Oooh I'm dying again
So I have a pain in my side. I'm getting it more frequently now. Not all the time, but more frequently now like like once every few weeks. Started several years ago, I just attributed it to eating something that caused me indigestion. It starts as a pain just below the bottom of my ribs, then after an hour it radiates through to my back. It feels like i've been run through by a sword. Then my stomach feels hard and somewhat distended. Nausea is not far behind. There is no burning or acid indigestion, so I figure an ulcer is out of the question. At first I thought it was my gallbladder, but guess what? It changes sides, so unless I have two gallbladders, no dice. Antacids don't help, heating pads don't help, the only things that seemed to help (but is helping less and less) is having a few beers. It's not the alcohol, as I first thought (relaxing effect). Then I thought maybe it was the foamy carbonation (soda/pop didn't help). I tried root beer to see if that helped, but was nowhere as effective as beer. I cannot explain why that was effective. My guess is that it is gastro-intestinal in nature, but a little over a year ago I got an upper GI and an ultrasound to check if anything was awry. Everything was normal, which makes it all the more daunting/frustrating. The pain seems to be getting slowly worse. This is getting very old and my patience is wearing thin. I don't know if anyone will read this, but if someone has any insight to this, I am all ears.
posted by far2gone at 11:25 PM
3 Comments:
wow, i think you and i must be related in some non existent way. i had/have that same type of pain. this comment may be long, but history is very important. when i was 16 (i'm 34 now), i had incredible pain under my ribs that finally drove me to the emergency room at 17. note that my pain would also radiate from the front to my back, and i would also vomit. i too had luck with alcohol, it really was relaxing in effect and thought that some of those other things would help that you've tried. but really, none of them do, it was just coindence. so, the er gave me a "gi cocktail" and said to see my doctor. this pain would bring me to my knees, always growing increasingly worse every time. an upper gi, however, revealed gall stones. luckily, or not, my stones were huge and would not pass. i say luckily because if they had passed, they may not have been detected. i soon had my gall bladder removed. after recovery time, i soon felt absolutely great. finally, my health issues and pain were solved. yah, ok, until after i give birth to my 3rd child and turned 30. which one did it, i'll never know. one night, i wake up, chest hurting, like someone is sitting on me. i can breathe ok, but i feel as though that may change. i dont rush to the er, for fear of even moving, and for hope that it is some weird sort of indigestion that will go away. no, it doesn't. at 7 am, after i get my family off to school/work, i drive myself to the er. they tell me that i'm having acid reflux. checked my heart and i'm fine. again, i get the miracle gi cocktail. i feel as though i weigh 50 pounds lighter once i drink that because everything from my mouth down through my digestive tract opens up. i mean, i can breath better than i ever have before. gave me a script for pepcid and tell me to see my doctor. (at this point in my life, i'm beginning to wonder what the true and real function of an emergency room is). anyway, after i start taking the pepcid, i don't get any better. a little maybe. i mean, i don't have any heartburn or indigestion, but i get a new pain under the rib, dead center of my body. so i go to the doc, and he gives me zantac. ok, doesn't work. i see another doc. he gives me prevacid. it seems to work very well for several months. i start eating healthier and start walking 3 days a week and eventually stop taking the prevacid all together. i feel like a new person. i guess i took the med for a few months, maybe 6. well, i change jobs, stop walking, (new job = stress) and my symptoms are back. nothing helps or seems to cause it. the pain varies in type and intensity depending on the day. sometimes it is so intense that i contemplate going to the er again so they can tell me to see my doc. but at least i'd get some of that yummy, green, oh so soothing gi cocktail. but i suffer through it. i did, once, visit a gi specialist, only for him to walk into the room and tell me that i need to have an endoscopy (where they stick the camera down your throat and into your stomach) before he even asks me what my problems are. so, i high tailed it out of there. i mean, gosh, spend all that money on a procedure without so much as an interview or an upper gi first? anesthesia?
now, here's the really weird part. for as long as i can remember, once past adolescense, my back has hurt. specifically the area just above my right shoulder blade, close to the middle and my spine. i've gone in to be manipulated a few times because of it, but nothing major. the last time i went in for a crack and massage, the doctor asks me how long my stomach has hurt. i mentioned not one bit of this pain to him beforehand. before i could answer, he asked me which one of my parents popped antacids when i was a kid. i said i've had stomach pain for about 17 years, and my dad ate rolaids by the roll, and told him the history. after talking to him about this, he said that my back pain was caused by my stomach pain and that i had been incorrectly diagnosed all these years. well, except for my gall stones, i actually saw those after my surgery. he said i have duodenitis and gave me a med called axid. i tell you, i cursed the docs that never gave it to me. it was the cure i'd been waiting for. i take it for four months like he told me to, and i stop. pain comes back.
let me describe what this pain actually is now. like i mentioned, it moves around. it's mostly on my right side, under the rib. which i think is where the duodenum (part of the colon) is from anatomy pics. but sometimes, i have a sharp shooting pain on the left, which i guess could be my stomach. and sometimes, it's just a dull ache dead center under the rib. it's goes through to my back and hurts my shoulder sometimes too. and if i drink enough alcohol, i get the most outrageous pain, as if i have so much air in me that i'll explode, for a few minutes and then after that pain leaves me, i'm good and drunk. i have no theory about that pain.
so, after the four months of axid, i do notice, however, that the initial type of pain i had was gone. but i now have the acid reflux feeling in my esophagus again. i talked with yet another doc, and he seems to think that i may have had ulcers, and that the axid healed them, but i'm still having acid back up in my throat. sometimes i feel as though there is a fire in my belly, and i'm not talking about desire. great. so i'm to take the axid again for 3 more months, and then if the pain isn't gone, a biopsy. well, i haven't been taking the axid and i feel ok. not great, not horrible, just ok. i know that if i'd workout and eat right, i'd feel even a little better. i guess until both of us go in for an endoscopy, we'll never know. i can tell you this, the pain only comes about once every 1 1/2 or 2 months since i ever took the axid.
good luck and let me (us) know how it works out for ya.
Oh man,
I wish I could give you some insight. All my medicine knowlege revolves around breast cancer. =/
I found this site - not sure if it might help:
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/sym/digestive_symptoms.htm#list
Oh man,
I wish I could give you some insight. All my medicine knowlege revolves around breast cancer. =/
I found this site - not sure if it might help:
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/sym/
digestive_symptoms.htm#list
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