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Comment by ng12 | Hacker News Reader

> Damn that sucks, not much you can do except manage

This has been my entire experience with gastroenterology as a field. Once they rule out cancer there's really not much they can do for you. Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the revolution in our understanding of the microbiome.

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I’ve been throwing up for a year straight. Recently it has gotten worse. The only thing that seems to help is weight loss. I just feel like there’s shit in the back of my throat multiple times a day (which I mean, there is) but the only way to clear it to my body’s satisfaction is throwing up. Gastroenterologist took a look and said everything looked fine. Thanks, doc, very helpful.

Not sure why people flagged the guy who said if I smoked a lot of pot it could be causing this. He’s totally right, my doctor did in fact ask me if I smoke a lot of marijuana or anything, as it can cause excessive vomiting. But no, that’s not why in my case at least. If someone could unflag him that’d be cool but I apparently can’t.

If you smoke a lot of pot it could be that cannabis hyperemesis thing people are getting

My teenager kid is having stomach pain, mostly after eating food. This has been going on for 3-4 years and we have seen 2 different doctors. They have done stool test, endoscopy and colonoscopy. However, everything is clean and they can not find a cause or treatment. So my child keeps taking pain killer almost every day and avoid eating when she is out. Unfortunately, they do not have any idea what might be going on while obviously something is wrong.

Does that happen with all food? Have you tried an elimination diet? Unfortunately chronic conditions like this are an absurd amount of trial and error in many cases.

Yes, it is not really predictable. There are certain food that is worse like pop-corn but we can not say that a certain group of foods trigger it.

That’s really unfortunate. I second what other people have recommended about attempting an elimination diet. I went on a ketogenic, minimal processed food diet of foods and it resolved a lot of these issues. I went back to eating like crap and the issues came back with a vengeance.

My philosophy is try what the doctors say and if that doesn’t work it’s time to expand your search space. Like troubleshooting code.

Please only take painkillers continuously under the direction of your doctor. A lot of people don’t realise this, but NSAIDs like ibuprofen and other types like paracetamol / acetaminophen do negatively impact your liver and / or kidneys, especially after repeated use. Always read and adhere to the label of the medication you take.

You should get a gastric-emptying study done. I had similar symptoms and was diagnosed with gastroparesis. Unfortunately, it's one of those "not much we can do" situations, but knowing what the underlying issue was allowed me to find a diet that got me back to a semi-normal life.

I’m not a doctor, and I don’t like to be that person pretending they know anything about other people’s problems, but two things come to mind, both long shots, that may plausibly help with the sensation of something in your throat: Gaviscon and Chloraseptic. Gaviscon (supposedly) reduces reflux by changing the physical properties of the contents of your stomach. Chloraseptic literally numbs your throat.

They’re both available OTC. Read the labels before using :).

You could also try seeing an ENT.

Interesting. I was thinking of the mechanics of what's going on and it always feels like there's gunk I can't cough out in the back of my throat. Tried some Mucinex today, going to take it tomorrow morning and see if it prevents my early morning puke (which is mostly dry heaving as there's nothing actually in my stomach). I never ever feel nausea while I'm laying down or sleeping.

I do worry that with Chloraseptic I'm treating the symptom but not identifying and mitigating whatever the cause is, but I might try it to help keep me from throwing up! My wife recommended it the other day but I dismissed her out of hand. I really should listen to her more.

I just recently watched "Diagnosis" on Netflix. One of the cases seems similar. It may not help directly, but it's an all around interesting show, might want to have a look.

Have you tried an elimination diet? Did one a decade ago and it really changed my life.

I think the vomiting might be a combination of food sensitivities causing problems and allergies. I ate nothing but meat and cheese for a few days (as I know I don’t react to these) and felt much better, but then I tried to stop taking my allergy medications and I started throwing up again.

I’ve lost 80 pounds before doing elimination, then 60 the last time (if I go back to SAD, I gain weight again).

Today I took Mucinex and Flonase and Xyzal, and haven’t thrown up yet. But there’s definitely some sort of food that I’m eating that exacerbates whatever is already happening. Thanks for the advice.

I had horrible sinus headaches and post nasal drip. It bothered me so much when a doctor would prescribe me flonase, just treating the symptom. It was all food, try chicken and rice. I live off meat and dairy now, but dairy can give people mucus so I'd cut it out initially. Also with the meat, avoid deli meats and bacon in the initial tests as they have sodium nitrite, turned out to be a trigger for me. Gluten too. Look at all the FODMAPs. Carnivore diet is a good shotgun approach.

Do you have an introduction to it? ie something that covers which food groups are most likely to be the culprit, what kind of grouping to make etc?

For digestion issues it is usually a FODMAP, gluten, lactose, fructose, legumes. Everyone is different though so I try to not bias things. Chicken and rice, I'd recommend cutting out caffeine and sugar but it's a bit extreme, just mind what you drink for fructose and lactose.

did the same thing almost 5 years ago, changed my life as well!

Consider getting tested for lyme disease if you haven't already.

has a pharyngeal pouch been excluded?

I couldn't swallow pills before, my gastroenterologist performed surgery which corrected that. She also proscribed pills which address my GERD

That's fair. Guess I'm mostly talking about the other end of the system :)

There are actually biologic treatments for Crohn's/UC, not everyone responds but they produce remission which can spare or prolong time to surgery for many.

it's perfectly okay to cut out everything that triggers GERD, see fiber menace

My life would be significantly less enjoyable without the foods that trigger my GERD. I'll stick with the small, cheap pill that lets me continue to enjoy carbonation, hot drinks, spice, chocolate, acidity, dairy, fried foods

If that pill is esomeprazole / Nexium or other proton-pump inhibitor, do note that repeated use is correlated with early onset osteoporosis.

My doctor informed me of the side effects when she gave me the prescription.

My advice is to go to microbiome experts like Dr Borody, he has a lot more tools to help like fecal transplants and antibiotica for Crohn (long story, look at his videos). Borody is the one who invented the triple antibiotics therapy for the helicobacter pylori.

had the same experience. spent a couple thousand on colonoscopy and when the results were benign and it was "just" IBS, the gastroenterologist basically told me to go fuck myself. And eat more fiber.

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