Severe Nausea

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My 19 yr old son has severe nausea since Nov 2016.  Drs. at Northwestern in Chgo and Mayo in MN are clueless.  He's had a complete GI workup, esophagus/stomach, reflux, brain scan, stomach emptying, upper GI, lower colonoscopy, MRI, CT scans, all kinds of tests taken with barium, blood work (i'm sure I'm forgetting some) and all came up normal.  He's lost 30 lbs.  The nausea gets worse after eating.  He's on zofran and ativan, which helps a little.  He has always had a fear of vomiting, but we all think its something else.  Blood work indicated nothing wrong with endocrine system, but only blood work done in this area.  He had his appendix removed 2 yrs ago, but all was fine.  He was like this at 12 yrs old, took protonix for one month and went away (coincidence?) until 19; but all current tests indicate no acid reflux.  He's not taking protonix for about a week now - not helping so far, but understand it takes a while. Meniers (vertigo) disease is ruled out, so is crohns, gastritis, gallbladder, ulcers, etc.  Cancer ruled out.

He has not been on any antibiotics recently; although he does have springtime allergies which doesn't cause nausea.

He also sustained an eye injury during water polo in late Sept. 2016 and there's a cyst on inner corner of eye.  Dr. says if it doesn't bother him leave it.  But I've read where if it's putting pressure on back of eyeball, it could cause nausea.  Anybody familiar with eye pressure causing continued nausea?

Can teeth veneers (in front) cause nausea?

Any body know anything about the vagus nerve?  Nervious system causing nausea?

Looking forward to hearing from any one who can help.  He's a freshman in college away from home and is suffering.  Last week, he had only two complete meals and paces in the bathroom for 2 hrs until the nauseousness becomes manageable.  He loves school and has lots of friends...he just wants to feel normal.    PLEASE HELP

0 likes, 4 replies

4 Replies

  • Posted

    Hello,

    Yes. Has he had an eye exam? I have severe chronic nausea, I'm about 5 years older. At his age he is more likely to have issues with things like autoimmune issues, an ANA cannot detect all autoimmune diseases. Some of these diseases cause issues with the eyes which can cause glaucoma or uvietis. I have both. Uvieties can start mildly as well, I was having a lot of issues with my vision (on top of a few other things) that made my nausea awful.

    Might be worth checking out. It took doctors almost 2 years to figure out what was actually wrong with me, I had a ton of normal tests, don't lose hope.

  • Posted

    Sometimes appendectomies can disturb the intestine. The nerves in the stomach can retain a memory of the trauma of surgery.  There are many more nerves in the intestine than in the spinsl column.
  • Posted

    I am so sorry this is happening to your son. Can it be plain old anxiety? Good to hear all tests come back clear.

    Anxiety can really do that to us. How long has it been the nausea? Mine last almoated 6 weeks. Then it just went away. I was told it was gastritis

  • Posted

    I can let you know what I am missing on the investigation list:

    - SMA (superior mesenteric artery syndrome) - known to develope after abdominal trauma or adolescent growth spurt

    (- H.pylori and celiac is surely looked at)

    for autoimmune disease manifestation they probably are missing intestine problems like diarrhea or constipation, abdo pain (there is e.g. AGID = autoimmune gastrointestine dysmotility -but gastric emptying was normal in your son)-

    and also for e.g. lupus manifestation in intestine,

    but for autoimmune channelopathies of the nervous system there could be grounds (channel antibodies, acetylcholin antibodies and so on, but Mayo knows them all)

    yet, we haven't had anyone testing in that direction either and symptoms would fit. Guess it is so rare. ??

    All the best

    we are trying after ondansetrone (zofran)- which works only like 1-2 points and if nausea is about 8/10 one can still not function with a 6/10 which doesn't do a thing for vomiting anyway- prochlorperazine tomorrow. 

    Nausea is so debilitating.

     

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