I went to my gastroenterologist today. The appointment’s purpose was to follow-up on my eosinophilic esophagitis, which is actually doing a lot better on the ranitidine and on the rotation diet. I’m hoping it continues to improve as my allergens die off. We have also been working on doing a thorough clean of our house, which we just haven’t gotten a chance to do since we moved in (we do clean, just not a thorough job around the whole house every time). I am going to go see Dr N tomorrow (allergist) and I’m going to ask for specifics on the testing (like what chemical they tested for the “house dust,” even though he only did food he should know), so hopefully I’ll know exactly what I need to know to better control this EoE thing. Right now, not having throat spasms daily and not having choked in months is a plus! A huge plus!

Anyway, that is not the stuff from the GI appointment. I talked to my GI about the pain I’ve been getting in my abdomen, that comes and goes and is rather intense, and my chronic and persistent nausea which has been getting worse. Yesterday, I had chips and salsa… the same type of chips (Tostitos tortilla chips) and salsa (Tostitos chunky, medium) that I’ve been eating for an extremely long time. Immediately after eating (like, I swallowed and this started), my upper intestine area started to burn. I figured I was having my digestive issues again, so I finished the salsa. But the burning was so bad and lasted for so long that I was seriously debating about going to Urgent Care instead of waiting until this morning. It subsided after a few hours though, just as suddenly as it had come on. He felt around my belly and thinks my intestines are just being overly sensitive and spasming. He prescribed an antispasmotic medication to take as needed to calm down the spasms, and he seemed stumped about the nausea still.

I had found information, though not much, about how pancreatitis can cause digestive difficulties and severe nausea. Even though I don’t have any of the things that normally cause pancreatitis, the ultrasound tech that did my echo said it looked enlarged. I’d never followed up because I just didn’t have the time. However, with my nausea getting worse, and after more research about pancreatitis, I decided it was necessary. Stuff I was finding made it sound as though pancreatitis could be fatal without treatment; that kinda lit a fire under my butt. When I asked my GI about it, he said “Well, it could cause that. It’s very rare, but you have a lot of rare syndromes.” Finally, a doctor that hears hoof beats, thinks horses, and then sees the zebra in front of him and decides to check for more! I pretty much only have two doctors that think that way now, without me pretty much forcing tests. So, now I’m being setup for an abdominal ultrasound. Not sure if they’ll be able to maybe take a peek at my intestines, just to be sure it’s just IBS. I’m kinda really hoping they don’t find anything, but I almost want them to find something that is an easy fix and will make me feel better. Pancreatitis is definitely a scary concept for me, but at least it’s treatable (non-experimentally, and not just treating symptoms). I’ve had abdominal ultrasounds before (cyst issues), so that doesn’t even make me uneasy. I’m just uneasy about the results. I’ll keep you guys posted, but I may not have results for a while. If they don’t find anything urgent, I won’t be going back for three months.