back of his head. This made his pediatrician wonder if the issue was nerve related, and not stomach related. So now we are looking at GI and Neurologist appointments I guess. He had a CT Scan and everything came back normal. A very recent symptom is his trouble sleeping at night due to a problem with his eyes. He describes it as staring straight into a bright light... even though it is night time, and he is in his room with his lights off and his eyes shut trying to sleep. It bothers him and is robbing him of sleep more than he already is... he has been an insomniac for as long as he can remember as well. Completely bizarre.
Any ideas?