Chronic abdominal pain

[tigerlily211]

I am a 29-year-old female, and I've been experiencing moderate-severe abdominal pain for 7 months now.  The pain is usually near my navel, sometimes I also have pain under my rib cage or in my pelvic area.  The pain is not on one side or another, pretty much at midline.  It's a burning, gnawing pain.  Starts about an hour after I wake up then hurts all day.  It's worse when I'm sitting down, feels better if I lay on my stomach.  Wearing pants/waistbands aggravates it.
The only other symptoms I have are abdominal distention and a little gas/belching stuff going on.
I've been to several doctors, with no answers.  I've had xrays, ct scans of abdomen and pelvis, upper endoscopy, blood tests.  Nothing significant.
The only thing that helps the pain is heat.  Anti-inflammatories sometimes help a little.

I had a laprascopic appendectomy about a year and a half ago (and the navel was one of the incision sites).  I've been back to the surgeon, he didn't think this incident was related to the surgery. (?)  He felt my stomach (also wanted the ct scan done) and didn't feel a hernia, which was what I thought it was.  He also said there was a "zero percent chance" of bad scar tissue/adhesions from this kind of surgery (he's done thousands of these surgeries).

I went to a chiropractor who thought it was a muscle problem (that area feels hard and kind of lumpy, but the surgeon just said that was my muscles and intestines I was feeling).

I recently tried an all-liquid diet, which seemed to help the pain a little.  

Any ideas?

Please help...the pain is pretty bad :(

[alehisa]

I had similar pain before I had my gallbladder removed.

[Ricobord]

I have had similar problems, and I recently learned I have a yeast problem in my gut.  Most doctors are unaware of this and don't know that there are basic tests available to find it.  Mine was found via a stool sample.  I have had pain that moves around my digestive system and lots of random bloating.  I have cut most sugar out of my diet (as that feeds it), started taking a medicine called Nystatin, and have loaded up on probiotics. It has only been a few days, so it could take me a month or two to resolve it.  Usually you only develop a yeast problem after taking antibiotics.

You could also try some digestive enzymes to see if that helps. Ther are many brands of a papaya based enzyme that are good.  They are sweet chewables you take after a meal.

Have you tried cutting out gluten for a while to see if it helps?  Gluten sensitivity and celiac disease can cause similar symptoms.  Also, dairy can cause inflammation in a compromised gut.

If a GI doc can't figure out what is going on, find a good naturopath.  They can be very helpful.  I hope you get answers soon!

[bcgal]

Sure sounds like you have a gastric problem, I think you will find that it is gastric reflux disease called Gerd. Try some thing like maalox or Pepto bismal before you eat and Zantac really worked for me.