Hello all,
I am 29, F and deem myself to be pretty healthy if I exclude the health problems I have (CFS/ME, IBS, Lactose Intolerance, currently undergoing tests for Arthritis).
Last night I woke up in the middle of the night in the worst pain I have ever felt in my life (except for the 2 occasions this has happened previously), in my stomach area. Absolutely an 8-10 on the pain scale (I’m not a wimp when it comes to pain but this was awful). It took my breath away, made me extremely lightheaded (thought I may pass out at points), I was dripping with sweat from the pain and I had to bite down on my pillow to stop myself from screaming out and waking up all my neighbours. I couldn’t move as that made the pain intensify (although if I managed to pull my knees up into slight foetal position it relieved it somewhat for a few seconds), so remained lying on my side, as I was when I awoke.
The pain was all over, maybe slightly worse just under my ribs and in lower pelvis and the whole area was extremely tender to the touch.
This lasted around 25 minutes with constant pain and then started to ease to maybe a 4-5 on the scale, but with waves of 8-10 hitting every minute or so or when I attempted to move. This continued like this for about another 20 minutes with the time between the severe waves getting further apart and then next thing I knew it was morning so somehow I had managed to get back to sleep through it. All that remains this morning is a dull ache.
I’m hoping you lot may be able to put my mind at ease that nothing sinister is going on. My main thought is that this is simply nothing more than an extreme cramp (I am very prone to cramp in my legs and feet), but having experienced severe period related cramps monthly as a teenager this episode blew all of them out of the water. This has only ever happened at night (has occurred 3 times in total) and absolutely terrifies me. There is no way I could have moved to have sought help last night without passing out from the pain.
Any suggestions what could be happening? And any steps I can take to prevent it happening again.
Thanks x