 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Arthritis / November 2007What is wrong with my doctor???
I had a kenalog shot on Oct. 30th. I had severe stomach pains, nausea and continuous vomiting for 4 days. I called my rheumatologist and he said the symptoms should stop after 2 days. 22 days later I am having bad stomach pain, nausea and vomiting after I eat (oddly enough although I'm getting about 400 calories a day I have only lost 3 lbs.) I looked up side effects of kenalog and one of them is ulcers. I looked up ulcers and it says that cortosteroids can cause ulcers. I emailed my doctor today and he wrote that "kenalog is not known to cause stomach upset for more than 2 days after administration, try some Prilosec otc." BTW I have tried Tums and Prevacid and they do nothing. This rheumatologist is supposed to be one of the best in the country and has written 6 books on arthritis. I am so tired of incompetent doctors. This man is highly trained, is he serious or just lazy or truly stupid or what? Will I now have a permanent ulcer or is it possible with treatment that it will go away? First of all, take a few deep breaths and try to calm down a bit. You don't even know for sure whether you do in fact have an ulcer or not. And, your rheumatologist is not the doctor you should be discussing this with. If you are having that severe of a problem with your stomach, you need to either talk to your primary care doctor or see a gastroenterologist. Steroids are not usually known to cause an ulcer with just one shot. So, it may just be co-incidence or it may not be, but go see your primary care and get some testing done to see what you really are dealing with before jumping to conclusions. Best of luck! . . . . Donna . . . . 1.) ANGELS EXIST, but some times, since they don't all have wings, we call them FRIENDS...... 2.) J.K.M.A. I agree with Donna. But you should know that some of the symptoms you are experiencing MIGHT be due to a reaction to the cortisone. Some people have it and some don't . But yours sounds like it is more severe. Are you on other medictions that bother your gut and stomach? kenolog is injectable and that bypasses the stomach, so I doubt it was just that one shot but the symptoms again are side effects of it. I do suggest like Donna that if you continue to have the pain and discomfort in the gut to contact your doctor to set up an appointment with a GI specialist and let him or her decide is you actually have an ulcer but one shot? I doubt that it made the ulcer that fast. janers > I agree with Donna. But you should know that some of the symptoms you are experiencing MIGHT be due > to a reaction to the cortisone. Some people have it and some don't . But yours sounds like it is [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > janers I am only on thyroid meds which I've been on for about 8 years. What I read was that if a person takes a lot of aspirin (which I did for joint pain) they can have a painless ulcer which then gets worse with cortosteroids. Every website I found listed ulcers as a kenalog side effect. The ulcer info websites listed cortosteroids as causes of ulcers. My pharmacist said steroids can cause ulcers. The printout she gave me said steroids can cause ulcers. I am wondering if the kenalog shot I had a year ago plus a year of 2-6 ascriptins per day finally has caused an ulcer since this nausea, pain and vomiting began 6 hours after my shot and has continued unabated for 22 days. But for the doctor to tell me that ulcers are not side effects of cortosteroids and kenalog in particular is simply incompetent as it is in all the medical literature. I do have an appointment with a GI. He was the one who treated me for hepatitis and tested me for autoimmune, A, B, C, D hepatitis (none of which was the type I had) and concluded it was likely the Plaquenil the rheumatologist had me on. The rheumatologist then told me to discontinue it. The rheumatologist now says it didn't cause hepatitis and he did not tell me to go off it, that I took myself off it. I have never ever made a medical decision without clearing it with my doctor. Sorry to rant but I'm so fed up with these doctors. The irony is that I've stayed in Los Angeles where I can barely make it financially because I was afraid if I moved somewhere else the quality/ experience of the doctors wouldn't be great but the quality of care I've received from professors of medicine at UCLA, USC and doctors at Cedars Sinai is dismal and shameful. I understand your frustration, especially when not feeling well for a long period of time, but, your doctor is right in that steroids do NOT usually cause an ulcer with one simple shot! Plus, with the injection, you are bypassing the stomach all together. Now, it is possible that since you took a lot of aspirin that THAT is the likely cause of an ulcer, if you turn out to have one. You may not have an ulcer. You can get similar symptoms from a whole lot of things, including chronic gastritis from aspirin and/or steroids. I would think that your problems likely are more from the chronic aspirin problem and that perhaps the steroid injection might have put you over the edge as far as your gastrointestinal symptoms go. Am glad that you at least have an appointment with the gastro to look into this further. Also, if you're not happy with your physicians, find some new ones. Doesn't matter what part of the country you are in, there are some excellent doctors out there and some not so good ones out there. That is true no matter where you live, and sometimes it takes switching several times to find just the right doctor for you! It can be very frustrating when you feel like you aren't getting the care you think you should be getting or that a doctor isn't listening to you, but we all have to also be careful to not jump the gun either. I know I tend to do that, especially when I'm not feeling well and haven't been feeling well for some time. Wait to see what your gastro guy has to say and go from there with your next step or your next decision. . . . . Donna . . . . 1.) ANGELS EXIST, but some times, since they don't all have wings, we call them FRIENDS...... 2.) J.K.M.A. > I understand your frustration, especially when not feeling well for a > long period of time, but, your doctor is right in that steroids do NOT [quoted text clipped - 39 lines] > > 2.) J.K.M.A. >> I understand your frustration, especially when not feeling well for a >> long period of time, but, your doctor is right in that steroids do NOT [quoted text clipped - 37 lines] >> >> 2.) J.K.M.A. I agree with Donna. Well said I might add. Are you are a gastro nurse by any chance? I manage a endoscopy center in Maryland and girl you know what you're talking about. First of all a "shot" of kenalog would not cause stomach problems of any kind. If you take it orally that is a different story. If you have been taking a lot of aspirin or NSAIDs however that is the usual cause of people developing gastritis. And believe me just a little gastritis (inflammation of the stomach)can cause the problems you are having, it doesn't have to be an ulcer. I'm not saying it is not you won't know that until you are scoped. Are you vommitting coffee ground colored emisis? Have you had them check your stool for blood? There is also a bacteria called helicobacter pylori that people develop (no known reason really)that can cause those problems. You need to see a gastroenterologist. I would try some Prilosec over the counter. Those drugs(prilosec, prevacid, protonix, nexium,zegerid, and more) are all in the same category, and sometimes work different on different poeple, so the fact that prevacid didn't help doesn't mean anything I would ask for another. People like protonix and nexium and we just started using zegerid. You need to have an upper endoscopy for sure, that way they can biopsy for the h.pylori bacteria. They can also do a breath test and blood test for it. Good Luck and get to a gastroenterologist. >I had a kenalog shot on Oct. 30th. I had severe stomach pains, nausea > and continuous vomiting for 4 days. I called my rheumatologist and he [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Will I now have a permanent ulcer or is it possible with treatment > that it will go away? When you need a second opinion regarding medical treatment, that second opinion is supposed to come from a qualified professional. In this case I'd suggest either your primary care physician or a gastroenterologist. What I would not suggest is treating yourself when you have had nausea and vomiting for 22 days. Jo >> I had a kenalog shot on Oct. 30th. I had severe stomach pains, nausea >> and continuous vomiting for 4 days. I called my rheumatologist and he [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > > Jo >>> I had a kenalog shot on Oct. 30th. I had severe stomach pains, nausea >>> and continuous vomiting for 4 days. I called my rheumatologist and he [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] >> >> Jo > I looked up side effects of kenalog and one of them is ulcers. > I looked up ulcers and it says that cortosteroids can cause ulcers. What was your referrence? Did it mention if that was by oral or injected kenalog? A shot may cause an ulcer of the skin, but not a stomach ulcer. ... Warning -- The `Esc' key doesn't work in Leavenworth. On Nov 21, 10:53 pm, "california_chief" <Fire_Chief@Jamacha_Junction_FD.ca.us> wrote: > > I looked up side effects of kenalog and one of them is ulcers. > > I looked up ulcers and it says that cortosteroids can cause ulcers. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > ... Warning -- The `Esc' key doesn't work in Leavenworth. Mine was intramuscular here are some of the sites I looked at (I'm obviously not a medical professional-but I am a school psychologist and pretty good at research and slogging through boring stuff-though it's possible I'm missing/misinterpreting something here) This info was all about kenalog by injection : http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/medicines/100001412.html http://www.rxcarecanada.com/Kenalog-10.asp?prodid=976 http://arthritis.about.com/od/triamcinolone/Triamcinolone_Dosage_Side_Effects_Dr ug_Interactions_Warnings.htm http://www.medicalook.com/reviews/Kenalog.html Happy Thanksgiving! I have to agree with Donna here...go see your PCP and or a Gastric Doctor... Although Steroids are the Evil Miracle drug, and there are many side effects...This may be just a coincidence... My cousin Was given an anti inflammatory drug at which time she immediatley started having stomach problems..Her doctor kept telling her it was from that drug...NOPE...When she finally got a true DX...it was too late..She had a tumor in her Colon and it had already spread to her liver..She died less than a year later... Not trying to be morbid here, but 22 days of stomach problems over one shot..Well stranger things have happened, but you should get another opinion... Cindy >I had a kenalog shot on Oct. 30th. I had severe stomach pains, nausea > and continuous vomiting for 4 days. I called my rheumatologist and he [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Will I now have a permanent ulcer or is it possible with treatment > that it will go away? |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.