Living with Nausea: My Story in Six Charts

Hey there, i have crohns' which isn't nausea based for me but definitely i understand the debilitating nature of gastrointestinal issues. It really just kills your ability to think, to talk socially, it completely and totally stole my adolescence. I'm sure you've done endless research, I'm not gonna tell you i have a cure. But if you haven't, you should look into gut microbiota. My understanding is that the balance of types of bacteria in the stomach and intestines has so so so much more to do with our daily experience than anyone realizes. And that any kind of infection or antibiotic regiment or just normal living can precipitate a change in the balance that just obliterates peoples lives. And we just don't know much at all about it yet. I've seen many people talk over the years about experimenting with different probiotics, even down to ordering exact strains of bacteria to make yogurt and test. If you need a new path to research and try things you can look there. As i said, doctors don't know much about it yet so it you probably can't find one to guide you through it. You'll have to figure it out, but it's possible, people have been helped, and at the end of it all, i hope it gets better for you. <3

You have to be careful with suggesting to cut out X/Y/Z foods. Said another way, I would recommend OP eat a bag of gluten and see if they end up in the hospital you'll have your diagnosis in 15 minutes and then there'd be no argument.

I'm not speaking about you specifically, parents get the cutting out X/Y/Z food wrong with their kids all the time. It makes people afraid of eating instead of afraid of what they're allergic to. Unless you maintain a strict food journal which I don't have time for why not just take 2x dose of Zyrtec (I'm just a happy customer) for a week, then try the gluten/paleo/soylent/steve jobs diet.

Edit: I am not a medical doctor and taking an antihistamine to mask a food allergy is probably dangerous but I'm still testing myself. OP said they tried Dramamine, which is an antihistime. I've taken that along with many antacids including Nexium and Pepcid which are also antihistimine. Maybe mast cell disorder is what doctors have to call it so someone with a peanut allergy doesn't read this and reaches for zyrtec and a bowl of peanuts and throws out their epipen. That's why I mentioned the pollen cross-reactivity because I think my body is just overreacting so I'm making the executive decision to suppress it. It's been 8 months or so, I've not taken a single Nexium, only a couple pepcid which for my family is basically cured. I moved somewhere with less pollen because I don't like taking pills all the time.

Edit-Edit (I'm really focused on this topic lately): The bottom line is that I reduced my cetirizine use from 15–20 mg/day to about 5 mg/day by moving to a place with less pollen.

If you're experiencing something similar, pay attention to any systemic symptoms and listen to your body. I had eliminated almost all food from my diet to control my gastric issues. But my left ear was having tinnitus. They checked it, they said my ears are very clean and thought it might be middle ear problems. They gave me a list of antihistimines and a nasal steroid (flonase) to try. I channeled my oppositional energy and thought, "Well, if they want me to try it…"

So I bought the entire list they gave me, I took cetirizine once a day, loratadine twice a day, and occasionally a fexofenadine pill (along with my usual double dose of Nexium, which I was desperate to discontinue) plus the Flonase for good measure.

I started cetirizine to manage tinnitus and dizziness, which are entirely separate systemic symptoms that I had never associated with my gastric symptoms or food.

A few days later, my ears cleared, and all my gastric/reflux symptoms disappeared. I quit all antacids on the same _day_. When my middle ears drain, that's my canary in the coal mine. It had worked so well that I wondered how long I had been suffering before I moved to Pollenville in the first place and just didn't notice.

Thanks Pollenville. You were my bag of raw gluten powder.

Your son’s serotonin in his gut may still be high. Please do not assume that the nausea is related to a psychological disorder. My parents did this with me and it turns out my case was a lot more complicated.

I don’t know if you tried antinausea medication that blocks the serotonin HT3 receptor but if you try that and the nausea goes away, I would look ant increased serotonin release as a culprit instead.

If the author is reading this, might want to consider the possibility of an onset of chronic "silent migraines" which can have quite the nauseating effect but without the headache. I suffer from them and they are debilitating. While reading your article, I kept thinking it would eventually get to the part where you discovered you are having migraines (which also tend to run in cycles of a couple weeks to a month for many people, myself included), but no mention of this anywhere, so thought I'd point it out.

Yes when this happens you become a project manager trying to persuade resources you have no control over to get on board. And you are paying for them. And they may give you bad advice. And you feel like shit and don't want to do it.