I've been to the ER the last two nights, with two crappy Dr's who keep misdiagnosing me.

[merwin]

I've had IBS symptoms for years, sweating, extreme pain after eating, diarrhea, etc that comes and goes for a few months at a time. Also chronic fatigue. I was diagnosed Celiac in April after months of issues. Stopping gluten helped, but there's still been a lot of issues. I got put on Ritalin about 3 months ago to combat the chronic fatigue, which worked wonders but irritated my IBS a lot, so my Primary Dr changed me to Adderall a week ago or so, which worked even better, with no side effects at all.

I drink caffeine pretty regularly, and had no adverse effects from it. Well, on Thanksgiving about 30 minutes after dinner (with a glass of Mt Dew) I started getting really clammy, sweating, couldn't walk right, could barely talk, cold limbs... tachycardia. So my wife drives me to the hospital and I get seen immediately by a Dr who without even listening to my history just blamed it on the Mt Dew, gave me Metoprolol (beta blocker), and discharged me. Told me to stop drinking caffeine with it (which is ridiculous since I drink caffeine all the time without any effect... that was actually being light on the caffeine). Anyway, after I got home I started hallucinating and couldn't focus properly, my guess is from the beta blocker.

Yesterday, I was fine all day, took my Adderall without incident, felt fine all day (even drinking a caffeinated soda), then went to dinner. Took the beta blocker before dinner, Had a steak and some potato skins, and yes, a soda, then went to see Australia. Got about 2 hours into it and I was shaking like mad and couldn't walk or talk straight. Sweating, cold extremities. Went back to the ER, he ran some adrenal and thyroid blood tests, but nothing came up on the quick ones.

From the MOMENT he entered the room, he was being a complete ass to me. His first words to me were "You have celiac's disease, right?" Yes, I replied. "You know how I know that? Because I reviewed your entire file." He said it with a tone like I wasn't telling him the truth or something. He apparently read 10 years of history in under 10 minutes). He was completely condescending the entire time, blaming the entire incident on me having not even a full glass of soda. Claims to be the "resident endocrinology expert". I looked him up and he's just a regular ER doc. My wife and I both wanted to hit him several time during the visit. On Thanksgiving, they gave me a jug for a 24 hour pee test. Well, I woke up about 10am yesterday and had to literally run to the bathroom because of crazy intestinal issues. I told him I didn't have time to run across the house to get the jug and try to fill it up while I was taking a crap. His response? "Well when ARE you going to do it?". And he told me to go see a psychiatrist.

Once the shaking calmed down, I was still disoriented and couldn't walk straight. He actually discharged me shuffling out of there running into stuff, hanging onto my wife. Told me to stop taking Adderall, which I did now. This morning I took my beta blocker, had a meal and got a huge headache and wasn't feeling right at all. We went out to dinner tonight and after the dinner it got worse.

Now I'm stuck at home feeling clammy and like my head is about to explode and basically afraid to go back because they're all assholes and just want to treat people as quickly as they can and kick them to the street. I have stopped taking the beta blockers because I can't even function at all on them.

Anyways, thanks for listening. I just had to get some of the frustration out.

[elleng]

1. Where are you,

any other ERs around?

[merwin]

2. I'm about an hour north of Seattle, in Bellingham.

No other good ER's outside of there... however I do happen to work with someone who's wife is fairly high up in the nursing staff and will know who in the hospital to work with. But that won't be until Monday. I think I can live with the headache and GI issues until then.

[Warpy]

3. Call the doc who prescribed the Adderall

and run the symptoms by him.

You might be experiencing a nasty synergistic reaction with caffeine and Adderall which might be decreased by switching to non caffeinated soda. It might also be a reaction to the Adderall.

You can develop serious reactions to drugs at any time, even after taking them safely for years. It's an avenue worth pursuing with the prescribing physician.

[merwin]

4. But only after I eat?

I drink caffeine throughout the day normally. Not a huge amount, but kind of steady. And even after I stopped the Adderall AND the caffeine, after I ate lunch and dinner I had a much milder version of what I had been experiencing the last 2 days.

My guess is some toxin buildup in my body that Adderall is magnifying. The only thing I can think of is tyramine, as Adderall is a mild MAOI and I am very sensitive to it as it is (as is my mother, and her mother).

[Warpy]

5. Your doc is your best resource

and you need to run all this stuff by him/her.

[merwin]

8. I had just gotten a new doc because we moved.

I was almost to the point of switching, because I wasn't sure if he was a "find the cause" or "prescribe the pills" doc, and I need the former right now. I went in and told him what happened (he thought the caffeine thing was bogus), and he got this look on his face that I do also when my brain starts spinning. He's OCD like me, and he started going through my history of GI problems and pulled out Carcinoid Tumor, which fits all of my symptoms to the letter.

I'm feeling very odd about things. I've had these problems so long that the thought of finding out what it is makes me happy... but the thought of it being cancer scares me. This manifests in me joking around about it with my wife, including the Arnold Schwarzenegge line from Kindergarten Cop "It's not a tumor!"

[mopinko]

6. er docs

in my experience, the er doc is a strange beast. if it isn't going to kill you in the next half hour, they never heard of it.
DH was taken to the er with a "possible heart attack". one of the best hospitals in the country. within about 1/2 hr, they had determined that he didn't have a heart attack. but since he has some risk factors, they ended up keeping him for 12 hours, to do a 12 hour blood work up, and did a stress ekg, the whole 9 yards. nope, no heart attack. well, he asked, then what was it? we dunno, but it wasn't a heart attack. he checked in the next day with his internist, who told him, over the phone, that it was a classic gall bladder attack. sure nough, had a couple of beautiful stones that he keeps in a jar to this day.
strange creatures. i got more stories like that. see you regular doc. er docs don't diagnose anything that moves slower than a bolt of lightening.

[merwin]

7. Update... my doc thinks it may be a carcinoid tumor

Doing the urine tests for it now and seeing my GI doc again on Wednesday.

Wish me luck!