Just some late night thoughts. I got really sick in February of 2024. Went to a GI doctor and did 3-4 tests which all came back nearly perfect except for my calcium being elevated the tiniest bit. Moved back to Florida after not being able to deal with it anymore and went to the hospital one of the nights. The doctor told me it sounded like I was extremely stressed and that I’d benefit from seeing a psychiatrist and therapist. He honestly didn’t elaborate too much on the stress part. Soon after the hospital visit, I hopped on the phone with a psychiatrist and got diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and PTSD. Just like the doctor in the hospital, he shared the belief that I was very stressed. I ended up getting prescribed Sertraline to ease the anxiety over time and Hydroxyzine to essentially turn the anxiety off if I started feeling like I was going to throw up. Just realized I never mentioned my main symptoms. I was throwing up everyday in the morning, had extreme fatigue during the day and began to get nauseous again at night. In the following months, I finished the bottles of sertraline and hydroxyzine and my anxiety was gone. The major problem was that I was still throwing up. It wasn’t as frequent, but the full body fatigue and nausea were almost just as bad. That was September 2024. Move along to February 2025 and things seemed to level out. I stopped throwing up and I had a little bit more energy. In April or May, I ended up throwing up again, but 2-3 months in between episodes was massive improvement. It is now December 2025 and I haven’t thrown up since. Recently I was really nauseous, but it was most likely because I was stressed and overate a couple weeks ago. Let me just say that I am very comfortable and wake up happy to be alive. I should not be stressed for any reason. With the hospital doctor and psychiatrist both using the word stress coupled with me feeling physically overwhelmed most days, I decided to look up what actually caused the feeling of stress. The answer is cortisol. When you have increased cortisol for a long period of time, it’s because of something called Cushing’s syndrome.
There’s multiple kinds: normal, pseudo and cyclical. The names are pretty self-explanatory so I won’t go into much detail. I potentially have an appointment in January to start the tests to see if my cortisol is actually elevated most days. One thing I’ve noticed is that if I have coffee a single time, I’m sick for weeks. Caffeine increases cortisol production, so it makes sense. I don’t expect many people to read this far, but just know I’ve tried taking my health very seriously. I’ve been to the hospital 7-8 times in the last 2 years when my symptoms were terrible and every blood test/scan has come back with no issues present. Let’s hope that with more screening, I’ll be able to figure out what’s wrong so I can have more energy and enjoy life. If it’s something terrible, it’d be nice to know as well so I can get a bunch of music ready in the event I’m MIA.