Hello, I have been experiencing daily intense bloating/trapped air and the feeling that my stomach is struggling to digest several times a day every day. My stomach makes lots of digesting noises, especially if I press on it and this makes it feel like trapped air is being released. I also feel the need to burp a lot. Despite this the symptoms will still continue on for many hours per episode. It is most intense at night. I have had a milder form of these issues for years, however the discomfort has got more intense, more frequent, and carries on for longer now and seems to be getting worse over time.
Some diagnoses that have been suggested to me are irritable bowel syndrom, celiacs, an ulcer, or some other food allergy. I don't really think it's an ulcer as I don't experience sharp pain, but rather the extreme discomfort of trapped air. I had a saliva/urine fasting allergy test done in Aug and it said I didn't have a severe allergy to anything (there were some mild irritations which the doctor said could be ignored), although I did have the group of a mild irritation to rye, barley and wheat...as a result I wanted to test if I had celiacs and went off gluten for 2 weeks (maybe not 100% perfectly but pretty close)-i still had discomfort during this time and no change afterward adding gluten. I have tried eliminating various other foods with no meaningful results, including caffeine, although I do feel that when I have caffeine when my stomach is already a bit uncomfortable it makes it worse. I don't have the slim/malnourished look of celiacs either, however I want to get the blood test done in Jan to make sure.
As for my bowls, I've had mild constipation for years, which is manageable and I was taking magnesium to help with it. Also, I have high levels of anxiety and stress and was taking vegetable supplements (prescribed by my doctor) to help support my neurotransmitters (however my severe stomach discomfort started this past june before I was taking any of these). I am on no other medications. I often get mildly anemic and slightly dehydrated if that is relevant at all. I'm not sexually active, so definitely not pregnant.
I can find no real pattern for when I will have the discomfort or after what foods it will occur...i eat a pretty small range of foods: usually pasta, vegetables, wheat/oat cereal or toast, tuna, eggs, cheese. I do eat a lot of sugar or artificial sugars and high fructose corn-syrup (like i will sometimes have bags of candy and eat a lot of jam and ketchup...) However I don't notice any more discomfort after these than I would after just having normal foods.
Basically I'm wondering, i've heard my allergy test may have been a bit imprecise-is there a more precise one I can take or what would you recommend to figure this out? I find it very difficult to do the method of eliminating all possible allergen foods, especially if this means gluten, so would prefer another method. If i need more blood tests or to get a camera down my throat I'd be willing! I am currently taking peppermint oil capsules (colpermin as it's called in Ireland, though I live in the U.S. usually) for the bloating/digestion and they seem to be a slight help but nothing wonderful and they don't get to the root of the problem.
Any suggestions you have for a more effective medicine to help with the symptoms in the short term and also suggestions about diagnosis and what treatment/further tests I should get would be extremely helpful... I have a doctor's appt coming up in Jan. This is really affecting my quality of life quite extremely at this point, especially as I cannot sleep for hours at night due to the discomfort.
Thank you so much I really appreciate anything you can tell me very much!!