Hi everyone. I'm hoping someone on here can help me. This is my first post.
My husband was diagnosed with Lupus last year (after about 10 years of achy body & joints off & on, plus a host of other symptoms). He's been having bouts of constipation (to the point of having a colonoscopy, which showed a lovely, healthy colon).
Finally got the constipation under control, but something else is happening now: there are nights when he's up most of the night throwing up (no constipation & hasn't eaten anything particularly spicy). It gets to the point that there's nothing left to come up other than mucus & bile. It seems to start with just a bad case of indigestion and turns into the vomiting.
Could this be caused by the lupus or could there be something else causing it? Also, he was diagnosed several years ago with both GERD & IBS.
He refuses to go see a doctor & I'm about at my wits' end and afraid that this may be something very serious. He's stopped taking all of his meds (Plaquenil, Trilipix for high cholesterol, Lexapro) and only takes baby aspirin, naproxen, and a magnesium supplement.
My name is Martha and I don't have lupus -- my husband does.
He is 48 and was diagnosed last summer after spending almost a month in bed, unable to hardly move (he'd get out to go to the bathroom, but that was about it). I had to drive him to his PCP (a 2 hour trip from our home in north GA), only to have the PCP tell him "I think you may have lupus -- you need to see a specialist." Since we don't have insurance, I found him a wonderful rheumatologist in Seneca, SC who very quickly diagnosed him.
You name, and my hubby has probably had it -- aches, skin lesions, digestive tract problems, sight issues, even blood clots (10 years ago, in his lungs).
He took the plaquenil for a while (as well as the methotrexate), but has stopped since "he doesn't feel bad now." Won't go to the rheumatologist regularly (only when he doesn't feel good), saw the eye doc only once (and needs to go back), and doesn't want to go see the gastro. doc for his digestive issues (not even to follow up on the colonoscopy he had about a month ago).
Before he was diagnosed with lupus, he was also diagnosed with GERD and IBS and suffered from hyperthyroidism.
I reckon I need all the advice I can get, especially on how to deal with a reluctant patient.