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New pain and can't explain, need help please.

Last night I was woken with a very intense pain that reached from halfway down my ribcage to below my belly button and all the way round my back. I need to use the bathroom but didn't know which end to point at the toilet! Lol. The pain and double toilet needs along with shivering and violent shaking lasted for about 2 hours and then subsided. I have no idea what happened and wondered if it sounded familiar to anyone, I would be grateful for any help. Thank you for reading.
 
I have had the same thing happen and just figure it is a flare and hope it doesn't send me to the hospital. Sometimes I am shivering to the point where I get two layers of pajamas and many quilts until it subsides. I'd keep a food journal and see if that is causing a flare. Mind you, this is just what I think causes it.
Best
Whit
 
Is this a first time incident? It sounds like you may be experiencing a partial obstruction (based on the not knowing which end to point at the toilet - had the same feeling many years ago). If it persists or recurs, you may want to get this looked at. Hopefully it subsides on its own.
 
Hello, how is your gallbladder & do you still have it? If you still have the gallbladder you might want to have your Dr. take a peek at it. They can check for stones with an ultrasound. Sometimes people can get inflammed in the area even without stones. Did you eat a fatty meal? It could trigger the gallbladder to act up.

Just a thought ~ ask your Dr.
Hope you feel better.
Much peace
 
Sounds like it could be pain of acute pancreatitis as well. Starts as a dull ache in that area, and eventually feels like knives stabbing through your back. Definitely worth a trip to the GI or emerg for some bloodwork. I hope it's gone soon.
 
Have you vomited or been bloated? Back pain can be a sign of a partial obstruction or horrendous gas.
Good luck, hope you figure it out quickly.
 
Thank you so much for your replies. I ended up having an ecg (which was normal) cos I called my local Dr on call who said it would be best to have it checked. He diagnosed that it was indeed another crohns flare and that it was just my crohns getting worse :(. I will definitely mention it to my gi who I will see shortly. I had wondered about my gallbladder but had forgotten about pancreas involvement (I have type 1 diabetes too) so I would like to rule out these further conditions. Recently I was hospitalised due to a flare and am currently on heavy pain meds, my gi requested an mri which I will have in 3 weeks then hopefully I may get done answers. I have had similar pain before but nowhere near as bad and ended up in hospital because of it and had experience of partial blockages before but they passed on their own. This time it was just so intense that it felt different. Thank you again for all your replies.
 
I've had similar experiences Lizbeth. I'm sorry to say most of these resulted in a short hospital stay, primarily for pain management unless they were accompanied by an SBO, which also lead to treatment for that.

In the mid term you might try slipping to a liquid diet until the flare passes - that has always helped me in the past.

Good luck, I know it's frustrating but hang in there!
 
Thanks ribo, you're right it is definitely frustrating. I've been on a "soft" diet since being in hospital in October, sometimes I've deviated though my appetite is rubbish and I don't eat much anyway but I agree with you that a liquid diet would be better for a while. I'm not feeling much relief yet and had another bad night last night. I considered going to hospital but my daughter was going away back to uni and I didn't want her to be worried about when she was traveling, I know I'm probably a bit silly but there you go. I can see if this doesn't settle soon that I may indeed end up in hospital again, I've been in 3 times in the last year already.
 
Lisbeth,
As far as pain is concerned my nurse practitioner explained it well. She said to pretend you have an open sore on top of your hand and then sprinkle it with spices or rub it with hard food etc and it will get inflamed and sore. This is what happens with Crohn's. My CT scans show diffuse mucosal inflammation which is the open sore and so for me it is important to just not eat hard to digest foods or foods that cause inflammation like Mexican or Chinese etc.
I eat lots of soups with some small amounts of animal protein and I've recently started juicing along with yogurt smoothies. For me it is small amounts all day. Make each bite count.
Good luck,
Whit
 
Hello and thank you Whit, I was talking about juicing just yesterday with my daughter as I drove her to the airport and it is something I think I need to consider cos I'm not getting enough of a good balance. I will definitely look into that and smoothies though I'm not a big fan of soups.

Well sadly tonight I did end up in casualty after attending my gp surgery earlier in the day. Turned out to be a big waste of time, all my tests were clear and Dr didn't think I had crohns and asked if I had ever heard of endometriosis ! They offered me a trolley for the night in a&e but they couldn't offer any treatment so after 7 hours of waiting in excruciating pain I came home no better off than when I started :(. They basically said there was nothing they could do until I had my scan which is 3 weeks away.
 
Wow, not even anything to help with the pain? I'm so sorry to hear you're having such a tough time.

Makes me feel guilty for whining the past few days about abdominal pain.

Hang in there. I know how frustrating it can be when you feel like all you can do is suffer and wait.
 
Please never feel guilty for "whining", this disease is horrendous and it is perfectly justifiable why we need to let off steam at times.

I was also told they didn't think it was Crohns cos I had no diarrhoea which is just rubbish, I felt like I knew more than they did, what came out the drs mouth was either rubbish or a blatant lie. I have been left feeling like I couldn't go back there when my pain gets as bad again yet my gp was worried about a perforation......why does it have to be so difficult?
 
Not that I'm aware of though I do remember on my first admission a surgical reg passing a comment that my bladder was ok?

I think I may be suffering from a partial blockage. My gp has put me on senna and lactose to try and prevent constipation but it hurts so much to go to the loo, maybe it's just the stool passing through the narrowing in my ileum but I just don't know what's going on and I'm struggling to manage so much pain :(. I'm counting that says to my mri.......13 says to go :).
 
I haven't heard of lactose as a treatment, but that means nothing - there's always more to learn. One thing that might help (of course check with your docs first) is a stool softener. It should make the bathroom trips a bit easier. Just a thought if you're really having painful BMs.
 

Trysha

Moderator
Staff member
Perhaps you mean lactulose Lizbeth, it is a stool softener and gentle on the system
Sorry to hear of all your pain and ongoing problems.
You certainly could have a pancreatitis or maybe gallbladder issues.
You should be in touch with your GI specialist as soon as possible.
Sadly with emergency rooms it all depends on which doctor is on duty.
Feel better soon
Hugs and best wishes
Trysha
 
Perhaps you mean lactulose Lizbeth, it is a stool softener and gentle on the system
Sorry to hear of all your pain and ongoing problems.
You certainly could have a pancreatitis or maybe gallbladder issues.
You should be in touch with your GI specialist as soon as possible.
Sadly with emergency rooms it all depends on which doctor is on duty.
Feel better soon
Hugs and best wishes
Trysha
Oh I'm so silly, of course it's lactulose I've been having issues with predictive texts and it got me again!!

Thank you both for the suggestion, it was exactly what my gp said so I'm going to give it a try cos my bathroom trips aren't much fun.....
 
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