This is actually a story about my late husband , who just passed away on June 17, 2013 at 50 years of age. He had wasted away to 94 pounds, he used to be 210 pounds, 5’11”.
He literally died from having chronic diarrhea for over 15 years which led to wasting sundrome, malabsorbtion syndrome. He also was diagnosed with Pancreatitus, Diabetes Type 1, Hyperthyroidism, COPD, Congestrive heart failure, ( he had 3 stents), SMA syndrome, anemia, bouts of ketoacidosis and gastroparesis.
His symptoms began in the late 80’s with the symptoms of Diabetes, drinking large amounts of pop even during the night, and eliminating after every meal, and bouts of extreme anger because of severe stomach pain. In the 90’s , he had 2 heart attacks a month apart and 2 stents were put in but he never mentioned his other symptoms to the Dr.(too proud).
As time went on he would have increasing bouts of stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea daily. Was finally diagnosed with type 1 Diabetes in 2005 and hyperthyroidism in 2008 but nothing stopped the diarrhea which by now was so bad he was going 20-25 times a day, and also had vomiting. Since 2005 had been hospitalized over 30 times because of complications with dehydration etc.. from the vomiting and diarrhea. Since July of 2012, (when they diagnosed with SMA syndrome and installed a peg tube in his stomach for nutrition , and were able to manually remove the blockage and the vomiting finally stopped but diarrhea continued. Also had a J tube put in his stomach in January instead of the peg tube) has been in and out of the hospitals and nursing homes. He was put into Hospice in late May of this year and was allowed to go home, where he finally succumbed to whatever this is.
He endured a constant nightmare of test after test with perios of being NPO, (nothing per oral) for weeks and months at a time, was constantly hungry because he was starving to death. His bowel movements smelled like vomit at times and were a dark green color where you could actually see his pills, food etc.. It’s as if nothing was being broken down and was just rushing through his body. We even took him to U of M twice and they couldn’t figure out what was causing it. We were getting ready to take him to the Cleveland Clinic on that Wednesday but he died that Monday. Too late at that point!
I have all his health records and test results and am willing to give them to any health organiztion or Dr. for study to possibly find a diagnosis because our 23 year old daughter is now beginning to show some of these symptoms and we’re beginning to panic!
