18 year old dd, serial vomiting (for no apparent reason) sometimes a week or a couple of weeks apart. Please help

[LimitIsUp]

Dd first experienced a full day of vomiting in September. She could not even keep water down.

About three weeks after the first spell of all day vomiting, she experienced another day of uncontrolled vomiting. On this occasion there were coffee grounds in her vomit so we went to A&E and they took bloods. White blood cell count was high. Her thyroid measurement was also off. When retested at her GPs a few weeks later white blood cells were then low and thyroid normal.

Since then, she will sometimes vomit in the morning when she first wakes up and then it settles (she is not pregnant - no sexual partner), on other days the vomiting continues. Last Monday (8 days ago) she vomited first thing, in the car on the way to work (I drive her) and a couple of times on shift until she had to come home early. Between last Monday and today she has felt largely fine, but has hit a vomiting spell again today (6 x and counting).

NHS hasn't quite sussed it. GP has done repeat blood tests after the A&E visit and has prescribed her Lansoprazole for GERD but we (and the GP) are not convinced its acid reflux.

This is affecting her mental health and her job.

Any ideas what it might be (I am clutching at straws that there might be someone here who has experienced similar), because the GP doesn't seem to know

When she vomits she goes very hot immediately prior and cold directly afterwards, and if she gets up to walk her stomach contracts and she hunched over

Ds (then age 6) had similar this time last year. After 7(!) episodes in 9 weeks he was taken into hospital and eventuall

Sorry - pressed post somehow by mistake - eventually they managed to get a good look at his tonsils (they are a bit hidden) and they discovered that they were just awful.

Basically pus was pouring down his throat every night from the horrible oozing infection site. And sometimes his stomach presumably said “err - no - I don’t think so” and expelled it all.

Gave him strong antibiotics and he has been fine ever since.

The interesting thing is that he had no signs of infection at all - no temperature and his throat didn’t hurt. Just sudden vomiting in the mornings and then usually fine for the rest of the day. It was a nightmare for school attendance and the 48 hour rule.

We got him better just in time for Covid to start!

In my late teens to mid twenties I suffered from cyclic vomiting syndrome which was this unexplained vomiting - I'd wake up, feel really specifically unwell, then spend the day throwing up.
In my mid twenties it transformed into classical migraine, but they are more about the vomiting than headache and can come on at any point in the day.

CMOTDibbler - I've read the NHS stuff on CVS and its clasically what dd is experiencing. I've also watched a few youtube my story type things about CVS - again, they resonate.

How is your condition managed now and is it fairly infrequent? I am probably catastrophising but I am thinking - how will dd be able to hold down a job. Episodes are so unpredictable. She's just vomited coffee grounds and can't keep anything down

Glad that your ds is better now Mumoftwo

Sibling had random vomiting episodes for years. Eventually got taken to hospital with appendicitis. The doctor said it was one of the worst he had seen and said it must have been festering all that time.

My Dd has repeated vomiting with no diagnosis and in the end I took to A&E after GP were useles

She was diagnosed with Glandular Fever after a positive Epstein Barr blood test, she had an enlarged spleen and was very unwell

Ask for Epstein Barr teat xxx

Test *

Not appendicitis as her appendix was removed aged 11.

Thanks, that is something to consider re Glandular Fever

Bump

I learnt after the first year that being dehydrated, not eating well, and being stressed- so just think migraine triggers- all could set it off. I lived a perfectly normal life, and tbh I just had to time things so that if I wanted to stay up super late, go drinking to excess etc I'd better do that on a Friday and have nothing concrete arranged for Saturday.
Now, I have Buccastem which I take at the first sign of a migraine starting (I have the urge to click my neck weirdly) and if I do that, have plenty of sugary drinks and some salty carb I can usually get away with it.

My daughter had periods like this when she was 8-10 years old. Turned out to be constipation from a sluggish bowel. Took an age to figure out as she thought her movements were normal as she didn't know any different.
She would always have a big clear out after a few bouts of vomiting then all symptoms would disappear for a period of time until her bowes got backed up again.
Worth a thought.

Thanks CMOTDibbler - I think she drinks a fair bit, but she doesn't eat well (irregular eating patterns) and she has clinically diagnosed anxiety and so she does get stressed about stuff. Someone on a youtube video with CVS mentioned Buccastem.

Thanks seymoursmyman - yes definitely worth thinking about

My ds had cyclical vomiting syndrome from around age 7 until he was 16. It varied between every 2 weeks to every few months but usually had the same pattern, wake up early, vomiting for several hours then he would sleep and wake up hungry. He was give buccastem and ondansetron melts to take as soon as he felt sick. He usually had diarrhoea with it as well.

If it continues I would ask for a referral to gastroenterology.

I had vomitting episodes with anxiety. The nausea was terrible and any kind of stress once I was heading in that direction would set it off. Then I'd be fine once I'd relaxed in a dark room a few hours. Until the next attack a few weeks later.

Do you know if she smokes cannabis? This can cause vomiting, taking a hot shower relieves it .

They're not massively keen on prescribing buccastem on a longer term basis.

I find the idea of it being coffe ground vomit rather than vomit/bile to be concerning.

Are they considering an endoscopy to actually visualise her stomach and upper bowel. Did they check her pancreas as well?

They haven't referred her for any investigations yet

She tried going in to work again (starts at 7.45) and I have just had to collect her and bring her home again

I''ll attach a photo of the vomit from last night (with what I think might be coffee grounds) if anyone cares to give me an opinion on what it looks like. I understand completely if that gets a resounding 'no' vote

She needs her GP to sign her off. She's obviously not fit for work, poor thing.

Is your photo attached ? Sorry if if it's just my phone.

I put it on a separate thread with a warning in the title because I didn't want people to inadvertently see vomit without signing up to it . On the other thread the consensus is that it's not coffee grounds, which is reassuring