Severe abdominal spasms

[cg157]

I am a 37 year old female. I have been experiencing severe pain in my stomach. About 18 months ago the first "attack" was so bad I couldn't even stand. I turned pale and nearly passed out. The paramedics thought it was appendicitis. After a night in the hospital and several test (untrasounds and Cat Scan)I was sent home with no answers. They speculated a ruptured ovarian cyst. I have been to the hospital twice since then, with no confirmed diagnosis. My last attack, last week, was worse than the first. The pain comes in waves and affects my mid section. It affects has hurt on both sides, but this last attrack hurt only on the right side. A Cat Scan was done and although they were unable to find anything in the intestines, they did find 3 seperate nodular densities in my lower lung. Are they related, or am I dealing with two diiferent issues? The abdominal pain lasr anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. It leaves me paralyzed with pain. I am frustrated with not having any answers. The doctors can't find a specific cause and I am fearful of another attack. The pain reminds me of labor pains. It comes in waves and seems to peak. Having had 5 pregnancies, I am no stranger to pain, but I can not take much more of this.

[Kevin Pho, MD]

With the CT scan being negative, it would make appendicitis less likely.  A normal ultrasound would make liver and gallbladder disease less likely as well.

You can consider the various causes of dyspepsia - such as an ulcer, inflammation of the upper digestive tract or GERD.  An upper endoscopy or upper GI series would be the appropriate reasonable test.

I would also have some blood tests to check for a bacteria known as H Pylori - which is associated with ulcers or inflammation.  

Regarding the nodular densities - you can discuss further workup via pulmonologist (lung specialist).

These options can be discussed with your personal physician.

Followup with your personal physician is essential.

This answer is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice - the information presented is for patient education only. Please see your personal physician for further evaluation of your individual case.

Kevin, M.D.
http://www.straightfromthedoc.com

[vello]

i can totally relate to the stomach pains.. it happened this morning and are continuing thru out the day.. i'll be walking here at work and i have to stop and bend over in pain and start breathing like if i was having contractions.. i just gave birth to a baby almost 5 months ago.. it's not your usual "stomach upset" this is like way beyond that!! it's like it feels someone is sticking their hands in your belly and turning your guts inside out!!! i'm going to have to call the doctor for this..

[ltpainsuf4rrrr]

I've had a similar problem going on 14 years now. After 5 colonoscopies, 5 endoscopies, 3 small bower follow-thoughs, 10 CT-scans, 3 MRI's, 2 surgeries and a barrage of other studies, I am still living with this problem.

In 1994, I was diagnosed with "motility disorder of the gut" by a prominent GI doctor at a large teaching hospital. He told me I was one of the worst cases he has seen. Over the years I’ve been given over 60 different medications, most didn't help. There is one that did help and I am still taking it today. That medicine is Xanax. I take 0.5 mg before any big meal and anytime the pain flair's up. I helps more often than it doesn’t.

After my initial surgery in 1996, this was an exploratory laparoscopy and then a full cut from my bellybutton down about 4 inches. Nothing was found. When my GI doctor found out about the surgery, he told me no chance would this help my pain as motility disorders can’t be cured. Wish I checked with him first!

In 2002, two incision sites from the 1996 laparoscopy, turned into “911” pain. Horrible pain, believe to be coming form the scar tissue. My doctors then decided my gallbladder needed to be removed and another laparoscopy using the very same incision sites. After the surgery, my pain was much worst. I was immediately turned over to a pain management doctor. Initially put on Oxycontin 10 mg twice daily and this helped with both my motility pain and my pain at both incision sites. Unfortunately, the pain at my incision sites caused me to take a higher dose of Oxycontin and then because I refused to keep taking higher and higher doses, I was given 4 more different opiates during the next few years. I did come to learn that just 60 mg of Oxycontin really raised havoc with my motility problem and in my third year of taking these opiates, I began to realize I needed to be on low doses only of Oxycontin. But for the most part, I felt little motility pain as it was easily controlled by the opiates. This wasn’t the case for my incision “911” pain. It was flaring out of control.

In July, my new pain doctor did a few trigger point injections a my 2 incisions sites. This “911” pain was melting away virtually as he was injection the anesthetic. I felt so good, I asked him to take me off of the Oxycontin 10 mg, 3 times daily I was taking. So, he started the process of giving me less and less of this medication over two weeks (this is happening right now). Unfortunately, the motility pain I haven’t experienced during the past 3 years started to return. As the blood levels of the Oxycontin got lower and lower, my motility pain got worse and worse. I am not sure what my doctor is going to do for me next, I don’t want to live with this pain again. I do know the steroid he injected at the two incision sites has given me almost complete relief from that pain. This is temporary, may last about a month.

My discomfort originally started (in 1991) in my stomach. Initially it wasn’t pain, but rather major discomfort. within months that discomfort turned to pain. Unfortunately, the surgery I had in 1996 made this whole situation much worse. It is almost unbelievable I am dealing with 2 very different pain syndromes both on the middle and left side of my abdomen.

My advice for anyone experiencing major discomfort or pain on the left side of the abdomen that is virtually goes undiagnosed, is to see a pain management doctor. I have found Xanax does give some relief from pain (on it 11 years now) and discomfort (this isn’t just an anxiety drug, it is also used as a pain medicine) and if this doesn’t help with the pain and discomfort, then Oxycontin 10 mg twice daily most likely will. One more thing, because a GI doctor found gastritis during an endoscopy exam, he prescribed Previcid that I was supposed to take for the rest of my life. Fortunately, I stopped taking it one month later. A year later at the Mayo Clinic, they discovered I have extremely low stomach acid and the GI doctor asked if I was taking huge amounts of Previcid. I told him no and he told me because of the low acid, I should never take Prevecid or any other similar drug. A lesson learned, when a GI doc does and endoscopy exam have him test the PH in your gut!! Having gastritis doesn’t necessarily mean you should take Prevecid or any other acid lowering drug. If your PH is low, DO NOT TAKE ACID LOWERING MEDICATIONS! Instead you need to take extra vitamin C and 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar in 4 oz of water about one hour before eating. You need the extra acid to properly digest your food and to kill any bad bacteria in your stomach. My gastritis obviously was there for many years and may have happened at a time my stomach acid was much higher.

Please learn from my experiences, I am in year 14 of this terrible illness.

[mysteriouspain]

Hi Itpainsuf4rrrr,

How is your condition now?  I felt for you as I am also going thru an unexplained pain on my lower left side abdomen.  I too have the gastritis (the doc said I have h.pylori) that is causing the knawing pain 24/7 on the left side; I feel better when I lie down.  I tried prevpac for two weeks, it did not seem to help.  A friend recommended me Mastica, the pain is still there after two weeks of trial for a total of 4 capsules a day, two in the morning and 2 before bedtime with empty stomach.  Did you or anyone try Mastica please kindly feedback with your experience.  Also, today I saw two 'stones' floating in my bowel.  They were 90% hard, yellowish color, about the size of peanuts; anyone had this experience before?
Thank you for reading and feedback.

[astros18]

The stones sound like gallstones, but gallbladder pain presents on the right side, not the left. Many people are put on these acid reducing drugs without even knowing what is really going on in their gut. The truth is that the majority of reflux sufferers have too little stomach acid, not too much. I'm sorry for your pain.

[JackieG]

Astro is misguided. GI docs do ph tests to determine the amount of acidity. They would know if there "was too little acid, not enough" as Astro professes.

[cakemaker]

I had exactly the same symptons as you are having 5 years ago and it took the doctors 3 years to figure it out.I was in excruciating pain which seem to cripple me, it was as though someone was squeezing under my ribcage and it was far worse than contractions during labour.I would be crawling around the house on my hands and knees in pain.The doctors finally diagnosed it as gallstones after having loads of different tests.This resulted in me having my gallbladder removed via keyhole and that was two years ago ,and so far the pain has not accured again. I wish you luckand i hope this was of help.The doctors did a scan on my gallbladder 3 times before actually confirming that was the problem.

[Eunice]

I have long been a hiatus hernia and other stomach pain sufferer but recently have been much worse. Six weeks ago I had a really bad bout and put it down to eating a very ripe mango for breakfast. I start off feeling sick, then I felt sore at the hiatus and then a pain gradually comes which is like an iron bar across the top of my stomach. I have tried all sorts of antacids but to no effect - the pain eventually goes in 2-3 hours, during which time the only comfort I get is holding a hot water bottle to my stomach and walking up and down the garden until the pains diminishes - by which point I am exhausted and its about 2 weeks before I really feel better.I have always had this pain at home but last week had gone out and when we arrived and parked the car I could feel a 'turn' coming on. I had to drive home 20 miles in acute pain. I managed to see the doctor and he said it sounded like stomach spasm but couldn't say why it happens. I am off to Italy tomorrow so am very worried it might occur there. The doctor has given me buscopan to take if it occurs but I am very iffy about them as I have more stomach problems from taking tablets than from anything else. Would I be better if I tried to relax when the pain comes? Does cider vinegar help?