Son vomiting blood and breath smells of pear drops

[Baffledandbewildered]

My son is 22 and has just been discharged from hospital, for the second time in a many months. He was vomiting blood to the extent his flatmates paniced and called an ambulance.

He is at uni and lives the usual uni life :( . He has never been able. To hold his drink and the night before this happened he had drunk 3 pints. Not that much but apparently it had a strong affect on him .

Also he is tried all the time and keeps losing weight ( not sure if thats down to not eating properly or something else ) . His breath also smells of pear drops ! He does also have ibs and acid reflux .The hospital had to put him on a morphine drip for 2 days due to the stomach pain.

He is now home and asleep thank goodness. Does anyone have any ideas what the problem could be , the hospital are not sure and hes waiting for an enderscope. Thanks for reading :)

Was he too ill for the hospital to do tests? Vomitting blood can be a burst/bleeding stomach ulcer, but he is so young. Did they not at least do certain blood tests for liver and kidneys etc?
How worrying for you all.

Have they ruled out diabetes?

Sounds like an ulcer. The acid reflux can make them more common and vomiting blood with stomach pain definately sounds like an ulcer.

But the pear drops breath, I think thats a symptom of diabetes.

Have they checked his blood sugar ? Pear drop breath says he's in ketosis (ie, burning fat), and that combined with the weight loss is worrying

He needs an urgent screening for Diabetes. Why has this not been done? You need to check urgently. A pharmacy can do a basic blood glucose check or urine dipstick but the GP practice can carry this out very quickly.

A cause of 'pear drop' scented breath is ketoacidosis which is caused by the breakdown of proteins because of insufficient dietary intake (also can be caused by high protein diets such as Atkins). An undiagnosed Diabetic will frequently present with PearDrop scented breath because their cells are unable to take up glucose in the blood to use as energy. The body starts to metabolise muscle/lean tissue instead (proteins) which leads to the peardrop breath because of Ketoacidosis.

Have him checked out for Osophageal damage caused by vomiting- he may have an enlarged blood vessel (Varice) or just mild tissue erosion caused by acidic vomit/reflux. Also how honest or accurate is he regarding his alcohol intake? Chronic high alcohol intake can cause varices in the gullet which can bleed. Alcohol will also play hell with blood glucose/insulin levels in diabetic people.

Please get him screened asap.

Just looked up peardrop breath on google, and it does confirm what Mignonette has said - a sign of hyperglycaemia - too much blood sugar.
The hospital doctors should have known this and taken a blood test.

Pear drops is diabetes often. (Also in agatha Christie a poison...! He must c a doctor, it's not normal. Not really suggesting poison but just want to emphasise its not a normal thing!)

He should get this checked properly. Good luck u must b worried sick

Hi thanks for repling everyone . Yes the hospital did liver and kidney tests and those results were ok. All his house mates say he had 3 pints but was terribly drunk so thats odd. His blood sugar level kept dropping in hospital both times hek has been admitted. They did an arterial blood test but i have no idea what for :(. More bloods were supposed to be taken but it never happened. Im gladthat others think im not over reacting as im taking him to our gps todays and i am going to ask them to check for diabetes. One problem is his notes are at his gp in another area so tracking info might be a problem. Fingers crossed i get somewhere, god you never stop worring about them !

Pear drops on breath is not diabetes per se. It is ketosis. You can get this from not eating and/or vomiting. Your son needs an OGD to rule out inflammation of oesophagus or ulcer. Both of these can cause weight loss and vomiting blood. Blood gas will be to check whether he was acidotic or not. Good luck with the GP -hope you get to the bottom of it

My MIL had a saying " Small children small worries, big children bigger worries". Another saying I read was " A woman is born to worry about her children" .
Hope you get answers and cures soon for your son.

You were certainly not over-reacting.

Let us know how he gets on at Gps this morning.
Good luck

Was he vomiting a lot before he started vomiting blood ? - common to get mallory weiss tear which settles by self most of time. would only really fit if blood came after vomiting- agree with creme - pear drops/ acetone breath merely show ketosis - commonly smelt in vomiting children without diabetes. ketosis caused by starvation as well as diabetes.

Btw - cyanide smells of bitter almonds - BUT I wouldn't recommend smelling it too enthusiastically

What happened then, is he ok? I am 100% sure he would have had a blood glucose done in hospital as its a standard check that nearly everyone gets.