Like many suffering from unknown maladies, my story is a work in progress. I have always been sensitive to pollen, but within the past few years my body has decided to go into overdrive with respect to allergies. Two years ago I relocated from central Oklahoma to the Dallas, Texas area. Both locations are notoriously bad for seasonal allergies, but any suffering I had in Oklahoma seems to pale in comparison to my symptoms in Dallas.
When I relocated I was under some pretty severe stress. I was making the move for my husband to attend law school, which meant I was leaving my family, friends, and job behind in Oklahoma to start over in Texas. My husband actually moved three months before me, since it took a while for me to secure a job and sell our house. My friends in Oklahoma kept telling me "they didn't know how I was doing it" and that "I was going to make myself sick". I listened, but felt hopeless because I still needed to get everything done and finish the moving process. In the meantime, my stress built to crazy levels.
I got to Texas and started a new job that I knew on the first day wasn't right for me (I'm still in that job, unfortunately). I had to learn how to balance my guilt about leaving Oklahoma with my excitement for all things new in Texas. Within months of my move, I was feeling horrible. I always had a stuffy nose, itchy eyes, and sneezing. I also developed occasional hives that would appear on my jaw line at random times (always in the same place). A couple of times my entire jaw felt like it was swollen, which was confirmed one morning when a co-worker saw me and pointed out how puffy the bottom of my face was. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I suspected allergies so I made an appointment with a local allergist.
When I went to the appointment he tested 48 environmental allergens on my back. I was moderately to severely allergic to 44 of them. Dogs were one of the only things I am not allergic to, which I am thankful for because my furkid means the world to me. I was given some allergy medicine and told to consider immunotherapy, which would consist of three vials of allergens weekly for up to five years. This seemed daunting (and expensive to someone on a law school budget) so I put the thought in the back of my mind and never followed through. I had also mentioned to the allergist that I was have stomach problems - lots of indigestion - and he just told me to take a proton-pump inhibitor and see if it helped. I did take it, and it helped a little, so I just shrugged off the fact that allergies might be a cause. I was a little disappointed I hadn't been tested for food and insect allergies, but I didn't think they were really my problem and I wasn't real fond of the allergist to begin with so I didn't go back and request more tests.
In the meantime of dealing with my allergies, I began to have severe anxiety. I attributed the anxiety to all of the stress I had been under, thinking that what my friends had warned me about finally caught up with me. I started having occasional panic attacks (which, if you've never had one, are absolutely awful). This was all happening in spring of 2010, coincidentally when the outdoor allergens were at their highest. I suffered through the entire season, never feeling quite right but not knowing what to do differently.
In late summer 2010 I had finally had enough of the anxiety and panic attacks. I was feeling depressed and hopeless because I had felt so bad, so I went to my primary care doctor and nearly burst into tears telling her how I felt. She immediately diagnosed me with General Anxiety Disorder and gave me a prescription for Lexapro. She also gave me samples of Singulair to try for my continued allergy problems. The first night I took the drugs I had the worst panic attack ever. Luckily my husband was there and calmed me down - once he got me to repeat the words "this is just a panic attack" it's like I completely snapped out of it. I've learned to use that trick in subsequent attacks to stop them in their tracks. The second day I took the medicines I didn't feel right either, but I avoided panicking and made it through the night. The third day I decided to take the drugs at separate times to see if I could isolate the problem. I took the Singulair first. Within ten minutes of taking the pill, I was sitting on the couch feeling like my world was ending and I was falling into a black hole of depression. One of the side effects of Singulair is depression and suicidal tendencies. I immediately knew I could never take that medicine again. I took the Lexapro later in the evening and though it had some annoying side effects of it's own, I didn't have any more of the panic attacks.
I took the Lexapro for six months. In that time I felt a million times happier. I suffered some bad eye pain, gained about 15 pounds, and had some crazy dreams...but mentally I was much better. After around five months I started experiencing fatigue though. I got to the point where I could barely make it through a work day before I had to go home and sleep, and I could easily sleep for 12-15 hours. I wanted to work out, cook new meals, be with friends, etc...but I was just soooo tired. I was only taking 5mg, which is half of the minimum dose. Apparently I am really sensitive to medicine. I don't recall having as many allergies or stomach problems during this time, but maybe I just didn't pay as much attention to them. It was literally impossible for me to have a negative thought on that medicine (another reason I wanted to ween off...sometimes I felt a little like a robot without emotions).
I stopped taking Lexapro at the end of January 2011. For the next five months I was just fine. The spring 2011 allergy season in Dallas was horrendous, and I suffered usual symptoms, but they didn't seem to bother me as much. Then came summer.
In the summer, my stress spiked again to new levels. My husband and I had problems that took us to the brink of divorce (and back). We were quasi-separated, living in different places but working through things on our own and with a counselor. It was not a happy time. My anxiety came back full force and this time I tried to deal with it by focusing on taking care of myself and exercising. I joined a dance studio where I learned that I absolutely love Zumba and hip hop classes. I started going several times a week, which was probably a shock to my system since I hadn't worked out that much in years. I also tried a supplement called 5-htp. It is a mood enhancer that works by increasing serotonin. The first time I took it I felt great - it had the same effects as Lexapro. However it seemed a little strong, so I bought some pills that I could cut into smaller doses. I took a small dose a couple of different times. I noticed some stomach discomfort afterwards, but had read that was to be expected because it is also a dietary supplement and used for weight loss. In the meantime, my problems at home continued. The final straw was a screaming argument at (not with) my husband. By the time I got done yelling, I was holding my stomach in pain. Once I calmed down the pain went away, but it was striking how bad it suddenly got.
Within the next week, I noticed that my stomach wasn't feeling quite right. I had a lot of indigestion and dull pain after eating. During the next week, the pain progressed to excruciating abdominal pain after every meal. I would eat dinner around 6pm, and within two hours be in so much pain I could barely move. It lasted like this for 6-8 hours, so I would be up until the early hours of the morning trying to get past the pain. Stomach medicine didn't help much at all.
Within a few days I went to my primary care doctor and told her about the pain. She tested me for H.Pylori to see if it might be an ulcer, and the test came out negative. She sent me for an abdominal ultrasound the next day, and it came back clear. Five days later I was back in her office. The pain had seemingly moved further down into my lower right quadrant (i.e. where the appendix is). It was still the worst after eating, but by this point it was dull all the time. After telling her my symptoms she sent me to the ER for a Cat scan. She didn't want me to wait because she was afraid it was appendicitis due to the pain migrating and since we were going into a weekend she said I would likely end up in the ER anyway if the pain continued (and that I had better not try and wait it out at home). So I went to the ER and had an insanely expensive CT scan done (thank goodness for insurance...though I still owed a decent amount). The CT scan came back normal. Figures...
The ER doctor told me I needed to get to a gastrointestional specialist as soon as possible. So I called my PCP and asked her for a referral. I had my GI appointment scheduled with only a few days to wait. The GI's first idea of my problem was Celiac Disease. In case you don't know, Celiac Disease is an allergy to gluten and gluten is in nearly everything. I flipped out after that appointment. All of my favorite foods contain gluten - breads, pizza, pasta, donuts... everything good (and unhealthy, of course). The GI sent me off with orders to do multiple blood tests and also to report to a hospital for a "double procedure" - endoscopy and colonoscopy - within the next week. So I did everything she asked (the "prep" for a colonoscopy is by far the worst part).
The procedure results and biopsies came back normal. However, one of my bloodwork panels came back abnormal. On the Inflammatory Bowel Disease panel I tested positive with a specificity for Crohn's Disease. What is that, you ask? Crohn's Disease is an incurable inflammatory bowel condition where any part of your digestive track can be affected. Symptoms could be pain (like I had), diarrhea, weight loss (which I also had - at this point I had lost 10 pounds in two weeks from not eating). Symptoms of Crohn's Disease also can occur in other areas of the body, causing joint paint, rashes, etc. Since my PCP doctor's office had called and told me that a test was abnormal, and subsequently faxed the results to me at my request, I was prepared for a bad diagnosis when I went to visit the GI doctor for the follow up. I took my husband with me (by this point everything was better with us - he had been taking care of me for weeks in my sickness). I'm glad he was there, because after she told me she thought it was Crohn's Disease I needed a shoulder to cry on.
She also told me I had tested negative for Celiac Disease, so that was a relief as I had been really worried about it. However I asked her if I could go do bloodwork for food allergies, just to make sure there isn't something I'm eating that could be causing problems. She agreed that it would be a good idea and sent me away with lab paperwork and said she would call to talk to me about my next step...whether it would be to start medicine or to do another test called a capsule endoscopy.
Which brings me to where I am today. Sitting on my couch, totally stressed out again, and about to start "prepping" for tomorrow's capsule endoscopy. I received a call from my GI doctor yesterday (Saturday) morning saying she had just reviewed my food allergy lab results, and lo and behold, I have food allergies. And guess what I'm allergic to? Wheat (so just like Celiac Disease, my favorite foods are now off the table) AND corn (umm, corn is in practically everything). Also peanuts and walnuts (neither of which I care too much about - they're just an added inconvenience). Tomorrow the capsule endoscopy will help determine if I actually have Crohn's Disease in addition to the allergies (there is an 85% chance I do), or if no ulceration is found then they will rule out that diagnosis for now.
Until today I felt positive that the capsule endoscopy would come out negative for Crohn's, but now as I sit here in pain for the first time in weeks (apparently my stomach doesn't like the Egg Beaters and cheese I had at breakfast) I'm now starting to think the diagnosis might have some validity. So I guess I will find out soon.
In the meantime I have a day before I can eat any more food (yay for liquid diets!) so I'm trying to find things to eat that are wheat-, corn-, and peanut-free. And trying not to cry. And on top of everything, my environmental allergies have been wreaking havoc for weeks. I'll make it through this, I know. This is just without a doubt the biggest challenge of my life...
