No Apparent Reason

[Raleigh]

I'm currently undiagnosed, but IBD is suspected. Overall, I feel pretty miserable much of the time. However, I sometimes have 3-5 day periods where I feel pretty decent. Then it goes back downhill again; usually to my normal "status quo", if you will.

I had one of those good periods a few days ago, and then all of the sudden, it ended. But this time, things got worse than the usual "status quo". The past 3 days I have felt absolutely terrible; nausea, bad diarrhea, rectal pain, fatigue, muscle/joint pain, and a little dehydration.

For those of you with uncontrolled Crohn's, and those who remember how things were before treatment, did you have similar experiences with symptoms waxing and waning for no apparent reason? Or conversely, were your symptoms pretty consistent?

I always try to figure out what caused the worsening symptoms, but I'm realizing more and more that most of the time, there is no specific cause that I can point to. Any insights would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

Brian

 

[Beach]

You might start a food journal. From that you possible could find a connection to a food or foods that cause you grief.

That's what I've been doing since the first of the year. So far so good with my microscopic colitis. I seem to be zeroing in on a few trouble making foods for me. It's been a slow process but the gut is doing better and energy levels have been higher since I began.

 

[Raleigh]

Thanks for the reply. The one thing that I forgot to add is that I don't eat. I've actually been on TPN (IV Nutrition) for 5 years. So diet is actually one area that don't have to worry about. That's why it's so frustrating, because I can't blame it on the most logical explanation.

 

[Rebecca85]

What about stress? I used to find that stress had a pretty instant reaction in my guts- for example telling a child off at work could cause stomach cramps. Or it could be a bit more subtle, like if I didn't sleep well one night I would feel worse for a day or two.

Also other health matters like having a cold could influence how my guts felt.

 

[Raleigh]

I'm the same way when it comes to sleep. I have to get at least 8 hours or my gut pays for it. I tend to sleep about 10.5 hours each night lately, which isn't normal.

The one thing that I can think of is that I've had some lingering sinus congestion after a cold that I had about a month ago. I was thinking that maybe the post-nasal drip is causing the nausea, but I'm reluctant to believe that it is the cause for all of my symptoms, because I feel worse now than when I was actually sick with a fever.

I just get worried when I feel this bad, because last time I felt like this I ended up in the hospital with sepsis and a 104.3 fever. It was never confirmed where the infection came from, but I was having severe abdominal pain during the incident.