Re: Nausea med/Nineteen

[Guest guest]

--- " roth32179 " wrote:

> I asked the dr and he gave me compazine, which really helps. They

> cant seem to find a reason why I have this nausea - just had a gall

> bladder ultra sound and an endoscopy. Wish I knew what it is that

> causing this

Hello, " Nineteen " -

An ultrasound of the gall bladder is not enough. It will only show if

there are actually gallstones. However, your gallbladder can be

working improperly even without gallstones. If all the symptoms are

pointing toward gallbladder, you need to insist that your doctor send

you for a " hydascan " of the gallbladder. This is where they track the

movement of bile through the gallbladder into the stomach over the

course of a couple of hours. It is not a painful test at all, but it's

the only way to see if the gallbladder is working properly.

You need to be seeing a gastroenterologist if you are not already. A

general practioner is not qualified to diagnosis these kinds of

problems. I'm speaking from experience, because I went through almost

two years of horrific, constant nausea and vomiting, causing severe

malnutrition and weightloss, as a result of gastroparesis (paralysis of

the stomach). They misdiagnosed me dozens of times, and even subjected

me to completely unnecessary gall bladder surgery. I suffered for

months on end for no reason other than judgmental doctors who weren't

qualified - one even suggested it was all in my head!

Also, be aware that compazine is an anti-psychotic. It is used for

nausea, but it is a VERY powerful drug with LOTS of very dangerous side

effects. Almost ALL anti-emitics are at least derivatives of very

dangerous anti-psychotics. If you use them long-term you are at risk

of some extremely bad consequences. The doctors never tell you this

stuff before they pass these drugs out like candy.

I was given anti-nausea meds for months on end because they couldn't

diagnosis the cause of my problem so they just got lazy and treated the

symptoms - and I wasn't even given anything nearly as strong as

compazine! - and as a result I ended up with a terrible condition

called tardive dyskinesia, which is basically medically induced

Parkinsons.

I was lucky because I had informed myself and recognized the symptoms

early before they became completely disabling, which can easily

happen. But the bad news is that the symptoms are permanent - I have

to live with them for the rest of my life, even though I was taken off

the drug that caused them immediately. Some people even get worse and

worse for years after stopping the drug that caused TD. And I'm not

talking about a little shaking hands - it can cause horribly painful

dystonia, which makes the body freeze into a permanently cramped

position so that it is not only useless, but excruciating. Imagine the

worst charleyhorse you've ever had, all over your body, and it never

stops. That's TD at it's worst. Mine is limited to my mouth and jaw.

My tongue and jaw spasm, my jaw makes uncontrollable chewing motions

until the muscles cramp from overwork, my tongue runs around constantly

inside my teeth until it becomes raw and bleeds. You can't stop these

motions. The neurons in the brain are no longer firing right. It's

almost impossible to talk when it's at its worst.

I'm not trying to scare you, but you must be aware that EVERY anti-

psychotic - and therefore every anti-emitic (anti-nausea med) - has the

risk of causing TD with longterm (over three months) use.

If you have to have relief, ask your doctor for the weakest possible

anti-nausea med that will give you some relief, and even then don't

take it constantly and don't take it for very long at a time.

The better solution is to keep fighting to get a diagnosis. Don't give

up just because you got some relief from your symptoms with a new

drug. There are too many really bad things that can cause nausea, and

even though they are all very rare, they should all be ruled out

immediately.

BTW, the cause of my gastroparesis, and all those months suffering, and

my now permanent TD - it was all due to a bad reaction to Oxycontin,

which I had taken for years without a single problem. But one day I

woke up and my body didn't like it any more! Opiates are notorious for

causing slowing of the gastrointestinal system (that's why we get

constipation from them!), and in my case it just went to the far

extreme and shut down everything from my esophagus down. As soon as I

switched opiates, the gastroparesis disappeared. But even a little

slowing can cause some nausea, however.

So I would recommend looking into your medications - try working with

your doctor to switch meds, or titrate down to get off some meds

entirely for a while to see if it makes a difference. Anti-seizure

drugs like Topamax and Lyrica and Neurontin can cause stomach problems,

for example, as well as opiates. Sometimes it's a combination of drugs

that is at fault, and not one med in particular. You need to eliminate

all of those possibilities.

Hope something in here helps.

Cheryl in AZ

Moderator