Undiagnosed RLQ/RUQ Abdominal Pain

[camac]

I am a 21 year old female who has been dealing with chronic, severe abdominal pain for almost 6 years now. It used to come and go for a few months at a time, but for the past two years it's been constant. It comes and goes throughout the day, with some days being much better than others. Exercise and activity aggravate it. For the past nine months I have also been dealing with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. There was a period of about three months last fall when many days my big outing was taking the dogs outside, and it was sheer torture. Some days I would watch the same movie over and over because it wasn't worth the pain it would cause to change the DVD. I lost 30 lbs in 3 months, mostly because I couldn't move to get food and threw up everything I did manage to eat. I've been to the emergency room 6 times in 9 months. It starts with nausea, I start vomiting, I can't stop vomiting, and the pain is blinding. Last time I puked for 6 hours straight. When I went in they asked if I was od-ing on cocaine (that irritated me when I had time to care later).

Medical tests have all come back clean, except for unrelated minor medical problems, such as hemorrhoids.

U/S - All over my abdomen. Found endometriosis, which was removed via laproscopic surgery in April 2008. Had a follow up u/s last week, everything looks good.
CT Scan w/ & w/o contrast/barium - Everyone loves CT scans. I've had many and none have ever found anything.
X-Rays - chest, abdominal, everything. Another thing they like to make me do in the ER when it's extremely painful.
MRI - clean!
Colonoscopy - Hemorrhoids! Otherwise nothing noteworthy.
Upper Endoscopy - Clean! Was told after one that my upper esophogeal sphyncter doesn't work, but it hasn't been mentioned on later tests.
More blood tests than I can mention. They only thing consistently abnormal is my platelets tend to be on the large side, but only slightly.
HIDA scan - First one was normal, second one was 35%, third was 97%. So we've ruled out the gallbladder. But I don't know what's going on with those scores.
Gastric Emptying Study - the one abnormal test. I have a sleepy stomach, and it empties ridiculously slowly. One of my worst attacks ever was after eating Thai Lettuce Wraps, they literally sat in my stomach marinating in juices fermenting all night. I woke up in the morning and threw them up. I cannot express how disgusting it was. I can recall the smell/taste even now, it is seared in my memory. I wound up in the emergency room that day.

I've suffered from regurgitation after meals for as long as I can remember, literally. I really want to differentiate between what I go through and acid reflux, because I am throwing up undigested food. I have been on so many different meds: Reglan, Prilosec, Nexium, Bentyl, to name a few. I've been on so many I can't even recall them all. They've never helped either the pain or the regurgitation. Right now I've been making due treating the symptoms with Zofran and Dilaudid, though with limited effect. A little help is better than none though. I also had a kidney stone in May 2008, that was similar to what my regular attacks are like.

Not only do I have no idea what it could be, but I don't know who to see. The OBGYN has said it's not his department, having taken care of the endometriosis to no relief (I didn't have endo symptoms, it was a surprise when they did the laparoscopy). The surgeon ruled out my gallbladder. The GI doctor has scoped me up and down and come up with nothing. I also have regular lower back pain on both sides, kidney-ish in placement. I get shooting pain down my legs, possibly something to do with my thoracic nerve, and my shoulders and back periodically vie for attention against my side for reasons with chiropractor can't explain. My finger joints occasionally hurt, my doctor told me to take Vitamin D. I don't know if any of this has to do with anything, but having no clue, I'd rather include the mundane than leave out the symptom that will link it all together for someone (I can dream).

I haven't been able to hold a job or go to school in years. I try, and then have to quit or drop out because of how debilitating the pain is. Any thoughts or idea would be appreciated. Whenever I try to do research on my own I find lists full of conditions that are diagnosed by tests I've already had that have been normal. I'm tired of being sick, I want to be able to have a life. Any help is welcome.

[Anela828]

I also am going to be taking Meclazine also for the flight because I have severe vertigo issues probably 4-5 out of 7 days each week.

[Anela828]

I would also like to know the answer I have been having similar issues. I've had this for a little over a year. When last years issue acted up I also lost 30 lbs, I am 30yrs old so not much older. Since then I've had digestive issues but have always had acid reflux issues. It acted up again this year two weeks ago and non stop vomiting, and now my throat looks like raw red cottage cheese according to the doctors. They gave me Reglan and Nexium after two weeks because the Zofran and Protonix was not helping at all, it actually got worse! I'm still here swallowing every few seconds, unable to eat, from acid pain going up my throat and having to constantly swallow it down. I've been bed ridden, can only sleep and get any rest at night when the acid seems to calm a smidgen. They didn't seem to know the underlying cause though other than I have GERD which I knew. I have to fly in a day too and am terrified about how I will do on the plane. It is a 2 1/2 hour flight but I don't want to stand out by vomiting on the plane. I am going to be on my Zofran, Reglan (the combo helps with nausea for the most part), Nexium I'm on the 2nd day but no relief yet.

[camac]

Thanks for answering, by the way. I tend to get bogged down in information and I guess people stop reading? Lol. I really appreciate you taking the time to consider what I'm going through with whatever medical knowledge you have, because it's been baffling doctors for years, so I'm hoping that maybe someone with some random knowledge will say, "Ah ha! It's this!"

Oh, it's also not celiac disease.

[camac]

When I looked it up online, I found that the best description of where my pain is would be the right lumbar region, which is right in the middle. It's not in my pelvic area at all, it's right at my natural waist, and sometimes spreads around to my back.

[Tessabella82]

Hi Camac,

I'm sorry you're going through that.. I'm not a pro but have some medical knowledge but will try my best to help ok? Pls give your doc a call to make sure if the pain was RLQ, RUQ, or both.. it plays a vital role in diagnosing whatever u might have.. RLQ means the Right Lower Quadrant of ur abdomen which contains ur appendix.. RUQ means Right Upper Quadrant which contains ur liver.. the organs I mentioned are probably the most vital organs in diagnosing.. If it's appendicitis the pain shouldn't have lasted for that long coz it would've ruptured a while back.. if it's liver, you should seek for a Hepatologist.. it's a GI doc that specialized in liver problems.. prolonged vomitting can cause permanent damage to ur esophagus as well so make sure u mention that to Hepatologist or another GI doc... hope this helps and hope everything turns out well.. that's a long time to suffer for something that u don't know.. keep posting :)

[camac]

In the interest of being thorough and optimistic, tight clothes are unbearable. I haven't worn a bra in months. On the occasions when I've tried, I wind up in pain that is immediately lessened when I take off my bra. Tight shirts, tight pants, tight dresses...which means anything elastic or clingy at all, I don't own anything ridiculously tight, I just lost 30 lbs. Sometimes even my husband having his arm over my abdomen is unbearable.

[camac]

Oh, I call it RLQ/RUQ because the first 3 years of my medical records it's referred to as RLQ pain, and then suddenly it switches to being called RUQ pain. As the one in pain, I can testify that it's been in the same place the whole time. So I don't know what's up with that.