Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Possible Symptom??

Hello everyone ;)

I had a fun Christmas, hope you all have as well...

But in the ely afternoon on the 25th, my somach got really tight inside, and I accually got cramps (I tried to say that as least feminin as i could). Now it's not uncommon for my back pain to upset my system in the way of having the runs to the can. But my guts all twisted up so bad I was ejecting eveything my system had to offer in massive amounts,from both directions.
I'm 6' 2" 180lbs normally, after 3 days of fluid rejection I now wiegh 160lbs. I said " self this is not looking good" so off to the hospital I went.

I was sooo dehigerated the had to give me IV a muscle relaxer in the buttoz to loosen my inerds up. liquid gravol into my IV and some anti imflamitories to make it all settle enough to allow me to take in fluids agian.

now i know that they(being the doctors) don't like me suggesting anything, or at least I'm tired of the rejection to the AS theory. So I thought I'd ask around first largly cause they told me it was a heavy case of gastral intestinitise, and when I looked that up it seems to be related to things like stress and food poisioning. So I'm assuming stress because the rest of my family eats the same food I do, or at least the same fresh turkey before it all started ;) It's also considered and inflamitory condition, which get me ringing on the AS bells.

Any thoughts ?


....Shawn

Some possible things to look up as causes are Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. These are generally chronic, not just one case.

Hope this helps

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Kristin

Wish I could offer a definate awnser, but I can put my two cents in. I frequently (almost constantly) have stomach pain. Just slight, not anything like what you were describing. The only time I had symptoms like that was when my gaul bladder konked out. I was expelling much from both directions too, and the only thing that would help it was pain medicine, nausia med did nothing. The docs were very supprised about this untill they found out that it was the gaul bladder.

Has everything settled now for you? If not you might want to have them check out your gaul bladdder and appendix. Wow, 20 lbs in three days, thats tough. I'm sorry you had to go through this, I hope you are feeling better now.

Hope this is of some help

Daniel


Keep on keepin on Kicking some AS

thanks Dan, so far so good I tackled a whole box of KD (starting light) and all is well. The IV revitalized me, what a senstation of feeling your body acctualy drinking from your viens. It felt like taking in water after a marathon i sprang bak real quickly after it was all said and done. I'll et brat for a day and then hog down and strive to get he wieght back. I out eat my 400Lbs friend just triying to keep my 180lbs, and right now I'm real hungry so I think they solved it ;)

I 100% agree with Krystyn, especially the Irritable Bowel Syndrome........

Sorry to hear you're having such troubles! I hope things work out for you in the near future, take care and keep us posted if you can.

Christine

Some days I feel all rung out...

Hi there!

Hope you are feeling better soon!! IBS....colitis......gallbladder....all possibilties. I had gallstones last year in my first trimester...and that is when ALL my problems began. Tender tummy now.....cannot handle all the foods I once enjoyed. After that was dx'd with AS......then colitis .....costochondritis.....TMJ........and other little what=nots!!

Hope you get an answer to your problems....what did the docs say??? Do you have an official dx to your health woes???



Toodles!
Angie

Hello LadieBudgie..
Thanks for the reply.

>Hope you get an answer to your problems....what did the docs say??? Do you have >an official dx to your health woes???

Doc said it was gastral intestintise bigtime. I'm fine now...well comfortable and eating a drinking again. As for what do th docs sy about AS, well I'm the one the mentioned the possibility. The only reason I suggest it is that my father in his early 30's had the same back problems, but his nervous reaction to the pain was hives (the an alergy).My father had his pain dismissed for years, same city i guess. So I'm knida in the same boat and I hear alot of people here have been here to. My father to this day has a DX of DDD, and nothing more. His spine is all fused he's had several sergeries, or patch jobs finling down calcium, replaceing the odd destroyed disk ect. So when things started happing to me, I looked up DDD wich is a form of OS, wich doesn't match his condition, yes primary OS of the spine would look accurate in an early AS state. But his life and his symptoms and problems. I know them well i watched them. and when i come here you people all have the same story as he does. When it comes to myself it's like trying to tell the teacher I have already read the book, and she doesn't care and I'm reading it again anyway. But unlike my father in his early 30's, I had bones fude in my feet when I was 16.for some unexplained reason "it just happens some times". They had to remove an entire joint from a toe. I tell them all these things I give them all the clues, they can see the damage in the bones scans, my PT watches me infalme while I do my streches with concern. But still nothing.

The moral of the story, you can lead a horse to water, you can shove a hose down it's throught, and attach it to a fire hidrant. But you still can't make it drink !!!!!!
unless it wants to.
......Shawn

Hi, Shawn:

Years ago, something sounding like 'gastral intestinitise' was thought to be caused by stress, but most of the medical community has since discovered that there can be several causes, not even one of which is even remotely related to emotional stress.

Most AS sufferers do have some degree of bowel involvement that is either mild IBS/IBD or more serious UC and up to CD (3-4X more likely in smokers with AS). The doctors tried their stress nonsense out on Carol Sinclair for many years before she discovered the basics and wrote her "The IBS Starch--Free Diet," which was years before she discovered that her primary condition is AS--the IBS affliction just being a more prominent manifestation.

Taking NSAIDs will likely make any alimentary issue much worse and, in my own case, these drugs accelerated the progression of my AS considerably, as I developed stomach ulcers, bleeding intestinal ulcerations, colitis, proctitis, and diverticulitis (these are each inflammatory conditions not always caused by AS but usually made worse by having it and vice versa). Fortunately, no recurrence in about the ten years since I quit experimenting with doctors (just trying to empirically determine which one was the worst of the bunch).

What you have is already something quite serious and it can evolve into a condition that is worse still, especially with the level of 'care' you are apparently receiving.

Myrrh resin probably saved my life once (it is available at most good health food stores, if only in the its tincture form in 'Swedish Bitters'), and certainly soothed my tract many times after.

I hope that you will read the AS Dietary Primer in the Medical Center section of kickas; some of the mechanism is explained therein.

Good luck in the coming year,
John

Strangely enough I have read that people are being prescribed the nicotine patch for UC and CD flares now. Sounds bizarre, have heard it works... Anyone else heard about this??


********
Kristin

Did you have a heavy meal (it being Christmas) before this started, or have you been eating foods you wouldn't ordinarily eat? I suffered for years from what I thought was IBS and then accidentally I found out what was causing all my misery. It usually followed a bit of dietary indiscretion, like a heavy holiday meal or too many treats, or a meal high in fat, and I would develop awful stomach cramps, to the point where I would pass out from the pain, and then have ongoing diarrhea/vomiting, and ended up hospitalized for it about 3 times, always DXed as gastritis. But then I was in the hospital (had polyradiculities, an autoimmune reaction to a recent bout with the flu, and that's a whole 'nother story, wouldn't wish it on anyone, it's like total body paralysis) and it hit big time. I was hooked up to a heart monitor and my heart beat rapidly slowed -- caused quite a stir in ICU I passed out (fainted) and when I came to I had what seemed half the hospital staff grouped around my bed, all those white coats scared me more than the episode, thought maybe I was dying or something. So they called in a cardiologist, thought it was a heart rate problem, maybe needed a pacemaker, but the cardiologist DXed me in no time. I have what is called an immature vagus nerve, the nerve that runs pretty much from our brains through our torsos and regulates such things as heart rate. Well, mine never grew up. With babies you can slow a rapid heart beat just by stroking this nerve. So now I have medication to control the symptoms and prevent the fainting spells and the horrible nausea/vomiting, diarrhea. At the first sign of a problem I take my pill and all symptoms disappear in about 15 minutes. I also have learned to watch my diet (well, I'm also on a DMARD called Arava which can cause painful abdominal cramps too if I pig out or eat too much fat), so I eat 4 or 5 small meals a day, drinks lots of water, no carbonated drinks, stick to a low fat/low carb diet, and I haven't had a problem with this in the last five years. It's an obscure thing but might be worth checking out. Of course if it was only one bout my guess would be a kind of food poisoning, so easy to get and so common nowadays, especially in our meat supply (chicken and ground beef are major culprits) but if it continues you might ask the doc about this too.

Cheryl


Sugar Magnolia wishes everyone a Happy New Year! Woof!