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JQuinton comments on Open thread, 11-17 March 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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I have a medical issue I'm hoping I can self-medicate with and not have to go to a doctor and get prescribed pills to treat.
When I was in the military, I had my gall bladder removed. It turned out that I actually didn't need my gall bladder removed because the pain that caused me to go to the doctor in the first place persisted after its removal. Since it was during the military there's nothing I can do about this misdiagnosis and now not having a gall bladder has led to another inconvenience: If I'm hungry for too long I get really bad stomach cramps and/or "the runs". I've tried to prevent this by self-medicating with ginger ale or Tums but those don't seem to work; the only thing that does seem to work consistently is drinking liquor before I eat if I've been hungry for an extended period of time.
I don't want to have to drink in order to not get these stomach aches, and I have no clue why drinking liquor would work. Is there something else I could use that would have the same calming effect on my stomach?
Even if the VA didn't want to give you partial disability, have you talked with veterans' advocates? They might be able to help you get compensation.
If ginger-ale doesn't work, maybe try a teaspoon of dried ginger root powder dissolved in hot water. Tastes pretty good, but its more effective for nausea than cramps.
For the runs, try immodium over tums. Tums will only help with acid reflux, and they don't even do that very well. Immodium will harden your stool.
I'd bet that the liquor helps for its muscle relaxant properties. It doesn't meet the no doctor requirement, but a good friend of mine with the same problem of horrible stomach cramps if he doesn't eat for too long was solved really well with a drug called "Donnatal". It's very low-dose phenobarbital with belladonna alkaloids. It's like a miracle cure for him. He takes it when he feels like it might be starting and it goes away. No side effects for him except slight dry mouth. Also makes it stop after it's started. Might want to try it out.
When does he take the Donnatal? Is it with meals or any time he is getting hungry?
He's had it for so long, he's typically able to tell when its starting, but before it gets very bad. He'll just take it at that point and it stops it from happening. I suppose it would be possible to take it if you were just hungry, but it seems to me like a better option in that case would be just to carry a snack bar or a protein bar around and just use the Donnatal if you feel like your cramps are coming on.
A doctor will of course be able to give you real medical advice. This is just anecdotal, but the no eating causing stomach/intestinal cramps sounds very similar.
Any thoughts about arranging things so that you can eat often enough?
The problem consistently happens at breakfast, since sleeping 8 hours is 8 hours of me not eating. The only way this would work is if I wake up in the middle of the night and eat a full meal.
It might be worth doing some research at Chris Kresser's blog-- he's got respect for science and for individual variation, and a huge commenter base-- that last increases the odds of someone with the same or a similar problem.
My wife has this exact symptom set with her removed gallbladder. She has not found any reliable treatments/habits. Not helpful but FYI.