Chronic Abdominal Pain

[Chloeelizabethh]

Hi all,

Since Feb/March of this year I have been suffering with chronic abdominal pain.

It began with sharp pangs in my upper abdomen that grew progressively worse and made me nauseous and exhausted. I went to urgent care when the pain became unbearable, it felt like poison was seeping out of my organs. They said they thought it was acid reflux, gave me some Gaviscon and sent me home.

The next day it got much worse, I developed a fever and became very weak. At this point they did admit that my symptoms seemed more suggestive of a serious issue, and I was hospitalised over the weekend awaiting an ultrasound scan. The only pain relief I was given during this time was oral paracetamol.

The scan came back clear and the attending doctor requested a gastroscopy for me. I went through the gastroscopy in April.

Since, I have suffered chronic pain, multiple gastric infections and I am exhausted all the time. I have regular dizzy spells and I always feel nauseous. I have been bleeding heavily and irregularly, my stool is black and I am ill with diarrhoea most everyday. Some days the pain is lesser but most days, it feels like my intestines are wrapping around themselves.

Today, I only just received my gastroscopy results, allowing them to arrange for a colonoscopy in a few months time and take further blood tests.

I feel like I'm not being taken seriously, I feel that they think I'm malingering. But I wake up at 3 am with agonising abdominal pains crying my eyes out. My pain is very much real and no health professional seems to care.

I am a 20 year old woman, I should be having the best days of my life, but I spent most days on the sofa crying out. I'm exhausted and I really need help or support or ideas.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

[bantam12]

It sounds like your colonoscopy needs to be done urgently, black stools means you are bleeding internally unless you are taking iron supplements which can have that effect.

You need to get back to your GP and push for an urgent scope appt.

[Chloeelizabethh in reply to bantam12]

I've been to see them both today and yesterday and I have been stressing the impact this is having on my life. I'm struggling to work, I'm in constant pain, I'm always exhausted, there has to be something wrong.

The doctor said it will be a few months until I can have a colonoscopy and that they can't do any further tests until then.

I'm at my wits end, I'm literally sat here crying my eyes out because I am no closer to finding out what's going on or how to fix it. I'm genuinely considering doing something drastic just to force them to have to take an urgent look because the way I see it, they are sentencing me to another half a year in agony.

[bantam12 in reply to Chloeelizabethh]

Have you been referred to a Gastro Consultant ? If not insist on an urgent referral and if that gets you nowhere see a different GP.

My husband has similar problems, he was bleeding internally but despite all the tests and scans no reason has been found but at least he had everything done quickly and while he was in hospital. Seeing a Colorectal surgeon last week has proved useful as he is now on the case.

You will have to keep pushing to see a Consultant and get the tests done asap.

[ssdw1958]

Have they checked for gallstones I say kindney stones but it doesn’t sound Ike that because of the diarrhea but I would still have them check out your kidneys. Are you still in the hospital? If you are and they still not helping you you need to call your GP and let him/her know your in the hospital or even if your home. You need a new set of eyes 👀 on this. Your pain is bad enough but also the bloody stools concern me and also concern you. You need to get your parents or who ever your legal guardian involved in this you have been in pain to long. I hope you /they find out what is your problem.

I know you may not want to here this but I will pray for you.

[Chloeelizabethh in reply to ssdw1958]

They've run checks for gallstones and kidney stones to no avail 😞 it's just been hypothesis after hypothesis with no clear direction.

I'm no longer in hospital, the discharged me with "gastric colic".

I'm worried all the time, I'm so scared that this could be endometriosis, or even (god forbid) cancer, but when you're in pain for so long you work yourself up so much with worry.

My mum has been shocked by the standards of care from the doctors and she has been advocating for me, but I don't seem to be getting anywhere.

I appreciate your prayers, thank you x

[ssdw1958 in reply to Chloeelizabethh]

I am glad that your mom is there are with you, And I know you had said you hope it’s not cancer but maybe you need to find an oncologist and maybe they can figure out what that is. Because like you said you are very young and you need to know what’s going on with your body. Don’t wait for the doctors to find out what’s going on. You have to be your own advocate. You see I have MS and I had push the doctors to find out what was wrong with me and they said to me don’t jump to conclusions well good thing I did. If I had pushed sooner like 5 years earlier I might be in a different position. So please don’t give up keep on pushing the doctors. Good luck to you

[Itsallinthehips]

I would get your doctor to admit you to hospital ASAP and let them observe you. What painkillers are you on as they could be aggravating your stomach worse x

[johnsmith]

Contact NHS England. You have not been given appropriate medical advice.

You have diarrhoea which means you have to replace lost fluid and minerals. There is a treatment to help with this.

You have black stools lose of iron and blood which needs replacement with appropriate nutrient supplement.

There is a very simple test for bowel cancer which the doctor can arrange very fast.

Muscle cramps can be indicative of a body shortage of certain minerals. You have fluid loss (diarrhoea) hence mineral loss.

Hope I have been able to be helpful.

[MrsDenG]

I feel for you and I completely understand and sympathise. I have crohns disease but for the past 5 years have been in worse than extreme pain whilst I’m being told that my Crohns isn’t flared. I get treated like I’m making it up or just being mard. I have had 4 children with only gas and air as pain relief. I had 3 ft of my bowel removed and coped with the pain from that without feeling like my life was over. Try to stay strong and don’t let them get inside your head. You know your body and you know when something isn’t right. I have an excellent consultant who never makes me feel bad but I live quite a way away so when I end up in the emergency room in my local hospital I end up seeing the worst Consultant I have met. He treated me like he was the professional and I knew nothing. I ended up putting in a complaint and I would suggest if you keep getting nowhere to ring your local PALS service and complain, you can hopefully get to see someone else and fingers crossed you get some help and relief and a diagnosis. Don’t sit back though the more noise you make they deal with you quicker because they want you to go away probably but if it works it’s worth a try. My thoughts are with you and I wish you luck and hopefully good health

[morphalot]

Sorry you're having such a bad time. If I were you I would ask my doctor to consider pancreatic pain. I have chronic pancreatitis which is under control at the moment, with use of medication. When I got severe bouts of pain it used to start at 3am and stop at around 5am. It used to happen in the daytime too. Come to think of it, I wonder how I managed to work! I was a general nurse and sometimes more ill than the patients!! I also had diarrhoea which made it impossible to plan my life. I hope this helps your questions to the doctor. I might be barking up the wrong tree of course but I couldn't ignore some of the similarities of our condition.

[Hidden]

That is a long time to wait, and I hope contacting Patient liaison (PALS) and pushing your GP helps.

Ask what tests were done on you bowel movements in hospital - I hope they did test them!

In the meantime, ask for a pain relief patch instead of pills/liquid so those aren't are adding to any inflammation. Especially avoid aspirin and NSAIDs pills as they can cause bleeding.

Keep a log of your symptoms, when, how intense, what you were doing (exercise, etc) and your menstrual cycle. You could adapt this one: youngwomenshealth.org/wp-co...,

but adding in information about the colour and smell, and the texture of bowel movements from this: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedheal...

and also log how much you are drinking, and any changes to your diet

(eg: asparagus makes some people's urine discolour/smell, beetroot changes the colour of bowel movements, vegetarian bowel movements smell different from meat eaters, ..).

[EqualityIsaJok]

Hi, unlike some people and not to be negative it could be cancer. I had cancer and it took 4 Doctors and a misdiagnosed of what the last Doctor thought was a collapse lung for him to call an ambulance and send me to the E.R. He asked me how I was walking, and I didn't say anything, then the paramedics were really nice and I asked what they do when you have a collapse lung. One replied with "Oh, it's nothing they just poke the lung and get it to inflate again". A simple answer, I said ok. Despite only using one lung my vital signs were good, but I was never really into any drugs or drinking, I liked to run and box, but work really didn't give me time to do much. Well then we get to the Hospital, they do a C.A.T. scan, and the nurse asked me "How old are you?", I replied by saying my age "28", and she responds with "I'm sorry you have cancer, you have to stay". Then I didn't know how to feel, she just told me that and left. Then they took me to a room, Oncologist came in and said I had a rare type of cancer, that they needed to act quit, since it was almost to my right lung. He told me I would of made it 3 more days, and that would of been it. Then a year of hell came, but honestly after all I saw, the aftermath with the opioids and the things I experienced. I will say that they are very few good Doctors left, the rest are just prescription writers. Oh, and my aunt died of stomach cancer after I made it, and I told my mom she wouldn't survive chemotherapy and she looked at me like I was evil, but I would rather die happy, than die with that poison all through my body. Vomiting, nose bleeds with blood that looked more like water with food coloring, everything tasting like liking iron, but who cares if it's hard to keep it down, and so many more things. But I don't know how to tell you to stay positive, when I worked my whole life, and now can get help to just get back to a normal or somewhat normal life. Then they wonder why drug dealing is a major problem when they put the right conditions for anyone to exploit people looking for anything to kill the pain. Hope it's nothing like what I went through and I'm going through, and if I do get cancer again, then good bye. I'm not putting my self through that again.

[Colinmac66]

Chole. I suffered from inflammatory bowel disease for years, I wasn't diagnosed until I was in my forties. I was 12 when my first symptoms showed up.

What I would say to you is , you are now on the proper path and yes it may seem slow but hopefully with each test they get to what is causing your discomfort.

The test can be long drawn out as it will be a matter of elimination. Ask for a fecal calpractin test to be carried out.