Any ideas on what could be causing severe abdominal pain?

[bexter0]

My 17 yr old daughter has severe abdominal pain for about 6 weeks now.  The doctors have done blood tests (3 times) and upper and lower endoscope and CT scan of the abdomen and pelvic area.  She is nauseous every day and the mornings are the worst.  The pain is sharp in the upper abdominal area and is constant but at times unbearable.  She has been on prevacid for 6 weeks now (no ulcer seen in scope) and raglan for about 2 weeks. (active gastritis seen in the scope).  She is also on miralax to help her bowel movements.  The doctor said they are irregular because they are round balls and not banana like. They seemed to have ruled out a lot of things but can't figure out what is causing the pain and vomiting.  Because of the acid in stomach she can't take anything for the pain.  On top of which now she has pain breathing and a chest x-ray was taken.  The doctors are stating that this is just growing pains (I can't remember what they called it but it is the cartilage between the lungs and breast bone).  Any thoughts on what could be causing this?  At this point the doctor is suggesting that it is either constipation or stress related.  Right now she is in severe pain and vomiting and hasn't had a bowel movement since her lower endoscope 2 days ago.

[CHRISTYDRAKE]

My son also was diagnosed with gastroparesis in November.  He takes medication for this, but is still nauseas daily.  I hope your daughter gets better with this diagnosis.  If she still has problems, look into the dysautonomia.

Good luck.

[bexter0]

Thanks for your posts.  My daughter had an emptying scan done on Monday and the results came back as abnormal.  She takes longer to empty her stomach than normal and the doctor said that this could be causing her nausea, vomiting, feeling full, abdominal pain, etc.  It could have been caused by a viral infection.  She has started medicine to try and help with the nausea. And she needs to be on a strict low fat diet.  This may pass after several months or she might have to deal with it the rest of her life.  But it is a start and now she can work on feeling better.

[CHRISTYDRAKE]

Also,  my son no longer has abdominal reflexes on his right side where all of his abdmoninal pain is.  They will be doing further tests for that the week after next.  Nerve damage I guess???

[CHRISTYDRAKE]

Look into dysautonomia.  My son is nauseas daily, wakes up that way.  As the day goes on, he becomes more functional.  He also experiences abdominal pain and dizziness( these are better now that he is on meds).  

It took us 3 years to get the right diagnosis, as we thought it was all GI related.  My son had the endoscopy, colonoscopy, ultrasound, cat scan, etc, and all were fine.  The dr. then said anxiety and sent us to a psychologist.  The psychologist said not anxiety, she listened to my son and ALL of his symptoms and researched it.  ( I frequently told his drs that he would get HOT spells and start ripping off clothes and they completely disregarded me, this was a symptom).  

The psychologist told us to see a cardiologist.  The dizziness is a big symptom.  If you take her pulse while lying down, again while sitting, and again while standing, if it goes up 30 beats or more this is a sign of dysautonomia.  (My sons doesn't always go up 30 beats, but sometimes it goes up 50 or 60).  I never thought of seeing a cardiologist because his main complaints were GI related.

The autonomic nervous system runs digestion, heart rate, bp, everything that is involuntary.  So when the doctors look at the organs, they are fine.  It is the autonomic nervous system that runs these organs that is not running properly.

Anyway, it is worth looking into.  Good luck!

[bexter0]

Update:  The doctor wanted to see how she did over the Winter break from school.  I have to say that since my daughter wasn't on a regular schedule she was not taking her medications regularly.  By the end of the 10+ days she wasn't feeling too bad and had only had 2 episodes of crippling stomach pain.  Since school started back up she is back on the meds regularly and in severe abdominal pain.  I put a call into the doctor yesterday, still waiting for a call back.  I am to the point where I will have my daughter stop taking any medications and seek help from another doctor.  Yesterday and today she has had severe abdominal pain, nauseous and dizzy.  She also is tired all the time.  Both the upper on lower scope have come up negative, no blockage.  Blood work has all come back normal.  Her bowels are still bad if not worse and although she should have been taking the miralax through winter break she only did so a few times but has taken it the last 2 nights.  She doesn't eat much as the thought of food makes her nauseous.  Although she doesn't vomit all the time just occasionally.

[mammo]

I don't buy the "growing pains" theory.  Children do have growing pains, but they almost always stop by age 14, and are always in a "muscle" and usually the legs.  Not having a bowel movement for 2 days after a scope is normal, since she was cleaned out thoroughly for the test. Her stool tells me this is more than just constipation.  Her chest pain may be referred pain from whatever is causing her problem. Any blockage would show in the tests they did, or I would think this was her problem.  Any time you have severe pain, vomiting, and no BM's it's a blockage.  But this would have shown up.  I can tell you this, I had to take my son to 3 GI doctors to get him diagnosed, may be time for another opinion.  I feel so bad for you and your daughter, this is such a helpless feeling!  
It doesn't appear to me that either of her meds are working, and I don't buy the stress thing either. I wish I could be of more help, I'm sure someone more knoledgeable will jump on with some advice for you.  But you are right in persuing this, something is not right.  Did she have constipation before this? If she doesn't have a BM by tomorrow with the Miralax, I'd take her to the ER, and if she isn't keeping anything down, she needs to go anyway because she will become dehydrated which is serious. I hope you find answers, good luck to you both.