Abdominal pain

“Functional abdominal pain/disorder” might be worth reading about to see if it has similarities to what you are experiencing.

Abdominal pain is often difficult to diagnose with a specific named cause/source. Sometimes it is more of an evolving and fluid diagnosis where minimizing symptoms is helpful.

I hope you and your physicians are able to find some solutions to have you more comfortable,
Karen

Have they checked gallbladder?

If your doctor has given up get a new one. AKA second opinion.

Jelly:
Your initial post indicates that your physician suspected mesenteric inflammation of lymphatic tissue at one point.

Which leads to another related avenue that may have escaped detection . . . called superior mesenteric artery syndrome or SMAS. Basically, periodic compression of the superior mesenteric artery by the upper portion of the small intestine (duodenum). The pain is sharp and significant, but also transient (episodic, not constant). SMAS is not a routine or common diagnosis so it can escape detection. Diagnosis requires a flow study of the intestinal vasculature. Interestingly, being thin/underweight is a variable that increases the likelihood of SMAS.

Your GI physicians’ comment that you are too thin to have gallbladder disease lacks accuracy. A person need not be overweight to have bile duct occlusion or bile stones. Gall bladder dysfunction has a strong hereditary link, especially in women. If your mother, grandmother, or great grandmother (on the maternal side of your family) had a history of gall stones/sludge or bile duct occlusion then you will have a higher risk of similar. Other variables associated with gall bladder dysfunction: Caucasian, petite body frame.

Gall bladder attacks are just that . . . Attacks or episodes of high/stabbing pain, usually felt under the ribs. Referred pain is felt as intense shoulder pain/scapula pain.

I was 35 years old and tiny/petite when I began to experience gall bladder symptoms. Like you, an initial GI physician discounted my symptoms - deciding I needed a sigmoidoscopy. Really? 6 months later and I had surgery for a necrotic gallbladder. A gross physician oversight. My great grandmother, grandmother, and mother had each suffered from gall bladder disease. All were slim and did not eat a diet high in fats. Its just in our familial genes.

If you have a history of gall bladder dysfunction on your mother’s side of family, this would be informative enough to press your GI for a HIDA scan to rule in or rule out a possible gall bladder source of your pain.

I hope you are able to source a new GI physician to give you a second opinion and a fresh perspective.
Karen