Please help, I am 27, I have been in pain for 6 months.. I feel like i’m going to die sometimes?
I know this is long, but if you are knowledgeable about this stuff please read through it. Last time I didn’t get one answer and it really brought my hopes down.
I have been in chronic pain for 6 months now. I was afraid I would become one of these stories I was reading about in the first 2 months on the internet, now it looks like I am. I used to socially binge drink once a month, I am not that overweight, overall a healthy male. I never thought something like this would happen to me. It all started in June and the symptoms have kind of changed over the coarse of 6 months, but the more tests I do, the less I know. It is always confined to my torso area.
I have pain usually in my rear ribs (sometimes achy, sometimes burning), intermittent every hour. (sometimes on the left, sometimes on right) I know this pain is not really from my actual ribs, but it referred from some internal organ, because it will subside within 5 minutes. I will also get a very deep achy feeling on my front right side. (it lasted the entire month of august). This feeling really makes me depressed. It kills my spirits.
The pains I have sometimes wakes me up at night from being so achy. The doctors think I have IBS, but I read online that it doesn’t fit the criteria of ibs (pains that wake you up at night are not ibs it says.) If this is ibs, I do not wish this upon anyone.
The only relief I get are from strong painkillers (like oxy ir), but the relief only last for an hour or so then the pain comes right back. Doctors also don’t like writing prescriptions for this because of the "ibs" diagnosis so I am forced to deal with the pain.
After my first ct scan 6 months ago, I was told I had IBS and no further testing was needed. Well, I found out this wasn’t true, and that ibs is a diagnosis of exclusion, so I have undergone numerous tests (doing my own research and making requests, getting turned down, changing doctors) Thankfully I have good insurance, but have a HUGE deductable. This sickness is taking a toll on my relationship with my fiancee, financially, and in my computer repair business. I am always complaining about the pain and she is getting very tired of it. I am starting to cry from the sadness now every few days.
Here are my results:
ct scan when this all started in june- normal
Ct scan with contrast 3 months in – normal
Ct scan with contrast again 6 months later – normal
mri of abdomen/liver/pelvis with gado contrast 6 months into this- normal
abdominal ultrasound – normal
Hida scan with cck – 83% ejection fraction
rib xray – normal
small bowel follow through – normal (possible intestinal spasming seen)
hydrogen breath test – spiked twice at 2.5 and 3 hours (abnormal?)
cbc and various blood work – normal except elevated ferritin 386, elevated alt liver enzymes 141, elevated total and indirect bilirubin ~2.2 (they say I have gilbert’s syndrome which causes elevated bilirubin?)
colonoscopy 3rd month – normal
endoscopy 3rd month – normal
mri of thoracic spine – normal
hepatitis panels – normal
tsh thyroid test – normal
vitamin b12 test – normal
celiac test – normal
I have tried increasing my fiber for a few weeks, cutting out dairy, wheat, fasting for days (made no difference in the pain at all during the 2 days) nothing is working!
The doctors are starting to think I have an anxiety/mental problem causing this, but I don’t and my fiance agrees. I occasionally will go 5-6 hours pain-free, but then the pain will suddenly come on in my sides/ribs again. I did give in to one doctor who told me to try clonazepam for anxiety for a month and I did. It made absolutely no difference but make me tired with the pain. I just want the pain to go away most of the time, and to get back to my regular life before June. Does anyone have any ideas for me? I obviously have something that is very difficult to diagnose, and I don’t know if its ibs, but I know it is torture and If it weren’t for the few hours of relief I get when it subsides, I don’t know if I would want to live. If you have any ideas please help me.
I don’t know if it is worth mentioning, but I have had a muscle in my left thoracic back that went into spasm since this all started in june. Could this be affecting my small intestines? It is always bulging out when I bend over, but no real pain from it.
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Have they tried something that works directly on the nerves like neurontin?
December 27th, 2009 at 9:26 pmI had surgery to remove bone spurs and actually had a lot of pain from the nerves rebounding. Narcotics did nothing to help but neurontin helped a lot.
Also I can tell you, MRI’s don’t pick up everything. I’d keep trying new doctors till they got to the root of the matter. It’s not much of a life if you have to take pain pills all the time.
Since im 16 I can’t give you a for sure answer, but here goes.
The muscle bulging out may be from something pushing against it making it bulge out in such a manner. Sometimes your diet can also make your body react in very strange ways. My grandmother was having a similar problem and the doctor kept telling her that she had this or that, but it was because of something that she was eating on a regular basis. If I were you, I’d take note of what you eat, when you eat, and how often you eat it. Try changing up your diet a little bit and see if anything gets worse or increases.
Take notice of every activity that you do, and try to work out just enough to see what movements bother you the most. I know it sounds crazy to put yourself in pain just to see where it hurts, but depending on how you move, it can affect different parts of your body. Try your best to remember what the movement was and take note of it. Make sure that you don’t OVERLY stress the area that hurts by doing this.
Also, look up the side affects of any medications that you have taken within the last several months or so since this has been happening. Some medications take longer to leave the body, but are nearly undetectable unless they specifically test for it.
Take all of the information that you have gathered (make sure that you do this for about at least 2 weeks for best results) and go see a doctor. Tell the doctor everything that you have taken notice of and also mention stomach ulcers. Sometimes those don’t show up until it’s too late. I really wish you the best of luck and rest up whenever you aren’t taking notice of what your body does and feels like.
Please keep in mind that when you do "work out" that you must not strain yourself, take detailed notes. Maybe draw a human outline and circle the area that you feel the pain in. Make sure that you put the date on each one of them.
I wish you the best of luck, and if doing what as I suggested just remember that a 16 year old saved your life….well sort of. lol. Good luck.
December 27th, 2009 at 9:26 pmI am sorry to hear of your predicament. If it was me, I would commit to practicing meditation. There are no mountains unscaleable to you if you truly commit to climbing it. I had a concussion that crushed my skull in three places. The pain was unbearable to me, I couldn’t concentrate to do anything productive or even relax and enjoy myself. The key to my getting over my migraines was building my mind and body by practicing exercises for both. I promise you it wont be easy, but it will get easier. Good luck to you.
December 27th, 2009 at 9:26 pmI’ve had heaps of digestive problems, pain and swelling of the abdomen also for the last 1 1/2 years. I recently tried ‘Degas’ just from the shops and it helps. Also have you tried ‘buscopan’ or something simular (I live in Australia so we might have different drugs here, idk) it should really help with the pain.
These symptoms really do cause anxiety. I know because I am not at all an anxious person but I’ve recently realised that this has really made me a bit upset and anxious at times. Just try to relax when you feel the urge to get upset about it… Tensing muscles in the torso area really does make it worse!
At least if the colonoscopy came back ok it means you don’t have colon cancer (which is a relief!) and if the endoscopy came back ok that means you wouldn’t have lactose intollerance or celiac disease.
I know it’s really hard to deal with all this and it’s so frustrating with the doctors never diagnosing anything useful… same is going on with me. But it’s so important to relax and try to be positive about your life, otherwise it just makes everything so much worse! The area in which you have troubles is even more affected when you are anxious because the nerves are connected.
All I can really recommend are those 2 drugs. Degas is just for bloating and pain and gas, you might have alternatives around wherever you live. I don’t necessarily always have those symptoms but it still really helped me. Buscopan is more for the pain treatment and really targets your digestive system area.
I think that your intestines should be ok because they would have investigated them in the endoscopies.
The only other thing I can think of is suggesting antibiotics to a doctor. It may help you. I just got off a course of them and it made me worse, but I am sure they help many people. Also I am about to start antidepressants for the digestive system. They have NOTHING to do with depression, just to do with the digestive nerves and everything so that may also be worth suggesting to the doctor. Just suggest everything you can think of that may help!
Also maybe you could try cutting out fructose? It worked for me for a little while and gave me some relief. Mainly found in pears, apples, dried fruits, onions….
Also anything that you are eating a lot of at the moment, cut it out. Anything you crave, cut it out.
These could all be possibilities… Sorry I couldn’t help more.Hopefully you will work out what is causing all of this soon.
December 27th, 2009 at 9:26 pmMy ‘thing’ is thyroid.. I have seen far to many times that Thyroid results are called ‘normal’ when they are not.. either the wrong tests are run, outdated lab ranges are used, or the results are misinterpreted.
Do you know when the results were for your TSH test? Do you know if they ran levels for thyroid hormones.?
Quick prescreen test that you can do yourself.
Look at your thumbnails. See that white half moon at the base of the nail? Now look at your fingernails. Do they have their moons?
If not… thyroid problem… get those tests run..
TSH
Free T3
Free T4
Thyroid antibodies.
Before I got my hormone levels optimized I had Chronic pain in the rib area, front and back…. and no pain meds did a thing for it… whole long story with all of that…
anyway…. check the TSH results if you have them
if it’s over 2.0 you need the other tests run.
If it’s under 1.0 you need the other tests run.
lf the range given was something other than .3 to 3.0 you may need to find another doc, that has been the accepted range since January of ’03.. if the doc is still using the old one that went to 5.0 or 5.5… or is using the ‘standard’ that some insurance companies use that go up to 10.0.. you need to find a doc that will properly test and treat, if treatment is needed.
December 27th, 2009 at 9:26 pm