No Celebrating for Me this 4th of July!

Yes, I know, its been a while since I've checked in...but in all fairness, its very frustrating when there isn't much to report and I don't have very much to tell you.


Here's a basic overview for those of you that are new to my blog and don't want to read all the posts, or just a refresher for those of you returning. There are so many people that have similar, if not exact symptoms as myself and if I can assist in helping one person find a treatment that works, maybe it will help others too.  I've been writing this in hopes that something I've been through, a test, medication or anything may allow you to talk to your doctor about it and see if it can help you or someone you know that is going through this.

First off, I had bariatric surgery in 2008.  Although I think this surgery contributed to my problems, I'm not certain it is the cause, since the true symptoms didn't start until later after my gall bladder was removed. In spring of 2009, I had started getting sick after ever meal and when I say sick, I mean nausea, vomiting, and extreme abdominal pain.  After avoiding eating and pushing it off as long as I could, since I was in fear of losing my job and health insurance if I needed to go on medical leave, I finally ended up in the emergency room in such severe pain, they determined my gall bladder needed to be removed. The same doctor that performed my bariatric surgery removed my gall bladder and was convinced this would take care of it...but it didn't, it was much worse and till this day I still can't describe how bad it feels except to say it would rate a 12 on the 1-10 scale, and as of today the doctors have still not found a medicine to stop these episodes that leave me curled up in a ball, in tears until it finally subsides, which may be within an hour or may last as long as 3-4 hours. Up until this point, both surgeries were laproscopic, leaving me with minimal scaring. In October 2009, since all the tests were coming back negative, this same doctor decided to perform a open exploratory surgery (leaving me with a scar from just above my pelvic bone, all the way up above my belly button--no more options of a  bikini for me). He stated he removed lots of adhesions (scar tissue) and that this should correct the problem.  Unfortunately, during all this and being on medical leave for so long, I lost my job, along with my health insurance and because of our countries economic problems, my husband had already lost his job previously, leaving us with no income, except unemployment compensation and no health insurance. Plus my employer fought paying unemployment, which meant I had to appeal and did not receive any income until almost 3 months later. I even swallowed my pride and tried to get state assistance, only to be told that with our unemployment compensation we were making too much money...even though we were ready to lose our home and months behind on all of our bills and the only thing keeping us afloat was my 80+ year old father-in-laws generosity, which he couldn't afford either.  The same painful episodes returned, along with a constant pain that was now 24 hours a day, which Tylenol couldn't even take the edge off of and I had no where to turn, since I had no health insurance, leaving me to just live through it, as it continued to slowly keep getting worse.

For 1 1/2 years I researched on the internet.  I tried heating pads, ice packs, cutting out dairy, then gluton, wheat, then sugar...all to no avail. I tried multiple vitamin options and home remedies I found online, but none of these options helped either.  By May of 2011, the pain was just unbearable and I finally called my original surgeon again and begged for help, since I still had no insurance. His office manager referred me to a different hospital's resident clinic, that he also worked out of and they approved me for assistance. For three months, I was passed from one resident to another who each put me through lots of tests, but were not authorized to prescribe pain medications, and all the tests continued to come back negative. The clinic was so disorganized, no one knew what the other was doing and my original surgeon, who was supposed to be supervising what these residents were doing had no idea of what was happening with my care. In order to keep a very long story shorter I'll skip some of this, but needless to say, he told me it was all in my head, I left his office, and he actually sent me a registered letter informing me, I was no longer his patient and they revoked my assistance and expected payment on the services rendered by the residents.  My only saving grace at this point, was that my husband was finally able to find a job and we only had a short wait until the health insurance was being activated.

Once the insurance became active, I went to a gastroenterologist, who was finally the first doctor to give me something to try and at a minimum make me more comfortable, prescribing Vicodin for the pain and also added in Bentyl believing it might be muscle spasms from IBS, but he also referred me to another bariatric surgeon. At this point. the constant pain was still there, as well as I was still having the episodes of severe pain, but now I had constant nausea, was vomiting more than my meals and I was having lots of trouble swallowing. This surgeon did quite a few of the tests over again to verify what the residents from the other hospital did, then preceded to add in a few others, but still..everything came back negative.  Baffled, he offered to do another exploratory (laproscopic this time) surgery to look around inside and see if he could find anything.  Desperate, I agreed and the surgery was scheduled for right after Christmas. ***As a funny side note to all this, during all this time, every time I would lay down in severe pain,  my cat would jump up on the bed, climb on top of me and use his front paws to push down and rub the area in a downward motion that hurt really bad, like he knew exactly what was causing the problems and wanted to help.***  The surgery went perfectly and he explained afterward, that he found and repaired the largest para-esophageal hernia he had ever seen. He could not explain why this never showed up on any of the tests, but my entire stomach and part of my intestine had worked their way up, pushed my esophagus to the side and lodged next to my diaphragm. (***think my cat knew something us humans didn't?)  This was formed from a hiatal hernia, that was left undiagnosed and it was allowed to just keep getting bigger.

Unfortunately, even though the para-esophageal hernia was serious and was adding to some of the symptoms, it did not stop them all and I am still having problems. I'm not sure if this bariatric surgeon couldn't figure out what was going on, or was just too busy to try, but he passed me off to another doctor. So from February to April of 2012 I was passed off from one doctor to another, like a hot potato, as more tests come back negative and no one can solve the problem, but my symptoms are getting worse and the list of symptoms continues to keep getting longer.

Currently, I have an internal medicine doctor, a pain specialist, a gastroenterologist, and a surgeon that are all now working together on my case.  Unfortunately, my insurance company is fighting everything they want to do, including no longer covering office visits, most of my prescriptions, out-service tests, any urgent care visits and I am filing an appeal.  (Even the exploratory surgery that discovered the para-esophageal hernia, which required me to stay overnight in the hospital and that bill alone was $17,000, they only covered $3000, stating it was an unnecessary emergency procedure).  I filed for Social Security Disability in the end of April and still have heard nothing.  So, my doctors are doing what they can, with their priority being keeping me as comfortable as possible and watching the stuff that they are truly concerned over, while finding a solution is basically on the back burner, since their hands are tied because of the insurance company. If I were rich, this wouldn't be a problem, but I would have to win the lotto first, what chances do I have?

None of the doctors have given me a specific diagnosis, but they believe I have abdominal nerve and muscle damage which is causing the 24/7 pain, which there is no cure for.  They decided I am not a candidate for reversal of the gastric bypass, since they believe the surgery would cause even more damage to the nerves and muscles, especially since my body is not absorbing vitamins like its supposed to and they still don't know why that is.  Its been suggested that the episodic pain I have after eating is visceral pain, but they don't currently know what is causing it and no medication can stop it. The edema in my feet, ankles and calfs is getting worse and is now including my knees.  I can't stand for any length of time, walking is painful, stairs are out of the question,  and at times it hurts so bad, I can't walk at all, so I use my office chair that has wheels to roll myself around the house...fortunately we have wood floors.   In the process of trying to manage the pain, I've learned I am now allergic to medical tape too, so using the fentanyl patches didn't work, since they caused a rash and itched so bad. Methadone made me so tired, I could not stay awake, falling asleep sitting up anywhere. Currently I'm on a combination of Neurontin for the the nerve pain; Cymbalta for the muscle pain, as well as depression; morphine and Percocet.  It doesn't eliminate it all still, but he is getting closer, unfortunately with having to take all of these drugs, I'm often dizzy, my depth perception is impaired, I'm often tired and driving is out of the question. 

Here's my current list of symptoms, if you want to do a comparison:

Consistent (24/7) abdominal pain. Often worse at night.

Episode Pain—double-over, severe abdominal pain, usually after I eat
                         —happens about 2-3x a week.

Shoulder/back/arm pain---burning pain---left side—mostly at night.

Chest Pain---about 1 x a week.

Nausea is not constant anymore, but just happens now and then,

Vomiting occurs about 1x a week now.

Heartburn---1-3 times a week.

Bulge that occurs on the right side of my upper abdomen after vomiting or 
                       sneezing/coughing hard…I push it back in….maybe a muscle spasm?

Constipation and diarrhea—alternates consistent

Hiccups -on a daily basis, especially at beginning of meals.

Often feel full with just a few bites. 

Extreme amount of gas---that is causing pressure, which I think is some of the pain.

Edema----legs, ankles, & feet—some days up over knees—most days can barely walk

Low blood sugar ( I have a meter and test it) on average 2-3 days a week.

Muscle cramps—legs, feet, hands

My blood pressure has been running low—
                     over the last couple of weeks 103/62, 101/57

Swallowing problems—mouth is really dry

Urgent need for the bathroom, but often can’t urinate
                  —sometimes have to really “push” to go.

Dizzy Spells—have fallen a couple of times.

Vision problems--Points when my vision in blurry/ double vision left eye.

Current list of medications:

Furosemide (Lasix) 40MG Tabs—1 every morning.

Chlordiazepoxide/Clidinium Caps (Librax)---1 to 2 capsules, 3-4 times a day, as needed for spasms.

Omeprazole (Prilosec) 40MG capsules---2 x a day

Ondansetron (Zofran) 8MG Tabs-when needed nausea

Multi-Vitamin (Over-the-counter)---1x a day

B-Complex (Over-the-counter)—1x a day

Vitamin D (Over-the-counter)—2000IU---1x a day.

Allegra (Over-the-counter)—1 every night at bedtime.

MS Contin (Morphine Sulfate ER) 30MG tablets –3 times a day

Oxycodone/Acetaminophen (Percocet) 10-325MG TB- 1 every 4hours as needed.

Gabapentin (Neurontin)---300MG 3 times a day.

Cymbalta----60MG—1 every night at bedtime

                                                                                  
Well, not much else to say for now.  My pain specialist I see at the end of July and I'm not scheduled to see the Internal medicine doctor until September, but am supposed to call if anything gets worse.  The insurance company is doing nothing more than delaying my own doctors from helping me.  Nice huh  What the hell are we paying $700 a month for?







Sorry to have to do this update:
I apologize to all readers that would like to do comments.  Unfortunately, it was necessary to block comments because I have an immature and ignorant family member that has decided to use this site for fighting grounds between my immediate family and his/her own. They decided it was okay to name name's and bring up personal family issues rather than discuss them with us like an adult.  This site is intended strictly for individuals with severe abdominal pains and issues that are similar to my own and  that are looking for solutions that their doctors may have overlooked or hasn't considered. I won't allow the comments section on my blog to become their war grounds, as it is not what this site was intended for.    

In the future, if you would like to make a comment, please send your comments to my email:  ShariLynnGardner@gmail.com and I will post them all together under one heading, as long as they are regarding this topic.  So please email me and look for your comments there.  Thank you, I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.