Thursday, November 18, 2010

Side effects of hormones or...ulcer?

Last night I suffered what was quite possibly the worst stomach ache I have ever had. This has happened a few times before (each time of course was the worst stomach ache I've had) where the pain was so severe I was in the fetal position, propped up on my knees and elbows in bed. Weird thing is, each time it has happened we've been traveling. Unfortunate for us!

Kurt and I took a careful look at my lifestyle and routine last night, in an attempt to self-diagnose what was going on. The only major changes are a) I eat a LOT more fruit than ever before (a smoothie every morning and fruit at night) and b) I am under an exorbitant amount of stress.

Kurt said, "Ulcer. You have an ulcer." He is positive it is an ulcer. When I got my first stomach ache a few months ago, we thought it was a side-effect of one of the two hormones I am on. Although, a stomach ache is not a potential side-effect of either of the hormones, it was the only thing that made sense.

I've kept a journal (food, side effect and lifestyle journal) over the past couple months. So, since I was in the fetal position crying for 3 hours last night my first chance to google "ulcer" was this morning. My sister always makes fun of me for self-diagnosing on the Internet but, I have to say the symptoms and causes really do match my symptoms and recent lifestyle choices and events.

I have a doctor's appointment that I intend to bump up. I can't handle another of these stomach aches. They're indescribable. Anyone out there know anything about ulcers?

3 comments:

  1. I had a stomach ulcer in high school several years back. It was from taking pain medication. The directions said to take it with a meal, and I was not. It is the acid in your stomach eating a hole in it. Try pepto, or something alkaline.

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  2. Thanks for the tip! Anything I take I take as instructed...and don't take any pain meds currently. And actually, the more we talk about it and more we read about it, the more sense it makes it is an ulcer. Going to get into the doctor next week. I cut out dairy completely from my diet and several month later totally incresed my fruit intake. And I'm not gonna lie, in the past month my stress and drama level has been ridiculous.

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