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Undiagnosed upper and lower GI pain interfering with life
I am a 21-year-old female who has been experiencing distressing upper and lower GI symptoms for the past 8 months, coupled with fatigue and generally feeling sick.
I was a soymilk-fed baby and have had IBS-type symptoms since childhood (frequent diarrhea and abdominal cramping that likely started due to 2 years of antibiotic use at age 4), but was never officially diagnosed with anything.
8 months ago, I suddenly started having discomfort in my lower left abdomen, accompanied with fatigue and awful faintness. It was a dull ache at first, then it turned into painful cramping at times that spread from my lower left abdomen by my navel to across my abdomen under my ribcage. The discomfort seems to always be there at some level, but is worst in the morning and flares up sometimes during the day with no trigger that I can find. I also often get bloated after meals and feel like there is a bubble or "brick" there that sometimes disappears or moves if I push in on it.
Additionally, I've had an ache and heaviness in my chest for months now, and sometimes the discomfort cuts through to my upper back on the left side. I almost always have to burp after eating or drinking anything. My mouth is dry no matter how much I drink and has a bad taste most of the time.
Saw several docs including an ER doc, got bloodwork and pelvic ultrasound done and everything was fine. Tested negative for celiac, mono and H. Pylori. Docs wanted me to try Protonix and Prilosec but I refused as I've read about these actually giving people acid reflux. Am seeing a naturopath who told me to take enzymes which did nothing, and then Betaine HCl which seemed to help with the bloating a bit. Finally saw a GI doc who tapped on my belly and said I had a lot or trapped gas, and wanted me to do an endoscopy and a CT scan, but I talked her into ordering an upper GI series first instead of the endoscopy. I have to book these tests soon.
I have been on a hypoallergenic diet with no gluten, dairy, eggs, nuts, spices or citrus for about a month with little improvement, and have eaten "healthily" for several months. I mostly eat steamed organic veggies and greens with all-natural meat and some organic extra virgin olive oil for lunch and dinner, and always eat hot buckwheat cereal with dried fruit in the morning. I snack on veggies and berries and have an apple or kiwi a day. I also take a Primal Defense Ultra probiotic capsule each morning, HCl with lunch and dinner, and 200 mg of magnesium with dinner. My bowel movements are better than they've been in a long time, and I don't really get diarrhea anymore, but the discomfort is always there to some extent. I also have very little energy from when I wake up until I go to sleep.
I need to get a job but feel like this discomfort and fatigue will interfere with working as it has already made my social life suffer.
What could be wrong? Any advice on tests or treatments to pursue would be very much appreciated!
I was a soymilk-fed baby and have had IBS-type symptoms since childhood (frequent diarrhea and abdominal cramping that likely started due to 2 years of antibiotic use at age 4), but was never officially diagnosed with anything.
8 months ago, I suddenly started having discomfort in my lower left abdomen, accompanied with fatigue and awful faintness. It was a dull ache at first, then it turned into painful cramping at times that spread from my lower left abdomen by my navel to across my abdomen under my ribcage. The discomfort seems to always be there at some level, but is worst in the morning and flares up sometimes during the day with no trigger that I can find. I also often get bloated after meals and feel like there is a bubble or "brick" there that sometimes disappears or moves if I push in on it.
Additionally, I've had an ache and heaviness in my chest for months now, and sometimes the discomfort cuts through to my upper back on the left side. I almost always have to burp after eating or drinking anything. My mouth is dry no matter how much I drink and has a bad taste most of the time.
Saw several docs including an ER doc, got bloodwork and pelvic ultrasound done and everything was fine. Tested negative for celiac, mono and H. Pylori. Docs wanted me to try Protonix and Prilosec but I refused as I've read about these actually giving people acid reflux. Am seeing a naturopath who told me to take enzymes which did nothing, and then Betaine HCl which seemed to help with the bloating a bit. Finally saw a GI doc who tapped on my belly and said I had a lot or trapped gas, and wanted me to do an endoscopy and a CT scan, but I talked her into ordering an upper GI series first instead of the endoscopy. I have to book these tests soon.
I have been on a hypoallergenic diet with no gluten, dairy, eggs, nuts, spices or citrus for about a month with little improvement, and have eaten "healthily" for several months. I mostly eat steamed organic veggies and greens with all-natural meat and some organic extra virgin olive oil for lunch and dinner, and always eat hot buckwheat cereal with dried fruit in the morning. I snack on veggies and berries and have an apple or kiwi a day. I also take a Primal Defense Ultra probiotic capsule each morning, HCl with lunch and dinner, and 200 mg of magnesium with dinner. My bowel movements are better than they've been in a long time, and I don't really get diarrhea anymore, but the discomfort is always there to some extent. I also have very little energy from when I wake up until I go to sleep.
I need to get a job but feel like this discomfort and fatigue will interfere with working as it has already made my social life suffer.
What could be wrong? Any advice on tests or treatments to pursue would be very much appreciated!
Thank you for the suggestion; I'd never heard of that. I'm sorry your son has to suffer with those symptoms.
Do some research on dysautonomia or autonomic dysfunction. A lot of your symptoms are there. My son also experiences abdominal pain/cramping, fatigue, nausea, and several others. The autonomic nervous system runs all of your involuntary body functions. It runs your digestion, heart rate, body temp, blood pressure, etc..
When the system doesn't work correctly it will cause you to be sick. Everyone has different symptoms, my son's are mainly GI related, but they vary person to person.
My son had every GI test, endoscopy, colonscopy, upper GI, ultra sound, etc. They all came back fine, because the organs are fine. The system that runs those organs is not working correctly.
My son was also diagnosed with gastroparesis, slow stomach emptying. The autonomic nerves don't push the food out of the stomach timely. It took us three years to get my son's diagnosis because a lot of doctors are not familiar with it.
Can't hurt to look into. Below is a website that lists a lot of the symtpoms.
http://www.sids-dysautonomia.com/symptoms.html
When the system doesn't work correctly it will cause you to be sick. Everyone has different symptoms, my son's are mainly GI related, but they vary person to person.
My son had every GI test, endoscopy, colonscopy, upper GI, ultra sound, etc. They all came back fine, because the organs are fine. The system that runs those organs is not working correctly.
My son was also diagnosed with gastroparesis, slow stomach emptying. The autonomic nerves don't push the food out of the stomach timely. It took us three years to get my son's diagnosis because a lot of doctors are not familiar with it.
Can't hurt to look into. Below is a website that lists a lot of the symtpoms.
http://www.sids-dysautonomia.com/symptoms.html
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