Hello, I’m thindle. I’m 21 and a college student. I’ve had problems with my stomach for all of my life. When I was younger I had chronic stomach pain that almost never went away. My parents took me to many doctors to try and find the problem, but no diagnosis was ever made. These issues started when I was in the fourth grade and lasted until 8th, where I slowly became better. Eventually, my symptoms went away. I still occasionally had severe pains and other stomach issues, but I ignored them because they didn’t seem like a big issue.
During December of 2015, I very suddenly became ill. I had extreme stomach pains and diarrhea. Initially, I ignored this too, but after a couple of days where the symptoms did not go away, my mom made me go to the local clinic. The doctor who saw me said it was probably IBS, told me not to eat any gluten, to keep a food diary, and put me on dicyclomine. They did some blood work, and it showed that I was slightly anemic. Some of the pain seemed to go away, but a lot of it remained in my upper right abdomen. Going gluten free didn’t seem to help and when I looked at my food diary there was nothing I could identify that made things worse except for just eating in general.
I had a follow up appointment with my doctor and she said it looked like a problem with my gallbladder. I’d already lost some weight by then, only a couple of pounds though, and she had me get more bloodwork done. My anemia had gotten slightly worse, but not enough to be alarming. She scheduled me for an ultrasound of my gallbladder. I got that done, but the results came back ‘negative’. They didn’t tell me what for and I didn’t know how to ask. I’m not really sure how to navigate the medical system very well on my own and there is only so much my mother can do for me.
My doctor then set me up for an egd and a colonoscopy. The doctor who did those also thought it must be a gallbladder problem after I described my symptoms. However, my results came back and they said I had ulcers and that the tissue samples showed chronic inflammation. We tried to get me in for a cat scan because my doctor still thinks it’s a gallbladder problem, but failed repeatedly because the insurance wouldn’t go through. We kept trying for about a month before giving up because the insurance basically told us that they were not going to pay for it no matter what we did at the time. In the meantime, my doctor has taken me off of dicyclomine, and put me on omeprazole instead to try and treat the ulcers.
My pain has only gotten worse and spread. I’ve been having problems with headaches, I’m exhausted almost all of the time, and while I still have the specific, sharp pains in my upper right abdomen, I have a lot of pain all throughout my abdomen a lot of the time, and an ache in my back. My anemia has gotten a little worse again and I’ve lost more weight. Only a little, but it still has me worried. I’m hoping to see a specialist about the bowel problems on May 16th.
It’s very hard right now because I’m taking a lot of classes at college and the health problems are making it difficult to stay focused and feel anything but hopeless. I’m already behind because of how many classes I’ve had to miss for medical stuff, along with being a year behind in my major from changing it in my freshman year. I was going to be able to catch up but now I’m not so sure. I’m especially frustrated simply because I really don’t understand what’s going on medically. I don’t know what a lot of the terminology means and I don’t have a solid diagnosis to look into.
So far, it looks to be IBD, but it could still be a gallbladder problem. I’m tired and stressed and I’m not sure if there’s anything I can do right now but wait.
I was wondering if anyone else had a similar situation to mine or had some advice.
During December of 2015, I very suddenly became ill. I had extreme stomach pains and diarrhea. Initially, I ignored this too, but after a couple of days where the symptoms did not go away, my mom made me go to the local clinic. The doctor who saw me said it was probably IBS, told me not to eat any gluten, to keep a food diary, and put me on dicyclomine. They did some blood work, and it showed that I was slightly anemic. Some of the pain seemed to go away, but a lot of it remained in my upper right abdomen. Going gluten free didn’t seem to help and when I looked at my food diary there was nothing I could identify that made things worse except for just eating in general.
I had a follow up appointment with my doctor and she said it looked like a problem with my gallbladder. I’d already lost some weight by then, only a couple of pounds though, and she had me get more bloodwork done. My anemia had gotten slightly worse, but not enough to be alarming. She scheduled me for an ultrasound of my gallbladder. I got that done, but the results came back ‘negative’. They didn’t tell me what for and I didn’t know how to ask. I’m not really sure how to navigate the medical system very well on my own and there is only so much my mother can do for me.
My doctor then set me up for an egd and a colonoscopy. The doctor who did those also thought it must be a gallbladder problem after I described my symptoms. However, my results came back and they said I had ulcers and that the tissue samples showed chronic inflammation. We tried to get me in for a cat scan because my doctor still thinks it’s a gallbladder problem, but failed repeatedly because the insurance wouldn’t go through. We kept trying for about a month before giving up because the insurance basically told us that they were not going to pay for it no matter what we did at the time. In the meantime, my doctor has taken me off of dicyclomine, and put me on omeprazole instead to try and treat the ulcers.
My pain has only gotten worse and spread. I’ve been having problems with headaches, I’m exhausted almost all of the time, and while I still have the specific, sharp pains in my upper right abdomen, I have a lot of pain all throughout my abdomen a lot of the time, and an ache in my back. My anemia has gotten a little worse again and I’ve lost more weight. Only a little, but it still has me worried. I’m hoping to see a specialist about the bowel problems on May 16th.
It’s very hard right now because I’m taking a lot of classes at college and the health problems are making it difficult to stay focused and feel anything but hopeless. I’m already behind because of how many classes I’ve had to miss for medical stuff, along with being a year behind in my major from changing it in my freshman year. I was going to be able to catch up but now I’m not so sure. I’m especially frustrated simply because I really don’t understand what’s going on medically. I don’t know what a lot of the terminology means and I don’t have a solid diagnosis to look into.
So far, it looks to be IBD, but it could still be a gallbladder problem. I’m tired and stressed and I’m not sure if there’s anything I can do right now but wait.
I was wondering if anyone else had a similar situation to mine or had some advice.