Tuesday evening I experienced a strangely sick, blocked feeling in my stomach after drinking a green smoothie; kind of like what I've felt in the past if I've consumed too much fat and been dehydrated at the same time; which wasn't the case. The next morning I woke with extreme dizziness and a fever, both of which seemed to last only that day; but the stomach pains continued, and they got worse, especially in the specific place in my abdomen where the appendix is located. I lost my appetite mostly, but was also painfully constipated; and felt like my stomach wanted to move stuff out, so I would eat a few pieces of fruit, but still feel bad.

Come Friday night I was about to go to bed (I don't normally eat soon before sleeping, but I sleep all the time since tuesday) after attempting to treat myself with two papayas, but finding this didn't work. I was in a lot of pain and I happened to do some online research on appendicitis; I thought I just had a flu before that (but no runny nose/sore throat), but I realized all the symptoms seemed to match, and even the 'alternative' sources I found seemed to advise immediate medical attention because the condition has an extremely high mortality rate.

I didn't really think there was anything else to do, so I walked to the hospital. They did a blood test, which came back clean, but, understandably to the people reading this, my white blood cell count was abnormally lower than most (cooked food/meat eating) people. However, the doctor I saw interpreted this as meaning I must have a bunch of white blood cells 'attacking' my appendicitis right now. I had an x-ray, and the technician observed that I was extremely constipated, and assured me this could be the problem; there were no signs on the x-ray of appendicitis.

I was put in a hospital bed, and they stuck an iv in my arm, filled with salene solution and dextrose; my concerns about this were brushed aside. I then waited endless hours untill they did a CAT scan; this, too, did not come back showing clear signs of inflamation or appendicitis; just a little bit of 'fluid' inside. My new doctor told me this is a "very strange case on paper," and that if I really had appendicitis, my organ probably should have ruptured around thursday; but he wanted me to stay another night, so they could take a new blood test in the morning and see how my white blood cells were doing...

The problem is after having been injected with a latex straw full of salene and dextrose; not to mention iodine, and having swallowed a "contrast" medication for the CAT scan I don't think it would be very mysterious if my body showed a higher rate of white blood cells in response to all of that; he said that he isn't to the point of removing my appendix yet, but he isn't ruling it out as a possibility; and since all of the equipment and injections have basically done nothing, he seems to be waiting for either I to get worse 'subjectively' or the white blood cells to come; he also mentioned doing a test for crohns disease. He brushed aside my idea of trying laxatives to clear the compacted stuff, and advised the nurses to feed me "clear liquids" which of course I rejected because all of their liquids are cooked.

I felt really stupid for being there at that point, and so I paged my nurse and asked to just come back tomorrow for the test. Having cycled through thinking I was going to die, thinking I would have my appendix removed, and thinking I would be okay for the last sixteen hours I wasn't really impressed with the "uh..." response I got, and I didn't want that stupid iv in me anymore, or to have my vital signs checked all throughout the night when I'm not really in an emergency situation...

The unfortunate truth is that I have abused my stomach by overeating nuts/seeds. I think some residual effect, along with the fact of something simply lodged in my appendix may be causing this. I really don't want anything to happen to my life, obviously, but I'm wary of just putting myself in these people's hands when they don't seem to know much. I've started to juice feast tonight, and am probably going to supplement with enzymedica enzymes, starting tomorrow; I hope that this will releive the constipation, and perhaps heal me; I didn't pick up smooth move tea, because it said on the box specifically not to take with all of my symptoms and possible conditions. I didn't pass out or have any big adverse reactions the stuff they gave me in the iv/for the tests, so I guess I'm not afraid of surviving a drugged surgery; the doctors said repeatedly that I seem very healthy, except for this pain.

Does anyone have any suggestions or anecdotes, opinions?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2007 04:32AM by dream earth.

a similar thing happened to me a few years ago.
except i had vomiting and bloody diaharrea.
i was also kept in the hosp on iv's and underwent
multiple tests that showed nothing. no diagnosis
was ever made.

the first day i figured out how to adjust the iv
to the slowest drip and eventually my symptoms
disipated on their own.

i surmised that i may have had food poisoning.

any chance the greens in your smoothie were spoiled?

The assumption you made about the nuts/seeds might be correct. My stomach was starting to give me some serious grief until I recently started soaking or sprouting all my seeds. So far, the difference is quite amazing, and thankfully, I can still eat my seeds.

Also, are you getting enough exercise?

fruitgirl, I'm sorry that happened to you; but I'm glad you realized how to manipulate the iv pump, and that you're symptoms just went away without any operating. I've thought about the possibility of my greens being contaminated, but I'm not sure if it explains my symptoms fully.

suncloud, yes; I currently soak my seeds and eat them in small amounts, but I used to seriously binge on them (nuts and seeds) until I would be racked with unbearable pain for hours on end while they tried to leave my system. I walk for about two miles a day, and sometimes hike or harvest; which is enough for me.


The juicing is going well thus far; I already seem to be passing a lot of yuck stuff, but I'm off to the hospital now.

Something else I just remembered that I thought I might pass on to you Dream Earth just in case.

Once several years ago, I ate walnuts for several days that were not organic, and I became very ill, with pains so bad in my gut that I couldn't even stand up straight. I had no idea why I felt so bad. I was given some organic walnuts (it was harvest time), and I ate those instead of the others, and immediately recovered.

After that, I started eating only organic nuts and seeds. But a year or so later, I recognized the same pain after eating sunflower seeds that I'd purchased at the health food store. I took the seeds back to the store and asked the retailer if she knew for sure they were organic (they were labeled organic at the bin). She checked her records, and sure enough, the wholesaler had been all out of the organic, so the retailer had ordered conventional seeds and she'd forgotten to change the label on the bin.

Good luck on your trip to the hospital today. Sounds like you're already maybe feeling a little better (I hope).



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2007 07:59PM by suncloud.

Suncloud, non-organic nuts and seeds are definitely worse; more likely to be dead and even be treated with sulpur-dioxide. Thankfully I haven't eaten them for a long, long time.

My white blood cell counts are still low, so the likelihood of my having appendicitis is nil at this point. I don't have to see my doctor again untill next monday, when he will have the results of some long-range blood tests; hopefully by then my juice feast and resting will have cured these symptoms. If so, I may even keep at it for awhile; perhaps 92 days like Angela Stokes did. It is good to know, in any case, that I have no nutritional deficiencies despite taking zero supplements.

Your experience sounds similar to my daughters experience on raw foods. When we were high raw for about six months my daughter came down with mysterious symptoms about 4 different times. She would get a really high fever with diaherra and vomiting. Her stomach was also sore. I thought she had appendicitis or diabetes. I brought her to doctors and they were clueless. They took blood and everything was perfect.
One time her fever persisted for days and never went away so I brought her to the doctors and they concluded that she had a bladder infection and gave her antibiotics. Her symptoms went away after taking them.
We veered away from raw and dehydrated foods after all these sicknesses happened and they didn't happen again.
A few weeks ago I got a new dehydrator and wanted to delve into raw foods again. After a few days of eating dehydrated and raw foods my daughter got the mysterious fever and vomiting again so...I have concluded that it could of been dehydrated foods but I am not 100% sure. It could be food poisining or an allergy. I am still pretty confused but I do know it had something to do with raw foods as it never happened until we started the raw food diet.

Have you thought about doing an enema?

I'm sorry to hear about your medical problem. Perhaps you'd benefit from a very pure and detoxifying diet for awhile - a diet without oils, heavy foods or nuts. Maybe a juice fast would be good for you. Are you drinking plenty of water? Wheatgrass juice is also good for detoxification.

If you are severely constipated and have a history of constipation, you may have some diverticuli that has become infected.

Diverticuli are little "pouches" that form along the intestine usually as a result of constipation or straining at the toilet and they can get infected with built up bacteria. This can, obviously, get serious and become full-blown diverticulitis.

If I were you I'd clean out, however you feel comfortable doing it.

Why oh why do allopathic doctors take so long to form a diagnosis? and why oh why do they "treat" before they do?

With your symptoms, diverticulitis would be the first thing I'd check for. Not that you HAVE diverticulitis, or that I'm saying that you do, but like all dis-eases, these little "pouches" form in the intestines long before we develop full-blown diverticulitis, and if we listen to the warning signs our bodies give us, there is no reason why we should suffer "full-blown" anything.

I suffer constipation occasionally. If this happens and my stomach starts feeling icky...I do enemas for 2, 3, or 4 days, once in the morning and then once at night. this helps me tremendously. I use laxatives only if absolutely necessary and very seldom and will not use them more than once in a 4 day period. This is just my owm instinct about it.

This week I am doing a salt flush. You may want to look into this in the future, although I wouldn't attempt a flush while in pain or discomfort or while severely constipated. I absolutely hate the salt water and gag the whole way, but it is reputed to be an excellent cleanse and so I'm being my own guinea pig and we'll see.

good luck and keep us posted,

khale

Applered, I'm sorry about the symptoms your daughter was having. Dehydrated foods sometimes do breed harmful bacteria; I hope you can pinpoint the specific food or need of cleansing that is keeping your daughter from trying out raw foods. I've been 100% raw for two and a half years myself, so I know I'm not just having a general reaction to the food.

pakd4fun, Enemas are listed as a contraindication (hazard; something that shouldn't be done as it will worsen) for my symptoms, so I can't do that.

Melanie, I'm on a juice fast now and am drinking water too; I also had a double shot of wheatgrass yesterday when I went shopping. Thanks.

dream earth, when eating blended foods, there is always a risk that one eats too much of something or foods that one's body does not require at a time. Chewing is a much safer option. Usually, when something does not taste good, or stops tasting good, it is a sign to stop eating that food.

Take care.

Gosia


RawGosia channel
RawGosia streams

Khale, that is interesting; I read about diverticulitis several times while researching appendicitis; apparently the symptoms are supposed to be really similar. I don't know, everything I've read tells me not to use laxative herbs or enemas, colon cleanses, etc. with my condition. I originally thought of coming home and blending up a few soaked prunes with papaya and pineapple; and hoping this would clear me out, but now I'm juice fasting even though the doctor told me I can move to solid foods. I don't know; I'm not that commited to juice fasting that I wouldn't try this gentle way of clearing out and seeing if it works; I can return to fasting afterwards. Thank you, I'll think about this all; my doctor didn't mention diver-- at all.

rawgosia, you're right about that; when I'm listening closely to my body, communicating with my stomach while I eat, I've found I only really want about one cup of smoothie; unlike the habit of drinking almost the entire blender full, like I had that night when I was just trying to destress from the day. I didn't expect such big consequences, though.

Well, I blended together the pink part of two very small papayas with about seven prunes last night; it caused me a lot more pain, but this morning I had a movement that was clearly just the papaya and prunes; so I guess I'm not constipated, which is good to know, in any case; so I won't try this later and interrupt something for it. My body just demands a break from food and from my habits around food, so I'm going to do this juice feasting program now. Maybe the doctor will tell me on next Tuesday that I do have crohns disease or some other chronic stomach condition; it makes sense with the way I've been going on for so long; I have no choice but to change if I want to get better. Thanks for the feedback, everyone.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2007 08:38PM by dream earth.

Update:

I think the papaya and prunes actually might have dislodged something in my stomach, because after two days, I started to recover, and now it is like nothing happened at all; I've been for long walks by the river this weekend in beautiful wind and spring sunshine without any pain or worry. My tests, of course, all came back clean; there is nothing wrong, but I'm taking things easy anyway, and keeping up with some casual juicing as it's made me feel good. I'm so glad to be feeling good again, and that I have my health and all of my organs intact.

Wow interesting.... scary... I'm so glad you're better.... and hello! check out the raw foodie diagnosis and prune cure LOL... what a great thread.
Dream earth, I can totally identify with your emergency room experience, that cracked me up... not that your situation was funny, you know what I mean- but that ER scenario, oh god, been there myself... you go in with something mysterious, forget about it... what was it that you said? "I wasn't really impressed with the 'uh..' response I got..." LOL

Glad you were able to fix it!

Ah yeah, good to hear from you dream earth! Great news that everything is ok with your gut!

I've had a few "strange" incidences myself since pursuing a more raw diet. My whole digestive system is definitely not the same as the one I started this journey with. Hopefully its becoming a great deal healthier.

I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better.


khale

Great!! So happy it was just a scare.

Thanks everyone,

sunshine; yeah, I guess that's how hospitals generally are; this was the first time I had ever been admitted to one, and I can hopefully avoid them altogether in the future; I wish the same for you!

khale, I definitely think our stomachs should be better off, either way; someone I know who eats SAD had the same symptoms two months ago, and he had to have an appendectomy which he is only just recovering from (if recovery truly occurs, since my recent reading has implied the organ isn't as vestigial as it is portrayed.) The point being, really horrible things happen to people who don't practice preventative medicine.