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Stomach Problems

I am a 30 year old female, and for quite a long time I get stomach discomforts from time to time. I do suffer with depression for which I have been taking sertraline for the last 6 months (this all started way before this though) The best way to give you my symptoms is to list them with how often they reoccur.
-stomach discomfort or pain - on and off, not noticed a pattern as such
-constant feeling of needing to go to the toilet and slightly constipated but still go quite a lot (usually 3-6 times a day)
-Once a few few weeks ago I had black stools twice on one day., but this has not happened since
-A feeling of nausea usually late evening or at night, this again sometimes happens more than others and can not happen again for weeks. No actual sickness though
-tiredness but trouble actually sleeping
-weight loss and loss of appetite. sometimes I can eat lots but most of the time I can only manage small portions (this has worsened since the sertraline but has I have struggled to put weight on and loose it very quickly if I am not careful)
-the stomach discomfort is usually quite central to my tummy and sometimes lower down, but very occasionally I get a sharp pain to the side of my waist/just above my hip on my right. this usually only lasts a few seconds but can be very painful for that time and I cant move till its stopped. again most common in the evening or night.

I have been procrastinating going to the doctors, but have been told by my boyfriend to get it sorted, as It affects my work sometimes.  When I get the sickness and stomach pains I feel bad in the mornings so end up not going in occasionally.

I'm sure its probably just stress, and I have mentioned it to the doctor before but he just put it down to the sertraline, even though I did say its been going on much longer than that.

Any ideas ????

x x x Lis
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9 Responses
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Avatar universal
Hi Lori,

Am I right in thinking you live in the US? I'm in the UK and I have looked into what the procedures are here, and it sounds pretty non-invasive for the removal. I have an appointment with my doctor early this week, so will do as you advise and request the blood tests and ask for a referral to a endocrinologist. Its a little different over here with the NHS, they are pretty good, it just takes a while to get the appointments. I have a fairly good doctor too so I am sure if I put my foot down with him he will refer me quite easily.

Thank you for all your help again hun, let me know how it goes with you and I agree, don't let them do the invasive surgery, technology is so advanced these days there is absolutely no need for it. From what I can tell in the UK they do scans first so they know exactly what needs removing or treating.  I can't imagine why they would want to open up that much. You're paying for your treatments so they should do what you ask, whatever that may be.  

If you have any more advice please let me know, and I will keep you posted my end too.

Thanks Lisa x
Helpful - 0
1539238 tn?1292861643
Dear Pink,

I thought of something you can do to help your doctors understand what you are going through.

Use the Trackers on this site to record your daily symptoms and moods, for a week or two while you wait for an appointment, also record what you have eaten daily.

A big one for me was I kept a log of my waking temperatures for a week, my rising temps were only 95.7. put the thermometer and log on the bedstand at night...dont even get up yet..while hot flashes and sweating, it was 96....while cold, it was 99 to 99.5....this gave them cause to run the tests I ask for finally.

Hope this helps...and keep up with your daily BM activity in detail as well.  Many things contribute to your symptoms.  

TEST for PTH...this is not a standard thyroid test oK....you must ask for it....also D and Calcium plus a complete thyroid panel in addition to PTH parathyroid hormone.

Lori
Helpful - 0
1539238 tn?1292861643
Dear Pink,

The only way I have found to navigate the medical system is one, to be as smart and informed as they are, so I dont have to take their word for it, and I can ask all the right questions, and DEMAND proper care.

Doctors in the past have told me, I need to learn my limitations with my poor health and learn to live with it....I say...not no....but HELL NO... I will have my energy back and I will regain everything I have lost through hard work once again.

So, keep reading about the PARA thyroid function...ok...and the thyroid.  They produce different hormones but all are in the endocrine system.  If the hormones are too high or too low, the body cannot function as it is designed to work on a very narrow combination of chemical reactions....the hormones dictacte the level of chemicals in the blood, such as calcium...essential to life.-

Currently I am fighting the Veterans Admin to avoid a potentially disastrous surgery to correct my HPTH...they want to cut my neck open from ear to ear and "explore"....

however, with study, I find this is the old barbaric way to do it...twenty years ago they developed the mini procedure which uses a sophisticated ULTRASOUND machine to find the tumors, so that only those are removed, and the all important glands of life are left in tact, with no risk of losing my voice permanently, or having delicate nerves cut to my face, or shoulder, where there is 30 percent chance of permanent damage if I let their general hack do their bidding on me.  

I am to meet with another specialist at UAB come Wednesday....I will let you know what they say, but I have already told them, if he will not do the Mini....MIRP then you are wasting everyone's time, don't bother, I will go to my congressman next......AND I WILL NOT ACCEPT MEDIOCRE CARE ANY LONGER....I AM READY TO BE CURED NOW, and I know it is possible with the right procedure!!!

NEVER give UP, never give up!

Lori
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi Lori,

Thank you again for this, I have just checked out the symptoms and signs for hyperthyroidism and it fits totally, I will get it checked out today and see if I can finally get it under control. I will let you know how it goes ... but thank you, it means a lot to have some ones advice who is not going by the textbook x x x

Lisa
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Thank you to all for your comments, especially Lori.I completely understand why you are so p****d off with the medical profession, it sounds like you have been through a hell of a lot over the years. It is for these kinds of reason that I have never had it checked out as I know they will either fob me off or send me round the houses. Yours makes the most sense too, so I will ask my doctor to check this out and refer me to a specialist.

Most people have said to me that it is probably IBS but I didn't agree with this as the symptoms don't really add up and I end up thinking its all in my mind. I will get this checked out as soon as possible.  

Thanks to all x x x

Lisa
Helpful - 0
1539238 tn?1292861643
IBS, Gerd medications??  Come ON!  Dont get this girl hooked into this idea of managing SYMPTOMS such BS...., and so typical of doctors, if you are one.  

Depression is a SYMPTOM as well...put all her symptoms together and look at the big picture....CALCIUM regulates ALL THAT.  And why not at least check PTH levels before going down that road of syndromes and symptom treating???  IF you treat looking at percentages based on what is common and what is rare you will screw up every time.

A shift is emerging in the collective conscience of this country and people are figuring out that symptom treating is keeping them sick....they are now looking a physiological causes and moving away from the drugs and all you doctors are going to be hurting for work....I cant wait for that day.  We should pay our doctors every month to keep us well, and pay them nothing when we are sick...this will take the profit out of keeping people sick.. and I think this is the ONLY way medicine will move forward, make being healthy profitable.

The human body has had millions of years of evolution to perfect itself....Doctors have only been practicing medicine for a few hundred years in this country....so full of themselves, talking like they know what the hell they are doing and making the patient believe it....well that wont work any longer with this age of technology and sharing of information....you all will have to get a lot smarter than that if you want to try to continue keeping people sick for profit.

Label diagnoses like fibromyalgia, depression, and IBS only do one thing....delay the true cause of the disease to be looked for...its too easy to use these labels because patients believe it...after all, lots of commericals tell us everyday, hey, wow, there IS a pill for me to make me feel better...BS BS BS.

Yea, I was 34 and my first specialist I was referred to was the GI docs...5 grand in testing and bags full of meds that did nothing for my IBS for a dam decade.  Not to mention the drugs they put me on to manage those symptoms were pulled from the market because they were killing people...MEDS are not the answer.

I would then be referred around to a total of 24 doctors and specialist over a 12 year period that sapped me of everything I had gained in my life including the side effects from these head drugs that nearly killed me three times....and six unnessary surgeries and tens of thousands on scans probes and tests that never revealed any problems.

Then the depression diagnosis, then fibromyalgia diagnosis, then chronc fatigue diagnosis, then PTSD, anxiety disorder, personality disorder, then somatiform pain disorder, the bipolar disorder..., I could go on all night with these labels doctors use to doll out meds and keep the pay check coming.  More than 150k was wasted on psychiatric diagnoses, and three mental ward hospitalizations.  The drugs were pure poison for me.

Then they took all my female organs, saying if I ever wanted to feel better, it must come out.  Two years later, I find out the biopsies were all NORMAL of my organs, so they put me into surgical menopause in my mid thirties...racking up another 30k plus the life time of symptom treating drugs to deal with that.

SYNDROME diagnoses do NOT have any test to prove or disprove it, but it gives the person false hope that there is a medication to help them feel better and in my case, this symptom treating journey of diagnostic labels based on clinical presentation of symptoms delayed my true diagnosis of HPTH for 12 years and sent me into foreclosure and banckruptcy...yes my life has been ruined, and if I can help people with the knowledge of what I have been thru looking for a cure...then by golly I will do it till my last breath.

In my opinion,  there will ALWAYS be a physiological cause for these kinds of symptoms when all is put together and looked at in the BIG picture.  Yes, I did everything you suggested to her as I was told too....that is the wrong path.

...symptom treating will NOT CURE HER>  If you are a doctor look for the ROOT cause of the symptoms, get a detailed list of ALL OF THEM, not a SYNDROME label of symptom subsets that fit for disease labels that have no cure or known cause...

Every one of her symptoms are related to the endocrine system, and hormones rule the body's function in every system...dont start her on the path of chasing a diagnosis by sending her to every sub system specialty and being handed off to specialist after specialist for years...you will ruin her life just like they did mine.  LOOK TO THE SOURCE...hormones rule the body period.

Do they really teach you to treat symptoms in school or are you just trying to help all your buddies pay off those high student loans and contribute to the most profitable business in this country which is keeping us sickies coming back for more symptom treating while you milk the insurance companies and laugh all the way to the bank?...Take any trips lately that your drug rep sent you on?   BIG PHARMA  BIG LIE> EVIL embodied.

I sound pissed because I AM, the symptom treating and BS diagnostic labels giving people a crutch, oh...I have fibromyalgia, and thats why I feel like **** all the time...keeps people sick and they give up because they now have a BS diagnosis, and they continue to treat symptoms until they are no longer able to function as a human.

Lives are being ruined please do better.

Sincerely, really,

Lori
Helpful - 0
351246 tn?1379682132
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
The symptoms could be exacerbation of the GERD.  It could also be hiatal hernia. Treatment is a combination of drugs to reduce the acid and lifestyle changes. You will need to take a combination of medications (under medical supervision) like a proton pump inhibitor such as omeprazole, lansoprazole or pantoprazole empty stomach in the morning and an antacid gel after meals for complete relief. Possibility of H pylori infection too should be looked into by a carbon urea breath test and a combination antibiotic tried. Many a times a persisting H pylori infection can be the cause behind acidity not responding to treatment.
Life style changes that will help include: Avoid heavy meals and eat frequent small meals. Avoid too much of caffeine, tea, smoking, fried food and drinks both alcoholic and non alcoholic fuzzy ones. Avoid heavy exercises within 4 hours of a heavy meal. Raise the head end of the bed by pillows to 30 degrees. Avoid lying down for least 2 hours after food. Maybe these tips will help you.
If these tips do not help, then liver function test, pancreatic enzymes, and HIDA scan for gall bladder should be done. Food intolerance and inflammatory bowel conditions such as IBS, Crohn’s, celiac etc should be considered.
You should consult a gastroenterologist (a specialist who looks after the diseases of our digestive system) or a physician for this if these tips reduce your symptoms. You may need upper GI endoscopy for confirmation and to know the degree of damage. Take care!

Helpful - 0
1521857 tn?1312425032
Not feeling really confident in my answer, but do you have a family history of kidney stones, endometriosis, or even IBS (irritable bowel syndrome)...?  
Helpful - 0
1539238 tn?1292861643
Pink,

Look up HPTH, hyperparathyroidism....your symptoms fit...the pain in the back is most likely kidney from having too much calcium.

Test to ask for are these PTH, Calcium and Vitamin D levels, also have a complete thyroid panel done.  Insist your primary run these simple blood test on you to avoid a delayed diagnosis.  

Get a copy of the result for yourself as well, dont take their word for it, many dont know what to look for in this condition and they will treat your symptoms to death with no cure.  Symptom treating is how they make all their money....not curing you.

Go to www.parathyroid.com to read about this condition.  If calcium and PTH are both high, and D level is low...an adenoma (usually non cancerous) is found on the parathyroid gland, the cure is surgical removal only.  

You will need to find a good endocrinologist to evaluate you if those three tests prove you have HPTH.  And go for the MIRP, minimally invasive procedure, takes twenty minutes, do not let them do an exploratory surgery on your neck for this condition...to dangerous and invasive.

Best wishes for a diagnosis,

Lori
Helpful - 0
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