I have been sick with different illnesses since April, some are still going on. What do I do?

Question

I am a teenager and since April (2006) I have had a lot of health problems. I began getting a lot of hives that would come and go and I got an infected hive on my elbow, then c.dif from the antibiotics for that, and then a yeast infection in my mouth. There was more but I can't really remember them. After the c.dif cleared up I continued to have abdominal pain so I got an upper endoscopy and after I discovered blood in the toilet (not due to anything i could think of) i got a colonoscopy. Both tests showed nothing wrong. To this day I still get hives occasionally, and I still have abdominal pain. My doctor said the abdominal pain was IBS(with just pain) caused by a disorder of my autonomic immune system that is triggered by stress. To add to all this my back has been hurting my really badly lately especially in the evening and at night. I have had scoliosis for as long as I can remember so I think that's the reason for the back pain. I tired everything for the pain but nothing worked.

Answer 1

If your doctor said it is triggered by stress.. listen to him... Go see a psychologist and see about some anti-depressants. If this does not help go back to the dr. and tell him that you are still in pain and that he HAS to do something... I know what it feels like to have a disorder than no one can figure out and I've been living with it all my life... it really sucks... but when it flares up there isn't much I can do except take pain pills and wait for it to end. I really hope your situation turns out that they can find what is wrong. Wishing you luch *hugs*

Answer 2

They're starting to recommend that people with IBS, or IBS-like symptoms be tested for celiac disease, which is an intolerance to gluten (wheat, rye, barley and oats). A lot of people with celiac were misdiagnosed as having IBS for years. (18 years for me). It takes an average of 11 years for a person with celiac to be diagnosed.

Here's a webpage by the National Institutes of Health on celiac -
http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/celiac/

And another from the Mayo Clinic -

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/celiac-disease/DS00319

If that starts sounding familiar here are a couple of message boards for people with celiac and other gluten intolerances.

http://www.glutenfreeforum.com
http://www.celiacforums.com

You can also be intolerant to other common foods and get IBS-type symptoms. Soy, corn, eggs, yeast, dairy, etc. can all cause major issues. You may want to think about keeping a food/symptoms journal and see if you can identify the culprit(s).

There is also a rash that goes along with celiac disease called Dermatitis Herpetiformis that you might want to look into.

There are also lots of us who have had pain issues related to gluten. It sounds bizarre, but I had pain and mobility issues, to the point where I could barely walk, for 2-3 years. When I went GF, all that pain went away within a week.

You describing IBS along with pain and skin issues makes me think that it's suspicious for celiac.

Whatever it ends up being, I hope you feel better soon.

Nancy