Help - ER with abdominal pain, long post

[healthymusician]

Hi Shelley et al:

Haven't been here for a while, but looks like that was a mistake since I spend most of Wednesday in the ER. Let me give you some background:

1. I have had painful but light periods for the last three years. They have gotten progressively more painful and more light.
2. At times, I throw up without warning, have agonizing "butt cramps", and overal intestinal pain (note - NOT uterine pain)
3. I have gone to acupucture for this problem. She believes I am "cold" and need to move things in my bowels and uterus by taking herbs, doing acupuncture, and eating warming foods.
4. I have avoided painkillers until the past few months, when I couldn't tolerate it anymore. They have definitely helped, but not this last time.
5. I have had the severe butt cramps and intestinal pain at other times when I wasn't having my period.
6. I have been to the western doctors for this before, out of desperation to stop the pain. Once they said it was "just painful periods, totally normal, take advil or get on the pill" and once they said it was food poisoning. Yeah right, food poisoning every month (ass**oles)

So this time I got my period on Monday, took a few advil, stayed in bed, used the heating pad, and was completely fine. That night I made salmon and and green chard for dinner, and ate a large piece of the apple pie I baked for the holiday. Felt a little grumbling after the pie but just thought it was nothing. (oh, I used way too much butter for the apple pie, and I found a small patch of mold in the butter stick but I didn't use that patch)

Next morning I feel fine. Go to work, eat lots of spicy peanuts (from Trader Joe's) and another large piece of apple pie. About 2 hours later I was on the floor, my entire abdomen cramped and bloated. I made my way to the bathroom (the work bathroom is absolutely disgusting) and threw up every last bit of apple pie. I can't stand up, and it doesn't feel right to lay down, but somehow I make it to my office and shut the door and lie down, hoping it will go away. In the past drinking fennel tea has helped. This time it just came up with the apple pie. I got desperate and called for help. My acupuncturist said she would see me and I also made an appt w/ Kaiser.

I went to acupuncture (a friend drove) and she said it was all about being cold. My tongue was pale, I had been struggling with a cold for the past two weeks, and I was highly stressed. She says this is why my period is so light (1 1/2 days) and my bowels freeze up. She "warmed" me up, and I felt a little better. I still decided to go to the doctor thinking they would have some magical painkiller for me.

I went, and he tried to perscribe me motrin. At this point I lost my sh*t and told him about himself, at which point he perscribed me an IBS med called belladonna and had me get a blood test. I swear you tell any male dr. that you are on your period and that is all they hear.

After that I went to therapy, not wanting to waste my weekly time and $$. My therapist thinks these kinds of physical ailments are manifestations of emotional pain, and so we went there and I cried A LOT and accessed my four year old hurting inner child. Don't know how much truth there is to it but therapy is amazing. I felt better, but still not great.

For dinner I drank ginger tea and chicken broth with cayenne.
THat night things got dramatically worse. In the morning I crawled to the phone to call Kaiser again and they directed me to the ER. I went, and when I discovered I would have to wait forever and pay $100 I just asked for a regular appt. This new doctor said that it sounded like IBS and gave me a new perscription. In the meantime, I got a message from the first doctor that sida my blood count was high and that if I got worse to go to ER. So I left that message for the 2nd doctor and went home. Took the new meds (Bentyl) and tried to sleep, but wasn't getting better. 2 hours later the 2nd dr. called and said elevated blood count did not correspond with IBS and that I needed to go back to ER. So I went back and stayed there all night. THat is when the real nightmare started....

They gave me an IV and some pain meds that start with a D. THey completely knocked me out, make me more dizzy that I could ever imagine, nauseas, and still. I was forced to drink 144 ounces of fluid with contrasting dye for the CAT scan. I threw it up, (right on the nurse, who was really nice) but still got the CAT scan. THey were worried about appendicitis, but the CAT came back with nothing but a ovarian cyst (great).

So they let me go. My stomach feels much better. No more fetal position, agonizing pain, tenderness all around. BUt the effects of the drugs haven't worn off. I have diahrrea. I am dizzy, groggy, tired, and nauseas. I feel disgusting. Yesterday I ate two pieces of toast, three natural lime popcicles, vegetable broth, and then at 9:00 chicken curry and rice b/c I was starving. Everything went down fine, which a few grumbles. TOday, however, I came back to work, and ate a different kind of (unnatural) lime popcicle, which I promtly threw up, and have since been sipping ginger tea.


I am sorry this is so long.

My questions are:

1. What is happening to me? How can I prevent this from happening again? I am really bad with staying on the cleansing diets, so I need something I can actually stick to.

2. What do I do now, to deal with all these nasty drugs in my body and stop feeling so nauseas??

3. What do I do about this stupid ovarian cyst?

THANKS EVERYONE. YOU ARE AMAZING

[shelley]

OH my I'm so sorry you're having such a rough time of it.

Have you had your iron levels checked? Low iron levels would account for digestive issues and light periods.

I wouldn't bother with acupuncture unless it's taking away the pain, it isn't going to do anything for your digesetive distress or ovarian cysts.

I'd have to know a lot more to know what was going on with you, but I wouldn't rule out a bad gallbladder, especially if ginger helps the nausea. If you want to speak on the phone, let me know!

[healthymusician]

Shelley, thanks so much. I would love to talk on the phone. Do you want to email me your #? My email address is jkhenry21@yahoo.com.

I don't know if my iron is low. Is it a blood test I take?

[shelley]

Yes. I always always always recommend getting a complete physical once a year, especially when you're symptomatic. You can't move from point A to point B until you know what point A is! A physical tells you what all your organs are doing - whether they are working okay. Early detection is half the battle in many serious illnesses. It's easy enough to add in Iron/Ferritin levels to the basic metabolic panel.

When you know your iron levels we should talk. My e-mail is a hoot:

lady_shelleycat@yahoo.com

[healthymusician]

Hi Shelley,

Thanks for your advice. I got my iron tested, and they said it was fine. I went in for an ultrasound for the cyst yesterday. It has grown tremendously and now looks like what they call a chocolate cyst or an endometrioma. So basically they think I have endometriosis but I need a more accurate ultrasound for them to tell me. Does this mean excess estrogen? But my periods are so light, so that doesn't sound like excess estrogen? It does explain the vomiting and the painful bloating and intestinal spasms that leave me completely immobile. Is this all candida? When I did the candida diet for three months my period pain was no better. What should my next step be?

Thanks Shelley, you're the best.

[shelley]

where exactly is the cyst? the left side or right side? or both sides?

[healthymusician]

Hi Shelley,

Left side.

[healthymusician]

I also have twitches in my left leg. If I take a deep breath, or something is emotionally relevant for me (my leg twitches a lot in therapy) my left leg twitches. I have often wondered if that had any health implications.

[shelley]

Oh yes, it's relevant. it means you're genetically challenged when it comes to your potassium/zinc balance. Left-sided ovarian cysts and/or testicular cancer is always associated with excessively high zinc levels, as is left-sided sciatica. Twitches and spasms too.

You may want to make the Potassium broth, eat avocadoes, bananas, orange juice, Cleansing Drink, and perhaps take some zinc antagonizers, such as Vitamin C and calcium/magnesium. Take only RDA of B vits - or don't take them at all if you don't need them - as they will increase zinc uptake. If you get hyglycemic symptoms, up your salt intake.

It could be you had a very high dose of pesticides or some other fat-soluble toxin without knowing it sometime in your life, or your liver is simply congested, or both! that causes excess estrogen. Best thing is to keep cleansing the liver and bowels, and do detox baths.

[healthymusician]

Thanks Shelley!

I willd definitely look into the imbalance. I was thinking of doing Julia Chang's protocol. Think that will help?

[shelley]

Yep. A clean liver helps everything and her tinctures don't have any estrogenic herbs. Her Vitex may help you too, talk to her about it. She gets down on some foods because of their estrogen content, which isn't always necessary, some people do just fine with plant estrogens, but the potassium is what's really getting them.

[healthymusician]

Hi Shelley,

What do you mean the potassium is getting them?

I ate an avocado the other day to see how it felt, but my left leg pain just worsened. I can't figure out why that would happen?

Okay, going to start liver cleansing soon. Thanks for your advice. I will keep you updated!

[shelley]

Because as I've said you have to watch out with your potassium/zinc balance. Ovarian cysts can be caused by too much potassium or too much zinc due to a genetic predisposition. So sometimes it's due to the minerals, such as potassium, NOT the hormones.