Glad you're feeling better. It must have been so frightening for you. Keep us posted on your progress and what the GI specialists say.

Hope you are feeling much better today.

Sue

That must have been frightening! I hope it was one of those weird passing things that sometimes happen, never to be experienced again.

I really hate the way health professionals are treating symptoms without knowing what is wrong. Pain is our body's way of telling us there is a problem.

This spring one of my employees wasn't feeling well, that night at about 1 a.m. she went to the ER. They gave her pain meds, told her it was probably a twisted ovary and sent her home with instructions to see her GYN. The next night she went back....they added antibiotics. The nest morning her abdomen severely distended and she was in so much pain she could not stand, she returned for the third time.

She had appendicitis and it had burst. She was in ICU for 4 days.

Stay on top of them.

Sounds like when I was diagnosed with IBS- I thought the MDs were quacks or were humoring me. I had never heard of IBS and thought it had to be some kind of "crack pot" diagnosis. I have since learned that it is REAL.

Only time I have ever been in the hospital was for severe GI pain. Took about 2 months for me to finally find a GI MD that would LISTEN to me and after a colonoscopy agree with my self-diagnosis of a severe reaction to a "stomach bud" combined with extreme stress. After 9 years, I am STILL fighting to have the misdiagnosis of Ulcertive Colitis removed from my medical records!

Good luck and I FEEL for you!

I suggest the same... follow up on this. Our neighbor also had the same problem as lynn above. Three days after his intial pain, they found his appendix had burst. By then, it was a mess, 3 surgeries and 2 wks. in the hospital. He lost 30 lbs. and there is a law suit going on. The initial set of scans showed beautifully the burst appendix and it went totally missed!

Your description of the pain makes me think of my hospitalization last summer.

One morning I developed excruciating pain on one side of my abdomen and a fever. Something like being repeatedly stabbed through by a sword. It got so bad I couldn't stand up without help. By the afternoon my husband insisted on driving me to our HMO, where I was hospitalized for three days.

They took pictures, ran tests, gave me antibiotics and morphine but never figured out what was wrong. Suddenly, in the middle of day three, the pain stopped. I was sent home that night. The pain has never recurred.

My guess is that I passed a kidney stone. They had not saved my urine to check for a stone, so we'll never know for sure.

As others have said, it pays to be assertive with our doctors. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Feeling muuucccchhhh better now. I will be having my GI specialist request all the ultrasounds from last night -- maybe they'll see something. In the meantime, I'm getting tired of apple juice and sprite, but I'm glad the pain went away. I was supposed to have lunch with some gals today at Gordon Biersch, but I don't think Lager qualifies as a clear liquid! Oh well.

Oooh, I know that kind of pain well. I am sure they tested for a bowel obstruction when they did the ultrasound.

I get horrible pain like that in waves if I have eaten anthing dairy first thing before I have eaten anything else. Last night it happened because I ate a sub with cheese on it. I almost passed out from the pain while visiting my sister. I have learned that slow panting helps relieve the pain somewhat but I don't let anyone see me do it. LOL

Sorry you had to go throught pain like that and not know what caused it.

Anne

It's possible that it was a reeeeeeaalllyyy bad bug; I've heard that you can be in dire pain with other results just from this, but of course only your doctor can tell you what happened. Wow, that sounds horrific and I'm very glad you're feeling better, mntnwoman! I don't remember whether you also live in the mountains, but if so, that would have been quite a trip the hospital. Glad you made it safely.

Sorry you were having such a terrible night. As you know, I recently went through something similar with kidney stones. And in 1995 went through it several times with gall stones until they finally took the darn thing out. Can't do that with kidneys, so have to drink 4 liters of water (10-12 cups) a day and cut out salt for the rest of my life.

I hope you get some answers. At least once you know what it is, you can treat it and it isn't as scary as not knowing. The way you described the pain though, it sure sounds like either gall or kidney stones.
Clare

I hope all will be okay.
Lu

It was painful just reading this thread! I have a friend whose appendix burst (after twice complaining of abdominal paid). And another acquaintance whose appendix burst just a week before his wedding although I don't think he saw a doctor beforehand. Still....I can feel for them.

One of my closest friends has had G.I. pain very bad. Her doctor ordered no Fructose Syrup anymore and also no fruit. Don't know how he came to that conclusion but the pain was so bad she does watch very carefully what she eats. Man, that high fructose corn syrup is in just about everything that is processed! I have been noticing that myself. She noticed a great improvement and when she falls off the wagon and has something processed she says she can tell.

Petaloid, what you describe certainly sounds like a kidney stone. I had a terrible experience with them a couple years ago. I had to go from work to my doctors office. I also had a kidney infection and a fever. They did a MRI and found a 5 mm stone and scheduled me for surgery since I had the stabbing pain as long as a week later.

After I had the surgery and woke up they told me they found no stone and I must have passed it on my own. Boy, was I mad. I've never had surgery before or since so what a waste! They did find several smaller stones when they did the scan and I don't know if I passed those without knowing. My urologist recommended acid-y type drinks to aid with breaking up the stones. Crystal Light is high on the list of recommended drinks.

Well, I was much better today. I am a bit concerned since the doc said I had not passed any stones, gall or kidney or otherwise. I guess it could have been bad / wrong food -- I had had a pea salad with beans, onions, cheese cubes, and mayo. I had eaten it the day before with no problems, though. The rhythmic aspect of the waves of pain is what threw me -- so different than any other GI pains before.

Off to bed with Lortab (liquid vicodin) and a strong antacid.

Did they consider diverticulitis?

Sorry you were having such a terrible night. It must have been frightening as much as painful.
I sure hope you don't have a recurrence . Please let us know what you find out from your doctor.

Linda