Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Fridays Endoscope Update

Thanks Susie, you post made me giggle. I'm sorry about all your medical issues but boy can I relate!!

I've done many different AD's as well. Prozac made me a zombie and so anxious, I was driving to work one day and actually forgot where I worked!

WEllbutrin was good for a while but it killed my sex drive. Lexapro was really great but the starting and stopping was very traumatic. Zoloft is just ok. I switched to it when I was trying to get pregnant as its supposedly one of the more "safe" ones for pregnancy.

Since it doesn't look like we will be trying to get pregnant anytime soon, if ever as they say my changes of carrying are slim to none-already had 5 miscarriages-yet nothing is wrong there either!

I think I'd rather try another anti-depressant. I felt best on the lexapro but boy it took WEEKS to get stable and it was really hard trying to stop it. I've been seeing the Cymbalta ads on tv lately and considering trying that one.

My ibs or whatever is wrong with me has switched from C to awful D and one of the side effects says C so maybe it will help me with my D? Than again, I'm afraid to make too many changes at once and not know whats causing what. I'm in my 5th week of weekly humira shots and I'm trying to decrease my steroids as well. I asked my internist two weeks ago about switching AD's, I didn't ask about the Cymbalta at that time, and she suggested we wait a bit and I think this is her reason why. Its just all so darn frustarting and confusing.

Maybe I'll just leave well enough alone for the moment. The crohns guy that I see October 5th is technically a surgeon but he specializes in crohns. He is a friend of my boss and is supposed to be the best crohns guy around. I can't say I've been overly impressed with him. I'm still waiting on my IBD generation two promethius blood test which is about 60% accurate in diagnosing crohns. I do not have any mouth sores or fistulas and when they ran blood work, the amount of vitamins I'm absorbing came back ok so he is leaning towards saying I don't have crohns.

The rheumy is thinking more crohns because of the change in my bowel function and the fact that my RA antibody test and ana tests are negative. However, my x-rays do show bone erosion's and if your arthritis swelling is caused from crohns, they typically don't see erosion's. Hmmmm?!

Right now my symptoms, in no particular order are
-D, sometimes up to 20 times a day (used to be C to the point of taking miralax daily for years!)
-abdominal pain and bloating-not necessarily any worse than when I've had IBS flare ups in the past though
-joint pain and swelling, most of the visible swelling is in my hands, wrists, feet and ankles but my knees and hips also hurt a lot. To the point of needing help to get up some days. Joints are not red but sometimes hot to touch

here's my hands anad feet

-brain fog, lack of ability to concentrate and remember
-nausea, to the point of vomiting some days
-muscle weakness and soreness
-bruise easily
-loss of appetite and weight loss, 25 pounds in a few months
-costochondritis, an inflammation in my chest and ribs
-Uvietis, an inflammation in my eyes
-shortness of breath and racing heart, EKGs are normal
-about a month ago, started having this "newer' pain in my chest, different than costo. Its why they did the endoscope but that showed nothing. Its a sharp pain, always there, worse with eating. Its just to the right and under my sternum, its a very isolated spot and does not radiate or move. When I eat, it feels like I'm swallowing glass.
_insomnia, not necessarily new, have had troubles for a few years but always tired, even after waking up
-shaky, my hands are constantly shaking and my body twitching a lot, usually when I try to relax
-generally feel sick, like I'm coming down with the flu

Thats what I can remember at the moment.
Here are the drugs I'm currently taking
-Zoloft 100mg
-aciphex, also have rx strength zantac
-pre natal vitamins
-birth control pills
-prednisone just reduced to 5mg
-placquenil 200mg twice a day
-humira injections once a week
-xanax 5mg at bedtime, once in a while during the day for anxiety
-zanaflex 6mg, muscle relaxer for fibro
-restoril at night
-ambien cr at night
-probiotics
-nutritional supplement called ambrotose
-vicodin or percocet for pain

I'm open for suggestions!! The docs seem to be clueless! I,ve been through teh gamet of fertility tests, 5 unexplained miscarriages of chromosomally healthy babies. Infectious disease testing-one side note, my body did kill the hep C virus which is somewhat rare and it was after that that all the problems started. Thyroid is ok but my parathyroid is lightly elavated but they are not concerned at the moment. My chloesterol is high, something like 237 but they aren't dealing with that either right now. Upper endoscopy, bdominal cat scan, barium swallow with samll bowel follow through all ok. Stool sample was negative for bugs but positive for lots of yeast. A zillion blood tests and most everything is normal and the stuff thats slightly off they say isn't causing any problems. All I do is go to work and go home and collaspe on the couch. We don't even go out to dinner anymore. I'm 36 not 90!

--------------------
Taking it one day at a time.....

Print Remind Me Notify Moderator