What do you guys think is wrong with me?

Hello everyone. I'm new to the forum :)


A little background story about myself. I'm 23 years old and residing in Canada. I'm 5'10 and 135 lbs, so skinny and exercises(although not so much now). I haven't had any medical problems or any health issues in the past ever *knock on wood*. :)

So about 3 months ago, in October of 2011. I was eating KFC(2 piece meal with fries and a drink) it was good at the time but I felt grossed afterwards(like most times after fast-food), I went home that night and everything felt normal and what-not, I'm usually a night-owl, so at about 1am, right before I went to bed, I went to the washroom to pee. Just as I was finishing, i felt a bit of sharp pain on my lower right side, just above the hip area and below the rib cage.

I thought Wow...what happened? I walked to my room afterwards and it was still lingering around. The next morning, same thing, the pain was now there and it didn't go away. My first diagnoses was kidney stones, so I just drank gallons of water but that didn't work. It wasn't a pain 24/7, it was just a bothersome dull ache every now and than. It wasn't painful at all. I went to my docters a few days ago since the pain didn't go away and they said it's probably gas but it MIGHT be Appendicitis, so moniter it and if it starts hurting(rebound pain) and fever. Head into the ER right away. Luckily that wasn't the case,

and it wasn't appendicitis. I took a better diet and it started to feel better but it stayed the same. I did some blood-work and urine samples, everything came back good too. Than after weeks went by, it started to slowly get better than near the end of November, it just came back. The dull ache was rarely occurring but now it's back. So I went to the doctors again and they tell me it's nothing and it's gas. So the doctor diagnoses me with IBS. He gave me 50MG of Dicetel to take 3x a day before meals. I bought the medicine and took it for 3 days, the pain started to get more painful and more frequent as I was on Dicetel so I stopped.

I went to my doctors the week after and explained to him. He said, he doesn't feel like theirs anything serious going on in my body and it's probably just IBS. He also stated Dicetel usually works for IBS patients but not all, so I should stop taking it since it doesn't seem like it's working for me.

So after coming back from the Doctors 2 days ago, I'm constantly burping and the pain on my right side is still there, it's more than an ache now, it's painful and sometimes it'll be on my left side as well. What's weird is yesterday, I could barely feel the ache or pain and today I feel it a lot more.

I really don't know what's happening to me but I do feel fatigued a bit and nauseated quite a bit too. But my appetite is still there, I can eat normally like usual.

Could anyone chime in please? :(

Have you ever had your gall bladder checked?

Well, you can look online to see what a typical frequency is for bowel movements. If your stools are hard and small, then that is a telltale sign of constipation. I have an inflammatory bowel disease so I'm already dealing with weirdness, but for me the pain in my side gets pretty annoying if I haven't moved my bowels in 2 days. If it's been 3 days then I get nauseated and lose my appetite.

The best way to deal with constipation in a healthy bowel is to increase your fiber and water intake, and your daily exercise. I'm glad you've improved your diet, now take a closer look at what you're eating and make sure there are plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables in there, plus whole grains.

It doesn't sound weird to me if you'd also written that you had no bowel movements on Tuesday or Wednesday, and then the pain lessened or went away once you did have a bowel movement.

kazbern said...
It doesn't sound weird to me if you'd also written that you had no bowel movements on Tuesday or Wednesday, and then the pain lessened or went away once you did have a bowel movement.

Well, as far as I know. I did have regular bowel movements or bowel movements on those days.

As for Gall Bladder, is it normal to have pain on both sides of the stomach now? :/

Red_34 said...
The pain on the left could be referred pain if it's from your gall bladder. Like the previous poster, it sounds like a classic case for gall bladder issues. What color is your stool?

I have a lot of gut issues and every now and than my gall bladder "spasms" on me. I do not have stones. I get the right sided pain like you describing along with acidy stool.

Which type of doctor did you see? If you saw your family doctor, you might want to make an appt with a Gastroenterologist.

The color is normal brown-ish color for my stool. I saw a family doctor. For gastroenterologist. It'd probably be best to talk with my family doctor for a referral right? What sucks is, it's almost Christmas and most places are closed due to the Holidays :/

Are Gall-bladder issues/complications really serious? :(


Thank to everyone for all your replies and inputs. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all.

Red_34 said...
I don't know how serious it can get but most times doctors will do the wait and see approach with the gall bladder; so I am assuming that it can wait until Christmas is over (someone please correct me if I am wrong).

Google gall bladder diet. Try this diet over the holidays and see if this helps. Try this, avoid:

Fried foods
Highly processed foods (doughnuts, pie, cookies)
Whole-milk dairy products (cheese, ice cream, butter)
Fatty red meat

If you start to feel better after trying the diet for a while, it wouldn't hurt to be seen anyway.

And as soon as you can, try to get a referral to a GI. I have to use my primary to get referrals because I have a HMO. I have been with my current GI for 15 years so I just have to call my primary for a referral when I make an appt for the GI.

Wow that's like everything! haha, what do you recommend me eating or any good suggestions? Would mayo be alright or light mayo?

Post Edited (JCOOPER) : 12/23/2011 5:59:31 PM (GMT-7)

This is very very strange. So yesterday, which was Christmas eve, I woke up, had a bit of pain, drank some water and ate digestive cookies(I usually eat eggs but after googling, eggs are pretty bad if you have Gall bladder and/or IBS) than I went to dinner, although a bit hungry but I wasn't starving. Had turkey, spaghetti(a few chunks of meat and tomato sauce) and some potato salad and half a can of pop. I felt just a bit of pain(very little ache here and there) and I slept pretty well.

Woke up today, slight ache/pain but other than that, it's been pretty good... Very weird...I really really really hope I don't regret having my Christmas meal later on :(

Post Edited (JCOOPER) : 12/25/2011 6:51:07 PM (GMT-7)

JCOOPER,

For a year or more, I'd off-and-on get BAD abdominal pain at night when I lay down. Sometimes it would keep me awake. I just figured it was gas.

The day it came to a head, I thought I was having a heart attack when in fact it was my gallbladder acting up. Slight numbness and pain in my left shoulder/arm, along with lightheadedness. After doing all the heart tests, they ultrasounded my gallbladder and found that it wasn't functioning at all. So out it came.

It's weird how pain can refer itself all over the place. I'd definitely go to a gastroenterologist asap!

Debbie

If you haven't done so already, I would suggest having an Ultra Sound to check for gallstones and also a HIDA Scan as this will show if your gallbladder is functioning properly. Your Primary Care doctor can order these tests. Belching and bloating are also symptoms of gallbladder disease.

If it is your gallbladder, any fatty greasy fried foods will cause your gallbladder to contract, causing all kinds of pain on your right side, between the shoulder blades, it definitely can feel like a heart attack! For me, there were other trigger foods like red meat, citrus fruits, coffee, chocolate, tomato sauce based foods such as spaghetti, spicy foods and salads. Small meals and don't eat late at night!

Gallbladder disease can be serious if left untreated!

Okay so a bit of an update.

So my diet has been pretty normal, not overly healthy but I don't eat deep-fried foods or foods that look way too greasy. After Christmas and during the new year, it started to subside, the pain(or shall I say small ache) is barely noticeable and on days I don't even notice. It's slowly reducing to a very minor/small ache, much like mid-late November to early December, before the doctor prescribed Dicetel. After I started taking Dicetel in mid December, the pain got noticeably worse and I stopped taking it after a week and it took about half a month before the pain subsided.

Now the ache is pretty small and dull. Doesn't happen all too much(just like in November). It's not overly painful(like when I was on Dicetel). So I booked a appointment with my family doctor today and went to see him, since the ache/dull ache is still there on my lower right side.

I've been slightly nauseated recently(bad sleep and probably because the weather has been pretty cold -5'C and snowing). The ache is on my lower right, near the waist/hip bone, it happens very randomly and lasts for maybe 1 - 2seconds at most and then its gone. Than happens again maybe a few minutes after. It's not severe or painful enough for me to stop what I'm doing or stop any activities, just a "Hey, I'm there here!" ache, to remind you that its still there lol...Sometimes the ache happens on my lower LEFT side and I've have the ache a few times on my upper right side, near the middle of the rib-cage(this happened maybe once or twice)

I've watched my diet and ate less, that might be why I've lost 5 LBS over the course of a month. I've also started burping frequently and they're pretty loud burps.

However, after telling the doctor all this. He puts me on a table/bed and starts pressing around the areas and everything seems normal. My blood work came back and everything looks good, my White Blood Cells actually dropped a little, but still normal, which he told me if I was battling an infection than my WBC would be up instead of down. I've suggested it might be my Gall-Bladder but he said people in my age bracket(I'm 23) and judging from my family history. It doesn't seem like I have Gall-stones and/or Gall Bladder disease, so he said an ultrasound isn't necessary at this point. And that the spots where I have the ache, wouldn't be my gall-bladder. He said you'd feel it in your back and high up. He also said, gall-bladder attacks/pain are usually more severe?

His solution? Eat healthy, be healthy(active, exercise) and just stop worrying because the mind can play tricks on you. He said, the body can find ways to solve itself and work itself out. Also that the chances of this being anything life-threatening or very dangerous is pretty low.

He prescribed me Zanctac for my nauseated feeling since I might have too much stomach acid.

What I'm afraid of is finding things too late. It's better to treat something that just started than to treat something after it develops :( He doesn't want to issue any scans because of the radiation, he said those scans aren't that great for the body and not ultra sound because he can't see anything leading to the Gall-bladder.

So there's my update :)

Edit: I just ate a pretty big meal and I feel some discomfort/aches on my lower left and right sides :/ Nothing deep fried, overly greasy/oily and no carbonated beverages.

Post Edited (JCOOPER) : 1/17/2012 4:02:22 AM (GMT-7)

A little thing I realized is that, my lower abdominal has some sounds, gurgling/growls. If I had to guess it's coming from my lower right abdominal and if you put a hand on it, you can feel some vibration as it gurgles and growls :/ I only really notice this in the mornings and not during the day since I'm either sitting at the computer doing something or outside walking.

A bit of an update, it's been awhile since I updated.

Well after a week after I posted, someone on another forum, mentioned that it might be a bad colon and that I should eat some pro-biotics and get a healthier diet. I listened and started to eat some pro-biotic yogurts and bananas(heard it was good for digestion/colon) and my symptoms/pain have been greatly reduced and most days I can't feel it and sometimes it comes and goes.

I still have the pain/dull-ache but it's a lot less frequent now and it seems that yogurt and bananas are helping. Although I think I should fix my diet more, my diet has been pretty normal and not overly healthy but not overly bad. I don't think I'm quite out of the woods yet as the dull ache still comes and goes(although very rarely and some days I don't even feel anything).

I hope changing my diet and consuming some pro-biotics will fix my colon and eliminate the aches and pains. Will update again soon!