# 24/7 pain/discomfort



## 131769 (Oct 1, 2015)

Hi all,

I've been reading these forums a lot for the past few months, as I've been dealing with my own GI problems. My gastro problems started suddenly one night. I felt a lot of spasming in my gut, and my stomach was making clearly audible gurgling noises so loud that people across the room could hear me. I had an intense wave of nausea that didn't subside until the next morning. For the next few days, I felt extremely unwell, had persistent pain about 1 inch above my belly button, and had a slight fever and runny diarrhea. After going to the doctor after a couple days of this, they sent me to the ER with suspected appendicitis. After an ultrasound and CT scan, the ER determined it wasn't appendicitis, and instead prescribed me with pantaprazole to take for 2 weeks. After two weeks on the pantaprazole, I felt NO better. The fever had subsided, but the the abdominal pain was still constant, and I was having daily severe bouts of nausea. My doc ran a bunch of blood tests, which showed nothing remarkable, and a few stool tests to check for parasites and other bacteria. 15 days later, my stool culture came back positive for Yersinia Enterocolitica. My doctor treated me for 10 days on Ciprofloxacin, and two weeks after the treatment was finished I performed another stool culture, which came back negative for anything remarkable.

Fast forward to now, which is 3 months after the symptoms first started. I have been in literally 24/7 discomfort since this all started. I hesitate to call it pain, but it it severe enough that I am focused on it all day, every day. It is a burning sensation, and is located 1 inch above my belly button, but seems to radiate outwards. At the same time, it feels like someone is squeezing my intestines from both sides. This is symptom that is driving me crazy. On top of that, I have frequent bouts of nausea (but no vomiting), hiccups after eating, heartburn, lots of gas, excessive stomach gurgling, and a bout of diarrhea every week or so. I've tried PPIs, antispasmodics (buscopan and dicetel), antibiotics for the Yersinia, lots of OTC things like Zantac, pepto-bismol, tums, gas-x, probiotics, and digestive enzymes. Nothing that I have taken has helped in the slightest.

I've been tested for lots of things. H. Pylori and Celiac have been ruled out. I have had a colonoscopy and endoscopy that showed nothing remarkable (still awaiting biopsy results from that) - Two ultrasounds, one showed nothing, the other showed a small polyp on my gallbladder which the docs have said is not related - A CT scan that showed nothing - Blood tests for everything imaginable - Three stool tests, the first showed Yersinia, the others showed nothing - 2 Urine tests that showed nothing.

The GI is leaning towards post infectious IBS, seeing as this seems to have started with a case of Yersinia. However, he says that my symptoms are a bit atypical for IBS, as I am feeling them constantly. I'm mostly just wondering if anyone else here has a CONSTANT pain/discomfort in the area just above the navel, that really turned out to be IBS. Does anyone have any other ideas as to what could be causing this? Some background information - I'm a 23 year old male, very active prior to getting sick (I literally ran a half marathon the weekend before this hit me), eat a well balanced diet, lead a relatively stress free life (and I feel that I manage the stress that I do have well) and have never had any GI issues prior to this. For some reason, and I am just having an incredibly hard time accepting that this could just be IBS, despite knowing that a lot of people have severe cases of IBS that are a lot worse than mine. I have never been unwell for this long before, and despite the test results showing nothing major, I can't help but worry that there is something REALLY bad happening to me!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading - I know it was a bit of a rant!


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## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

I am in constant pain but in my case it's located in the lower abdomen, extending to the groin and thighs.

Have you tried the low fodmap diet?


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## princess1994 (Oct 2, 2015)

i feel you!  i've been suffering ibs for a year..


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## Jesse1234 (Jan 4, 2009)

Hi James,
Sorry about the pain you are going through. I am a 26 to make and have had PI-IBS for 9 years. If you wanna chat send me a private message.


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## Marine Carol Anderson (Oct 13, 2015)

Hi All.....Im 52 years old and I so happy that I found this page as I throught I was alone. Ive had bloating & gas now over 5 years and has been back and forward to doctors last visit was 3 weeks ago & they said that I had IBS without doing any tests...I get so bloated that I cannot sit for long upright for to long so then I have to lay down for awhile and since this I haven't had a life and to uncomforded to go out anywere....I cannot drink softdrinks or alco as my tummy get very very bloated and again I have to lay down & also don't eat right as I live on my own but I do eat.....


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## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

Soft drinks are evil. Water and unsweetened peppermint tea are better.


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