New here and looking for help

[Cobalt]

Hello everyone. I've come across this forum in my quest to figure out what is going on with myself.

I am currently having abdominal pain, lower left side. Also on the upper middle area, just below the sternum. It is crippling pain that will come and go without warning every 3-6 months. It lasts for a good 5-10 days. This has been going on for quite a few years, but I have never made heads or tails of it.

I've been to the doctor a few time because of it, but xrays and bloodwork show nothing. Aside from one xray that did show part of my large intestine (the lower left side of the abdomen) very 'enlarged' and 'looks like constipation' except that I was having normal bowel movements.

Doctors have said that it is some IBS and likely just something that I keep eating. I find that hard to believe because I follow a fairly strict diet and the pain comes out of nowhere with no changes in eating habits.

Its also been suggested that it is stress related, because I am on an antidepressant for depression. Again, I'll be on my medication and have no negative stress and the pain shows up.

I always take pain killers and peptobismal for the duration of the pain and it goes away. I've never though to look into it further.


However, this current bout of pain that I'm in, someone suggested it may be Crohn's. I've been looking into it for a few days and I feel that I have a lot of major symptoms to seriously consider it a possibility, or at least something similar like UI.

Any suggestions about what I should do? I'd like to go to my PCP if for nothing more than the pain, but is there a better course of action, such as a specific type of specialist to go to?


Thanks for any advise!

 

[Orchid]

You should ask for a referral to a Gastroenterologist (GI) if you suspect you have a serious digestive illness. Avoid all NSAIDs outside acetaminophen as they can make CD worse. You could easily have some form of digestive illness that has difficulty showing up on blood work, but you really need to talk to a GI.

 

[theOcean]

Have you gotten tests done outside of blood tests? I'm going to tag Orchid here since she has a much better idea of tests than I do. Have you have a colonoscopy, or endoscopy?

Also, if you do think this may be IBD, you really shouldn't take pain killers, since that actually is really hard on our stomachs.

If you want to be referred to a specialist, the one you want is a gastroenterologist, or what we call a GI. They can help you much more than your PCP can.

 

[Cobalt]

Would my PCP be the one to refer me to a GI? I really have never had to deal with a major problem that my PCP couldn't handle, so I'm not sure how it works (hence why I'm here).

Never had anything outside of bloodwork or xrays done. I also think that the PCP at the time that did bloodwork was looking at just white blood cell count, thinking I had an infection.

Thank you.

 

[theOcean]

Yes, you should be able to just ask your PCP to refer you. Even if you feel it's something your PCP couldn't handle, it's still best to go to someone who specializes in the area you're concerned with. My GP thought my stomach problems were just stress, and it turned out I had CD and she was very, very wrong.

What you should ask for instead is for them to look for any inflammation markers, outside of WBC.