Well hello everyone, it is great to see the input of so many, thank you. I am sure some of you will appreciate this, under threat of pain from my mother (i may be an adult but I still fear her wrath) I have seen a new doctor.
This doctor thinks all the other doctors were looking in the wrong place and they were too focused on where the pain is and not what could cause the pain.
So I am keeping a journal with what I eat, when I feel pain and how I would rate it it (0 being none and 10 being the worst imaginable), what athletic activity I am doing, how often I use the restroom and what my mood is. He says it helps because it can help to identify patterns. I am also taking prevacid because he wants to rule out ulcers etc. and now I am in the process of gathering all my records for him to look at and he wants a new and recent set of X-Rays. I think my prayers have been answered and he is the doctor who will figure this all out, who would have thought that my mother's push could lead to the answer. I guess moms are always right!  

Hi Miss, I agree with Liz - as hard as it is for me to say 'don't give up!'  with all the 'unknown' things I have been through.  You still have many years ahead of you for any problems you might have to be diagnosed and you are young enough to just let the bad times pass you by and enjoy the good/healthy times.  If you are still hurting go and find a good specialist physician (one that assesses you from head to toe) and the prayer story - I too have prayed and had many discussions with God regarding my condition.  The signs are there that he is hearing me - he does remove the pain and they have found nothing.  As I tell my children - when I get the dreaded stomach attack and they all think I am on death row - I say "mommy is allowed to get a tummy bug" - and I leave it at that!

Take care of yourself.

I am 37 years of age, have had a recent history of severe abdominal bouts, which hit me like a ton of bricks and disappear as soon as they have done their bit of destruction.  What destruction, who knows?

At 29yrs, I had my gall bladder removed (no prior abdominal pain since the age of 18yrs old) - Age 32, glandular fever, still pain free on the abdominal side.  Then at the age 36 Mar 06, severe abdominal pain.  Severe attacks of cramping/vomiting/diareah - lasting 24 - 72 hours - absolute wreck, leaving me feeling like I have been disemboweled (6 attacks all through 2006).  In July 06 they prepped me for surgery, thinking it was a burst appendix - NO APPENDIX FOUND.  Had the works in x-rays, CTs & scopes - all clear (although loads of white blood cells fighting an infection, but from where - who knows?)  I am now being treated for IBS by a GP as I felt the Gastro specialist is too procedurally inclined (next on his list is exploratory surgery!).  I have too many other symptoms to just concentrate on the gut. (swallowing difficulties, gnawing pain in my legs, like the muscles are being eaten, tired to the point of falling asleep whilst driving, chest pains and more).  These are always overlooked by the drs.  If I knew back at the age of 29yrs that I am bound to fall extremely ill every 2 - 3 years, I would have kept a record of all the mild episodes of bladder/stomach infections I had inbetween.  Always putting them down to food poisoning or colds and flu giving me a bladder infection??? Now I don't know anymore and todate there is no diagnosis - very disturbing.

Just persevere with your drs and pray about it - at least there is one Being that will help you through your pain and not let you down.

Hi miss

so dispirited to see your response tonight. Don't give up!! It took me a year to get a definitive diagnosis and the end of my first marriage, as 1st husband couldn't cope - said it was "all in my head". He is now in jail for trying to kill his second wife and two kids, and I have been married for some 34 glorious years to my second husband. Life does throw you some unusual curves at times.

As far as I know, barium x-ray follow throughs show masses, but will not show the signs of coeliac or Crohn's - only an upper endoscopy with biopsies can determine these.

If I were you, I would get another gastro - one who is au fait with IBD.
Take care - and get another opinion please!
Love. Liz.

Well the results are in on the blood and the ultrasound and wouldn't you know it, everything came out negative. My GP's response "get another opinion."
I have prayed for an answer, I have practically begged, still nothing.
I now debate a new GI doctor, or simply waiting for another symptom so the doctors can look elsewhere.
Hopelessness is settling in...

I am 33 and have a similar pain.  First had it about 10 years ago but it went away.  Recently in the last 4 months I have been feeling it again.  I am still in the process of discovering what it is.  One thing my doctor found out is that I have been exposed to Hepatitis C.  I am not sure if the pain is related to the Hep C as we are still in the process of follow up testing.

I suffered for a year with diarrohea and severe weight loss, had many blood and malnutrition tests etc., but endoscopy and colonoscopy were not known in 1969. It was only when I was hositalised for 3 weeks that I suddenly got pain in the right side, near the appendix. Because I had not had pain before, they did not suspect Crohn's disease. I had a laparotomy 3 days later, and Crohn's was found in 15 places, mainly in the small intestine, and particularly the terminal ileum, which is next to the appendix. There were too many areas of inflammation (ulcers and crypt abscesses) so they did not resect the affected parts. I was put on 60 mg per day of prednisolone, and was on it at varying doses until 6 yrs ago (when I 56 yrs old) that I saw methotrexate , a cytotoxic drug used for cancer) was being used in the US (I live in England) and begged my then gastro to prescribe it off licence. It is still off licence in England for Crohn's, although it is prescribed under licence for severe psoriasis and theumatoid arthritis - both of which I also have. It has been a miracle drug for me. What I do find weird is that I got breast cancer some 2 years after starting methotrexate, yet it used to be one of the chemo drugs used to treat bc! Luckily, I got 3 different drugs, FEC, to treat my bc, and am now back on mtx.

I have no idea what is causing your symptoms, but don't give up - I didn't, and was in 5 different hospitals in London, England, before I finally saw a gastro-enterologist who had done some training in the US and suspected Crohn's.
Your problem may be entirely different, which I hope it is. Just wanted to say that sometimes it can take ages to get a definitive diagnosis for what is still called an "orphan disease".
Take care, and I hope you go ahead with further testing.
Liz.