Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome - HELP!

WE THINK IT's CVS - ANY HELP, IDEAS, ETC WOULD BE VERY HELPFUL!

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So we have been dealing with this for years - ever since I met her five years ago. She has been dealing with it since she was a teenager. She is 31 now.

She is fine 95% of the time. Her attacks are about once a month or once every two months but she can go as long as 6 months between but that is not common.

But occasionally she gets very sick. She has sweats (soaks through clothes), nausea, extreme abdominal pain (upper center chest), and vommitting. Even when she doesn't have anything to puke up the pain in soooo extreme she has to gag herself to puke up bile to make the pain subside for a little while. She takes disolvable zofran and supositories like crazy but they do no good. She gets a little relief from hot baths but only while she is in them.

It keeps her out of work around once a month. I fear she will lose her job soon.

We normally have to go to the ER. Now occasionally we get a nice doctor who gives her pain meds and nausea meds and relaxation meds and it goes away in about 5-8 hours. These meds don't really work unless done with IV.

MORE OFTEN we get hard nosed docs who believe pain meds are the devil and will only give nausea meds. They send her home eventually and it all starts again and we get to visit the ER again the next night or day.

They have done every lab, scope, scan, etc on her - the doctors say Cyclic Vommitting Syndrome but I almost feel like they say that when they can't put their finger on anything else. I mean could it be pancreatitis or something else?

We are not sure exactly what sets it off. What I have noticed would be:

-- She has anxiety which she uses marijuana to treat. Some doctors won't barely talk to her once she mentions she uses marijuana - they say that is the cause - guaranteed. She uses marijuana because actual anxiety meds seem to make her tired and out of it and she needs to work.

-- Has anyone had experience of marijuana causing this and stopping and it's cured? Right now she smoked daily but needs it for the anxiety.

-- Occasionally it will happen after a night of having drinks with friends. It could be the alcohol, dehydration, or the fact she smoked MJ to go to sleep after usually. Anyone ever had alcohol be the trigger?

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I don't know what to do. I am scared for her, feel horrible, am upset, worried, etc. I don't want her to go through this or be causing it herself without knowing. It could cost her her job - don't know many jobs okay with you missing a couple days every month without warning. It also costs us a fortune - $300 just to walk in the ER door, price of meds, labs, scans, tests, drugs, time off work, etc.

I feel like I am alone just listening and watching her go through this. Needed to reach out for advice.

How has she maintained jobs or other things requiring regular attendance up to now?

In 2010 I started getting ridiculous pain around the area below my right ribs that radiated into my back where it aggravated an old injury, got me vomiting though I'd almost never vomited before, no relief from OTCs or trying moving into different positions. It took a couple episodes before I went to the ER, didn't have insurance at the time (did qualify for Medicaid, which covered this care retroactively). Dx'd gall bladder issue, removed 2 weeks later. I haven't had as intense pain since then, but do get attacks without identifiable cause. The first time I went back to the ER, concerned there was something really wrong. They said I had a UTI, second time I went to my GP who said it was the flu. Found these conclusions perplexing, the pain and its' location seemed nothing like those causes, stopped going to anyone when an attack came after that. I've since heard pain signals can get mixed up, registering as pain in one area when it's a different area sending the signals. Also, the doctor I see now speculates a nerve could have been left exposed in the surgery, so I would get the pain when that nerve gets aggravated. When it happens I take Trazodone and lay down until it passes, taking Zofran when the pain gets me nauseous. These do work for me, but if I can't lie down it doesn't work well.
My pain is/was from the gall bladder and apparently post-surgery issues. I expect she's been checked for gallstones at some point, and you haven't mentioned a surgery so I'm guessing its' cause isn't like mine. With the exception of the possibilities of experiencing pain in the wrong location.
I couldn't establish any trigger for my pain; eating fatty food is often connected to gall bladder problems because it taxes the system, calling for more bile than otherwise to digest the fat - but I've found no connection with that for me. Nor with a drink or dehydration, but lately if I fail to eat the feeling of hunger starts feeling similar to the pain, but not as bad, and I eat something before I could know how bad it could get.

There's a lot of options of where to go for such pain around here - 4 ERs in what I'd consider "in the area", and maybe a dozen urgent care centers within the same area, judging by the number of them I can count in the areas I frequent or otherwise know of. If you have any urgent care centers near you I'd recommend going there instead of the ER, if possible. Such pain needs treatment asap, but seems to have no life-threatening cause, which would make urgent care centers a better - and likely cheaper - choice. Returning to the ER often for non-life threatening causes can get less-professional treatment, especially if there's a more appropriate place available.

I was gonna suggest gallbladder too. Plus, you shouldnt smoke AFTER you drink. Everybody knows that!