Living with Nausea: My Story in Six Charts

Have you considered Somatic Symptom Disorder?

As plausible as this might sound, it's kind of "just man up and power through it" advice. They stated they often don't feel well enough to leave their house.

This is a comment from my wife who went through a similar journey. Hope it helps!

Hey there. I wish to offer you some hope in this situation. My own path to finding a diagnosis was several years long and it involved many doctors who mostly ignored me, and a huge amount of money spent on tests. It started with general weakness and bad reactions to food, where I quickly became intolerant to many different foods and developed hives after every meal. I had intense pain after every meal and was so weak that some days I could not even take my dog for a walk. Tests mostly showed nothing, apart from malnutrition and being severely deficient in basically all vitamins, and doctors told me I am probably making it up and it's stress. I should see a psychiatrist and stop bothering them.

This went on and on and I was feeling worse every day.

There was one source of information that helped me gain understanding of what was happening and find direction on where to go and what to test for and that was dr. Datis Kharrazian's podcasts and book. He deals with different systemic illnesses and I highly recommend this resource.

Ultimately I tested positive for SIBO and 2 years later I am almost 100% back to normal, with very light long term effects of the whole thing.

So, keep in mind this is absolutely not medical advice. I will just line out some conditions I researched while figuring out what could be wrong with me, that I think might be interesting for you.

1. SIBO

According to the fact that you felt better when a tube drained your small intestine, and when you took Erythromicine, which is both an antibiotic and a motility agent, there is a possibility that you might suffer from this. Nausea is not the most common symptom, but it definitely happens. You haven't mentioned more specific symptoms you have with nausea (which is a pretty broad term), but if there is any bloating or actual abdominal pain, look into this.

2. Wilson's disease

A genetic condition that makes you retain too much copper. Can present itself later in life, when critical amounts of copper accumulate. It's rarely tested for. Symptoms could include nausea, neurological symptoms and loss of appetite. Elevated liver enzymes would be a first sign.

3. Stomach acid

I see you have been told you might have too much stomach acid and were put on Pepcid. I remember from my research that there are situations where people are diagnosed this way, while they actually have a lack of acid, which can cause slow gastric emptying. Pepcid in that cause would be the opposite of helpful.

4. Neurological causes

- POTS (possibily cause by Ehlers Danlos Syndrome) - Migraines, as already mentioned. I myself suffer from migraines (less so now), and a headache is the most light symptom, which sometimes I don't even register, while nausea and vertigo is intense for me. They sometimes last for days.

I wish best of luck to you in discovering what might be the root cause of this. Don't be discouraged by doctors who don't wish to dig deeper, and don't be dismissed.

I don't think that person was specifically offering advice. And I don't think the article was asking for any.

it's interesting info regardless.

Look at the graph in the article. I did a similar one, through for a shorter period. The wast majority is thankfully not at 7+, even if some longer periods has felt like it.

Be a bit careful to not insinuate. Being at 1-2 doesnt mean everything is good. Every day is a question of "how will this day be". I know however that if I only focus on the bad days it can only go one way, and that is downhill until you die. That may sound like a cliche, but when symptoms generally only get worse, and there is no cure, then the end of the tunnel is unlikely to be great.