Blackmantis

Thanks for your advice. I have been trawling the web and I too have found many reports of people with the same symptoms as I although their causes are all completely different. Some people have stated that simple things such as Red Dye #40 causes it for them, others find eating certain foods causes it, or eating at certain places (ie mcdonalds), and some poor souls seem to get it almost every month with no reason they can find! I couldn't live with such a thing, however there doesn't seem to be a concrete cause. There is multiple causes however due to the intensity, I'd say it's unlikely an allergy to "food dye" etc. I seriously believe it's some kind of food poisoning bacteria or a virus transmitted via the fecal-oral route (unhygienic food handling methods) etc. I will check Google Scholar now, thanks for letting me know.

Interesting. I was considering that the cause may be bile reflux into the stomach (Does bile have an extremely foul sulphur / rotten egg taste to it?) because if so, it may be a viable cause of this symptom. Also out of curiosity, were your burps accompanied by the other symptoms (ie gastroenteritis)

Hello all on the Science Forums! This is my first post, I hope it's in the right category. I've come with a question that I haven't been able to have answered by even the most professional gastroenterologists in the country (Australia). I seem to be re-acquiring some form of illness or bodily dysfunction which induces gastroenteritis that my doctors and specialists have not been able to diagnose. About once every 2-3 years for the last ten years, I have been coming down with the usual onset of gastroenteritis symptoms (forgive me here as I will try not to go into any more detail than is absolutely necessary) but the symptoms include profuse watery diarrhea (up to 12 visits to the bathroom per hour for 6 hours), often (but not always) accompanied by extremely persistent violent emesis (throwing up twice to three times every three minutes nonstop for 6 hours straight, I have clocked it at this rate the last 5 times), the usual stomach cramps and abdominal pains, and the final symptom which baffles me as there has been no listing of it in any medical journal or pathological symptom checker I have come across; a foul tasting belch which has a taste like sulphur (or rotten eggs / burned popcorn). The symptoms come on extremely abruptly (almost instantly, usually the belch is the first sign I get that something is gravely wrong inside me), and the last 5 times I have had this, they last for almost exactly 6 hours and then disappear almost as quickly as they came. I suspect this foul taste is Hydrogen Sulfide, however I have not been able to locate anyone I know in person who can relate to ever having these symptoms, particularly the belching of hydrogen sulfide. Most of the people I know who have suffered gastroenteritis bouts only report having to visit the toilet twice an hour, with only three episodes of emesis per day, however it seems to last a lot longer for them (up to a week), whereas I have never had an enteroviral infection last me this long. My doctors are baffled as culture tests come back negative, but my white blood cell count comes back elevated and it remains elevated for up to 4 weeks. Interestingly enough, there seems to be a large group of people online who suffer these same symptoms but their doctors usually fob it off with "oh it's a gastro bug going around at the moment, just drink water etc etc", however I find that consumption of water is literally impossible for the 6 hour duration of the illness or bodily dysfunction, both due to the incredibly intense nausea, and the continuous bouts of emesis. Can anyone relate to having these symptoms, primarily accompanied by the strange belching of hydrogen sulfide. Alternatively, can anyone recommend me an extremely effective anti-emetic? This constant re-occurring illness has left me with emetophobia quite literally. Metoclopramide Hydrochloride seemed to stop the vomiting during my last bout however it did nothing for the intense nausea, perhaps Nausetil (prochlorperazine maleate) combined with Metoclopramide Hydrochloride may be a way to combat this if safe to mix the two? The only conclusions I can come to that *may* cause it are: * Gastroparesis (Delayed gastric emptying, however this usually only causes the belches and vomiting, not diarrhea as the food doesn't often make it past the upper GI) * Giardia Lamblia / other protozoans (I have been told this parasite can cause the same strange belches as a result of gas produced by the parasite, it is also accompanied by profuse diarrhea and vomiting, and could be a very likely cause) * Helicobacter Plyori (Tested negative for this, so I doubt it is this, but it has been known to cause the same taste). * There is a likelyhood that the symptom is listed as "bloating/gas" yet the actual taste is not often described in articles. * One of the only other answers I can come to (which one of my doctors suggested), is that perhaps the upper GI of some people handles gastroenteritis induced emesis differently (particularly when it's caused by a viral, protozoan or bacterial infection, otherwise we would see people getting these belches from drinking too much alcohol). I may have a few facts wrong here (absolute n00b biologist here just waiting to dig his hands into culture dishes and cut things open!). I would appreciate any and all input as I have been trying to find out what this is since 2003. Thank you all for taking the time to read this strenuously long post! I am looking to find the definite answer to this once and for all (this is also the primary reason I have ditched my last job as a multimedia artist to study to become a biologist. I wish to find out the reason for this strange onset of symptoms and what protozoan, viral or bacterial infection causes it should it be one of those infections). EDIT: It seems there is an interesting thread on Wrongdiagnosis which describes my symptoms closer than anything else I've read so far. quote: Whenever I get those burps, I know that I am within 2-24hrs going to have about 4-7hrs of terrible pain and nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. This whole situation is horrible and I hate it. I wish I knew what caused it, and like you, my Dr.'s have all said they had no clue what these symptoms mean... *sigh*Read more at http://forums.wrongdiagnosis.com/showthread.php?t=2710&ktrack=kcplink /quote It looks like this causes a strong phobia in other people as well, I personally don't blame any single person who has to pertain to this miasma of undiagnosable illness. It seems none of their doctors can figure out the cause too. It seems almost too simple to label it as Giardia given that I cannot find a reliable source of information stating "Giardia causes common belching of hydrogen sulfide". For those who have found this thread by google, I will update this post as often as I can, I'm set like concrete on figuring out what this damn ailment is!