Upper abdominal tenderness

Hello, everyone: it's been a very long time since I needed to post here (thankfully!). I had a small bowel resection in 2001 and have been in remission ever since, taking no meds and with two clear colonoscopies. However, about six weeks ago I started having tenderness and a dull pain in my upper abdomen. It's not like the original pain all those years ago which was caused by the intestinal narrowing; it's not nearly as severe but it's more consistent rather than episodic. I have never had heartburn or indigestion so don't know how that feels, but my gastro guy told me to take Pepcid and come back to see him in a couple of weeks. Sometimes the Pepcid works and sometimes it doesn't; I've tried Mylanta and Omeprazole too...it sometimes hurts to take a deep breath. Have any of you had this symptom? I just feel tender and bloated. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Hi Scrabblenut! Welcome to the forum! I used to love to play scrabble online but back to your question. While I was in the hospital for pancreatitis ( caused from Apriso) I  got scoped due to upper abdominal pain/tenderness/bloating of the epigastric region that I thought for sure was an ulcer but instead I was diagnosed with duodenitis. My disease had spread from my sigmoid colon to throughout my small intestines and duodenum due to taking the medication Livalo. Anyway, the treatment regime I was put on for the duodenitis was an antibiotic for 10 days and 8-10 weeks of Protonix. There are many other things such as GERD, pancreatitis, esophagitis, ulcers, inflammation of the stomach, hiatal hernia, simple heartburn or many other possibilities that could be the cause of your discomfort so if the Pepcid doesnt work, let your GI know because a scope may be in order.
Hopefully your discomfort will pass but please keep us informed!

I too had epigastric pain for quite a while. For a while, it seemed just due to dehydration. However, in March it got very serious--like yours, it was episodic, almost spastic. Turned out I have new disease in my jejunum--tethering and fistulas. In 27 years, most of my activity was in the colon (total proctocolectomy in 2009) with only a little of activity in the duodenum at one point and terminal ileum right along.

A CT Scan in the ER--my white blood cells were all out of whack and my sed rate was off the chart-- and then an upper GI series gave my doc the confirmation that my Crohn's was active again.

Swallowing the barium stinks (I don't wish it on anyone) but thank goodness my doc found the source of my pain early on. I'm now on Humira and hoping for the best!