Pain & Rock Star No More (Part Two)

When we walked into the new gastro's office, my heart actually sank. He looked like a strict headmaster. He looked like he had a whip behind his desk and was ready to whip any of his patients who dared to question him.

He asked me about my problem once we were seated. After explaining to him about my pain, the treatments that were administered at the ER on Monday and Wednesday night, the medication that I had been ingesting, he asked me multiple questions. He was very meticulous and very thorough. He asked about my history. He went through all the documents/X-Rays/test results that we had brought. (Many doctors do not do this. They feel that it is a waste of time.) He then told me to lie down on the bed and proceeded to press my abdomen. I almost jumped through the ceiling from the pain. He continued to press on the left side and right side and continued to asked me about where was more painful and to rate the pain to him on a scale of 1 to 10. I told him it was 100!

And then he dropped the million dollar statement.

It wasn't GERD.

It wasn't my stomach.

It was my intestines!

The food poisoning that I had during the time I saw Dr Yadav wasn't over.

WHAT?!!?!

The bacteria that is usually the culprit for such poisoning is Staphylococcal Enteritis. You can click on LINK to read up about it. New gastro guy said that some people do not have the usual 'thunder and lightning' (diarrhoea and vomiting - which I did not have) when they are struck with this bacteria. This bacteria then exudes a toxin. This toxin causes inflammation in the intestines (panniculitis - inflammation of the fatty tissues of the intestines). Thus, the severe pain which I had. My intestines were INFLAMED! The bacteria and its toxin were long gone. But the inflammation that was caused by the toxin could not go away.

And the best drug for this is Ibuprofen. One of my enemies. It's an NSAID. Which I definitely could not have.

He said both his hands were tied and he has never come across a patient like me before.

Thus, the only solution would be PREDNISOLONE.

Yup. Steroids.

2 weeks of steroids.

I wanted to scream FML.

I had no choice.

So steroids it was. 6 tablets to begin with. 30mg for 3 days and then taper to 25mg for 3 days until it would reach 5 mg.

He also said GERD would never, ever, ever, EVER cause such pain like this. That was why Nexium didn't work. He did mention that overuse of Nexium can also cause it to be useless. Then it would be time to switch PPI. Even though all of them are labelled as PPIs, different brands are created differently. And by switching to another brand of PPI, the GERD can be controlled.

BUT, he did say long term of PPIs are not good. GERD is a life-long chronic disease. One must learn to control it and if an attack does happen, go on the PPI for 5 days and then stop.

New gastro also mentioned that many times IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) mimics GERD. And the cause of IBS 99% of the time is caused by FODMAP! I wanted to cry with joy. I told him that I had just blogged about it a few days ago! A doctor who BELIEVES in food intolerance (other than Dr. Yadav that is). He then proceeded and showed us the Monash FODMAP book and also the FODMAP app in his smartphone. I had wanted to buy the app a few months back but that didn't happen.

I was just so excited that I finally found a doctor who believed in food intolerance and sensitivities.

And so the Prednisolone journey began.....

(...to be continued)

The beginning of this journey: 1000 Kilometres and Candida

The second part of this journey: Candida & Dr. Yadav

The third part of this journey: Pain & Rock Star No More (Part One)