stomach pain

[AZVic]

My daughter is 42 has been in and out of the emergency room and hospital for 1 month now. She has severe stomach pain that comes on sometimes with vomiting. Dr's have run every test, CT, MRA, MRI, colonoscopy, blood work and everything is normal. What could this be. She just got admitted to another hospital last night. Help!!!! anyone know what could be going on???

[Tuckamore]

Hello AZVic,

Welcome to the Pain Management Forum. I am so glad you found us and took the time to post. My heart goes out to you. I too know how terrifying it can be when our adult child is ill and they can find no reasons. It's frustrating, confusing and down right maddening. Being mother's we always want to protect our children, no matter what their age. We feel so helpless when we are unable to help.

Abdominal pain can be one of the most difficult to diagnosis. In part that is due to the multiple organs in our abdominal and pelvic cavity. Pain can be referred, meaning originating in one location and felt in another. Diagnosing can be puzzling, long and elusive. Hang in there for your daughter and try to be optimistic though I know how very difficult that can be.

Is your daughter being treated at a large teaching hospital? If not and they are unable to come up with some solutions during this hospitalization I encourage you to have her request a referral.

Large teaching facilities seem to be the best at getting to the source of difficult to diagnose pain. Their diagnostic skills are often sharper. There are some of the most astute medical minds on staff or in the residency programs. She will be evaluated by a multidisciplinary team which sounds like what she needs at this time.

When my son was just six months old and had been repeatedly diagnosed with pneumonia and in and out of our local hospital. No local physician could tell me what was wrong with him. I took him to everyone in town. After 7 days in the hospital his latest PCP said he wasn't getting any better and I might as well take him home. What did that mean? Being a young mother I did as I was told and at 10:30PM that night he could not breath again. I woke his father and said he will die if we take him back to that hospital. Get dressed were taking him to Madison, which is our capitol city with large teaching hospitals. It was an hour and a half away. I said put your flashes on, use your horn and go like heck. He was blue and I didn't know if we would make it. We flew down the interstate. We made it to Madison in less than 40 minutes. I had called the hospital before we left and they were waiting for us. I jumped out of the car before it stopped and ran with him in my arms through the ER doors. The pediatrician immediately took him from me. After a quick x-ray he said I think I know what's the matter with your son. I'm going to give him a shot and if he is better in 10 minutes we'll have a diagnose. My son was diagnosed with acute and extreme asthma on the spot. Asthma, a fairly common childhood condition that not one local doc ever picked up on because he was so young. He could have died, indeed he barely survived. But I learned a hard lesson early on. Don't mess with local physicians if they cannot get it right! I shared this story with you to impress upon you the sometimes huge differance in these great teaching facilities.

I encourage you to support your daughter in her search. If she is at a large teaching facility and they can't come up with answers take her to another. Or because she is an adult encourage her to go to another.

I wish I had some answers for your daughter. I assume they have done as the usual tests to rule out gallbladder disease, kidney stone, esophageal spasms, appendicitis, endometriosis, a malfunctioning ovary and the other obvious conditions. Have the used dye with the CT scans? If not may sure they do. It gives a more detailed picture. Sometimes repeating the imaging will show something the first one missed.

My heart goes out to you and your daughter. A mother is always... and no matter what their age we love and worry about your children as if they we just that, children again. Be her advocate, be assertive. Please let us know how she is doing. I will look forward to your updates with great interest and concern.

Take Care,
~Tuck

[namnam46]

Hi AZVic,

I, too, am from AZ not to terribly far from you, Anthem. I want to Welcome you to the Pain Management Forum and tell you how glad we are that you have found this Forum. You need to understand that there are NO Doctors on this Forum ONLY CP (Chronic Pain) Patients that help each other with our expertise and knowledge that we have accumulated over time from our own battles with our Pain.

I'm so TERRIBLY sorry for what your Daughter is going thru. As a Mother of my own 41 years old Daughter I understand your fear first hand.

There are so many DIFFERENT things that can be causing this: anything from Gallbladder, Appendicitis, Kidney Stones even old adhesions from old abdominal surgeries. Has your daughter ever undergone surgeries before?

I know how FRUSTRATING it is when they can't find the cause the very first time. You just want to jump up and down and scream!! Unfortunately, it sometimes takes NUMEROUS tests to find the cause and you MUST be patient.

Don't take NO for an answer. If one Doctor can't find the cause then go to another, and another, and ANOTHER until you find the ONE Doctor that CAN find the cause for you.

That Doctor IS out there. I'm sure that there will be OTHER people on here today that will have EVEN more ideas than I do, so  PLEASE keep checking back.

We are here for you so PLEASE keep us updated on your Daughter's progress...Sherry