Mystery Diagnosis

It took exactly four rounds of me getting the "stomach bug" over the last month for us to finally figure out what the heck has been going on. We doubted that it was just the typical stomach virus for a few reasons - it hit me at the exact same time (about 2 am) each time, it was almost exactly a week apart each time, no one in the house ever got it, the first time I had it I was still on bedrest and not really exposed to many germs, the symptoms were the same each time - vomiting & diarrhea, whole body aches & pains, exhaustion & lethargy and what I even described as "feeling like I had been poisoned."  And it would come, hit me like a ton of bricks, render me useless for 24 hours and then be gone.  Very strange indeed. Four times in four weeks.

We finally figured it out!! It was an allergic reaction to the prescription omeprazole (prilosec over the counter) that my doctor prescribed me for my massive heartburn. I was taking it about once a week - right before bed. The night before last, I took it again and woke up four hours later with the exact same "stomach bug" symptoms I had the other three times. The bad news - I spent all day yesterday feeling like I wanted to die again and will spend all day again today trying to feel human again. The good news - it has to be the omeprazole (the most common side effects, said to be experienced by 1% of all users, are the exact symptoms I had) AND since I definitely won't be taking that stuff anymore I likely won't have to go through this mess ever again!