Multiple Symptoms...What's going on?!?!

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big_swinns

New member
This is going to be long..........does anyone have any idea what is going on with my husband?

My husband was diagnosed with food allergies over a year ago. He had a blood test done which said he is allergic to wheat, corn, soy, and peanuts. For about 6 months he maintained a strick diet, but he was still having problems....breathing issues, severe stomach pains, uvula would swell up from time to time, weight gain, sleeping issues...a little bit of everything it seemed like! He also had a general blood test done at this time and his thyroid level came back a little low, which basically got brushed off. After his problems continued our family doctor referred him to a gastro doctor and he had an endoscopy done last June and was diagnosed with GERD. He was put on meds to control the GERD which helped a ton!! He started experimenting with foods and found that he was able to eat the foods he is suppose to be allergic too. Now fast forward to about September.....he started drinking LOTS of coffee and tea with LOTS of sugar added....all of the sudden he started having issues eating the foods he is suppose to be allergic to again. He stopped drinking "sugar" coffee and tea and all of the sudden was able to eat whatever he wanted to again... but not for long. It seems like when he has a lot of sugar in his body it causes certain foods to not be able to break down, so the result is a allergic reaction. He started avoiding all foods he's allergic to again as well as products high in sugar. Now......he eats hardly anything, but is still having symptoms.........Just today, the only thing he has ate is a salad and he is having extreme pains under is ribs, breathing problems, and tingly/numbness feeling throughout his body (which could be from the breathing problem). Oh yeah...and he is gaining weight again. He'll gain extreme amounts and it seems like he eats hardly anything! I keep telling him he needs to go back to the doctor, but he's lost hope that they won't be able to figure it out and just toughs it out, but it scares me....

Does anyone have any ideas what is going on? I'm sorry this is so long...I'm sure I missed something....he has gone through so much! I really want to get this figured out because we have a baby on the way and I'm sure I'll have my hands full with her and I'll need his help!!
 
Maybe hypothyroid complicated by vitamin deficiencies? Hypothyroid is often an autoimmune disease, not something to brush off, because one autoimmune disease (left untreated) can lead to another.

How was he diagnosed as allergic to so many foods? It's extremely rare outside of major malabsorption syndromes, was he ever tested for Celiac Disease? Or Pernicious Anemia? PA can cause numbness and tingling, shortness of breath, a burning sensation or swelling of the tongue and/or uvula (so can hypothyroid), and a host of other symptoms.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000569.htm
 
Yes, I saw that in your first post - I'm sorry, I should have been more specific.

I was thinking of the two blood tests for food allergens, ELISA or RAST. RAST is older but still preferred by many doctors. RAST is good at detecting immediate allergic reactions (Type 1) while ELISA can detect even delayed immune reactions.

Your DH's multiple recurrent and worsening symptoms make me think of an underlying malabsorption problem*, one that might be better tested by a gastroenterologist using ELISA than an allergist using RAST.

(*Commonly called "Leaky Gut Syndrome")
 
sounds like multiple things going on.. for one, GERD can cause many of the symptoms such as the pain and difficulty in breathing (I was treated for asthma for awhile before they figured out I had GERD). Sodas, coffee, tea, can all cause problems with GERD acting up.
I'd also follow up on the thyroid, if he indeed does have low levels that would lead to easy weight gain.
 
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