Hi, I'm a bit stuck and any help at all would be wildly appreciated.
TL;DR - severely malnourished, undiagnosed, and a bit terrified. How do I know my health is bad enough to warrant a hospital visit, without a diagnosis? Do I have to collapse to know it's gotten that far?
In October last year, I lost about 13kg in 2 weeks. I was 68kg (22.2bmi), and by the end of the 2 weeks I was 55kg (18.0bmi). I have consistently lost weight in the 8 months since then, and am currently sitting at 49kg (16.5bmi). This was VERY unintentional weight loss, but at 55kg I have to admit I was pretty happy (20yo female). Obviously now, I am very far from happy.. I began getting extremely severe cramping, which led to a massive variety of bowel movements (had never had an easy time on the loo anyway), as well as severe nausea that started out as just mornings and ended up as the whole day. Food became a non-option, either because of the intense pain I'd get in my abdomen when I tried, or because I couldn't force myself to try anymore from fear of the pain. It got to the point where I only ate about 100g of food every 3 days, fasting the other 2.
Along with many other symptoms, I talked to a friend who suggested I bring up Crohn's to my GP. It's been a bit of a jumble since then. About a month ago is when I spoke to my GP and he took me very, very seriously and called up the gastro while I was still in session. I am now waiting on an emergency conoscopy in the hopes that that's enough. I also had pneumonia at the time of the visit and so he put me on prednisone for the cough, but was also curious to see what it did for my pain etc. I was only on the pred for a week, but by the second day my abdominal pain was completely over. No more nausea either, just a bit of tightness. It has been a couple weeks since then and the pain is only just starting to rear it's head again, though the nausea has been gradually increasing for about a week.
I've been able to eat incredibly well while waiting for the pain to return, but have still been significantly losing weight on a daily basis (I'm still dropping). I have this insanely loud and consistent grumbling in my intestines that doesn't exactly hurt, but it does kind of feel like a baby kicking, sometimes so hard I can feel it through my sides and back. I've been getting very painful joint swelling, I've lost practically all of my skeletal muscle and can't even muster a 5 minute walk, because I won't be able to walk for a few days after that. Now, I'm beginning to not be able to eat again and I'm terrified - I'm already so malnourished it's not funny.
So what's emergency room worthy? Ive never been, but can only imagine it for strokes or broken bones or accidents etc.. I don't know what I'm supposed to do about malnutrition.
Sorry for the long post, I'm just freaking out a bit I think. Any advice at all, whatever it's about, will mean a lot.. thanks
TL;DR - severely malnourished, undiagnosed, and a bit terrified. How do I know my health is bad enough to warrant a hospital visit, without a diagnosis? Do I have to collapse to know it's gotten that far?
In October last year, I lost about 13kg in 2 weeks. I was 68kg (22.2bmi), and by the end of the 2 weeks I was 55kg (18.0bmi). I have consistently lost weight in the 8 months since then, and am currently sitting at 49kg (16.5bmi). This was VERY unintentional weight loss, but at 55kg I have to admit I was pretty happy (20yo female). Obviously now, I am very far from happy.. I began getting extremely severe cramping, which led to a massive variety of bowel movements (had never had an easy time on the loo anyway), as well as severe nausea that started out as just mornings and ended up as the whole day. Food became a non-option, either because of the intense pain I'd get in my abdomen when I tried, or because I couldn't force myself to try anymore from fear of the pain. It got to the point where I only ate about 100g of food every 3 days, fasting the other 2.
Along with many other symptoms, I talked to a friend who suggested I bring up Crohn's to my GP. It's been a bit of a jumble since then. About a month ago is when I spoke to my GP and he took me very, very seriously and called up the gastro while I was still in session. I am now waiting on an emergency conoscopy in the hopes that that's enough. I also had pneumonia at the time of the visit and so he put me on prednisone for the cough, but was also curious to see what it did for my pain etc. I was only on the pred for a week, but by the second day my abdominal pain was completely over. No more nausea either, just a bit of tightness. It has been a couple weeks since then and the pain is only just starting to rear it's head again, though the nausea has been gradually increasing for about a week.
I've been able to eat incredibly well while waiting for the pain to return, but have still been significantly losing weight on a daily basis (I'm still dropping). I have this insanely loud and consistent grumbling in my intestines that doesn't exactly hurt, but it does kind of feel like a baby kicking, sometimes so hard I can feel it through my sides and back. I've been getting very painful joint swelling, I've lost practically all of my skeletal muscle and can't even muster a 5 minute walk, because I won't be able to walk for a few days after that. Now, I'm beginning to not be able to eat again and I'm terrified - I'm already so malnourished it's not funny.
So what's emergency room worthy? Ive never been, but can only imagine it for strokes or broken bones or accidents etc.. I don't know what I'm supposed to do about malnutrition.
Sorry for the long post, I'm just freaking out a bit I think. Any advice at all, whatever it's about, will mean a lot.. thanks