Abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, and weight retention

My husband is in severe stomach pain for the past two weeks so I've been looking everywhere online for answers, to no avail. After an emergency doctor, primary doctor and gastroenterologist(sp) - nothing has been diagnosed and medications are not working.

But, in reading many of these posts symptoms I have a suggestion for some if not all posters. Please stop eating/drinking anything with aspertame, Nutrasweet, sorbitol, malitol, etc as an ingredient. I went through many of these symptoms when I was in college: bloating, diarrea, constipation, flatulence...couldn't keep food in me. It was the Nutrasweet I was consuming. I then realized I became 'allergic' to sugar alcohols (sorbitol, malitol, etc) and had the same symptoms with those.

I hope this info might be helpful to some people here.
Please try it.

Everyone with these symptoms should be tested for Celiac Disease - I suffered from the age of 16 to 34 until I discoved Celiac - I cut flour, wheat, rye and barley out of my diet. The stomach pain, bloating, frequent trips to the restroom have all stopped - no meds just an adjustment in my diet. After following this for 2 months and feeling better than I have since a teenager - I had to eat gluten (wheat) to take a blood test to confirm Celiac Disease - it came back positive. 1 out of 133 Americans have this disease and only 2% of the people suffering have been confirmed. I was told I had IBS, Chron's, gastritious - you name it - they said I had it - it truned out none of those were true - Celiac Disease caused all my issues. I wish you all the best and hope you get tested - all it is a blood test. Good Luck!

I've had the symptoms everyone described for a few days now. I've been having diarrhea and noticed very thin white small looking worm things. I found an over the counter medication to treat it its called Pin-X (Pyrantel Pamoate), its a single dosage and doesn't taste too bad. I was originally planning to take vermox instead, but you have to have prescription for that so instead I'm using this pin-x product. It says that it causes the worms to be paralized and passed out of the digestive system normally. Will have to post back to let you know how things worked out. Maybe this will be of some use to others.

You don't have to read all of this, but it would be greatly helpful if anyone could just post whether or not they've had any diagnosis!

I'm a 15 year old girl and have been very sick since labor day weekend of this year. I've lost 23 lbs since labor day weekend and the pain is continuing. It hurts worse when I eat, but even when i'm cleaned out, the abdominal pain is still completely awful. The pain is on the left side and hurts in my back in that same spot. All of this started with abdominal pain, so we figured it was a stomach virus. Well, after a week of this, we went to my pediatrician. He didn't know what it was, so he referred me to a pediatric gastroenterologist. My gastroenterologist had a CT scan done, and they found an ovarian cyst. So, we then got referred to an OBGYN. After going to them, they put me on birth control to control the cysts and make the existing one go away. After about 6 weeks of the birth control, we went back for an ultrasound. They said the cyst had cleared up, but my symptoms still continued. The abdominal pain was still just as awful as when this all started, but I started getting severely constipated (in the initial start of all of this, it was diarrhea, then vomiting, then diarrhea, then constipation). Well, the chronic pain continued, so we went back to the pediatric gastroenterologist. In november, they did an endoscopy and didn't find anything abnormal with the biopsies. After that, they did a HIDA scan, but they couldn't do the second part because my gallbladder didn't show up and they had to give me morphine, which makes the test not work. On the 9th of this month, he admitted me to the hospital. I was severely impacted. My whole large intestine was completely full of stool. At home, I had tried 12 peri-colace, 6 correctol, 12 doses of miralax, 3 bottles of magnesium citrate, and 2 fleet enemas. Even with all of those laxatives, nothing came out. Then at the hospital, they decided to give me more magnesium citrate, which I had already had at home with no results, but whatever. Nothing resulted from that. Then, the night of my admission, we had a resident come in. He asked my mom to leave the room and started interrogating me about "Why haven't you eaten today? Did you eat breakfast? When was the last time you had ate? What did you eat?" It was simply ridiculous. I was NPO, so I wasn't allowed to eat that day. I had eaten the night before I got there. So for the first two days, I got accused of being anorexic (which i'm clearly not, but do they not get that food makes the pain worse?) They don't understand that it's not a problem with eating, it just doesn't come back out AND it makes the pain worse! Anyways, the next day they had 2 psychologists and a psychiatrist come in. All of the psychologic team said that I showed no signs of an eating disorder. They said I had a little bit of anxiety that was caused by the fact the doctors can't find out what's wrong. They also said that whatever I have is a physical manifestation of a physical problem, and the doctors need to find it. One of the psychologists said that the resident had heard "Teenage girl, massive weight loss, and dancer" and accused me of anorexia based on that information. Then the next day, I had another CT scan. Supposedly, nothing looked abnormal. Then the next day I had a barium enema test, while I was still fully impacted. That is the most awful test on the face of the planet. I basically just pooped the water straight out. It didn't get hardly any stool out at all. Again though, they said nothing looked abnormal. Then I had ANOTHER gallbladder exam (since the first one went corrupt) and nothing looked abnormal. So, my gastroenterologist came in there and said that he thinks I'm cleaned out and I should start eating again (without a KUB to even see how much stool was in me). So, I ate regularly like they wanted me to and did MiraLax twice a day while I was still in the hospital. My gastroenterologist came in on Sunday night and started shoving on my stomach. He wasn't aware that I was STILL fully impacted again! I still hadn't pooped after eating regularly in the hospital. He yelled in my face and started talking about his MCAT scores. He also stated that if he can't find it, there's nothing wrong. My mom had a list of 19 tests and things she wanted him to look for. The only one he would do was bloodwork. When he was looking at the list, he was like "oh it cant be this because..." Well, how do you know it's not that because you obviously don't know what it is! But he decided the next day (Monday) that they needed to do an NG tube of GoLYTELY. So, they cleaned me out with that. Then my mom suggested a colonoscopy (a pretty common test!) PLENTY of times. I was willing to do the colonoscopy! He said he "probably wouldn't find anything with it", just like everything else. He also told my psychological team to "get in there and find something wrong with me". How professional. After 6 gallons of GoLYTELY, I was cleaned out on Wednesday (they actually did a KUB to check this time!) No one would address the fact that even though I was cleaned out, THE ABDOMINAL PAIN WAS STILL AWFUL! I tried to tell them "this didn't start with constipation. it started with severe abdominal pain", but I felt like no one was listening. My gastroenterologist had made it pretty clear that he gave up on finding it. They sent me home with an anti-depressant/anti-anxiety medication. It hasn't done anything to help my symptoms. On my release paper, they diagnosed me with "IBS & Visceral Hypersensitivity, a general anxiety disorder, fecal impaction, and constipation" I'm so sick of them using IBS as a cop out. But they released me on the night of the 16th because they said insurance wouldn't pay any longer (since they hadn't diagnosed a problem worth being in the hospital for a week). So, since I've been home, I've been doing MiraLax twice a day, walking around a lot, staying very hydrated, and eating healthy foods. And guess what, I'm constipated again! I've done about 3 bottles of magnesium citrate in the past week, with no results. Enemas never help me, so I didn't use those. I'm just so disappointed, mainly in my gastroenterologist. But my mom and I are going to another pediatric gastroenterologist soon. We're just STILL waiting for the hospital to send my medical records! My mom wants to see everything that they have checked for, because they've said "oh yeah, we checked for that" for multiple different things, but we've never seen anything on paper. After the hospital ordeal, my mom had taken my brother to our pediatrician the Friday after I got out for a check-up on his pneumonia (which I had had about 2 weeks earlier) and she told my pediatrician all about the whole ordeal. He said "MCAT scores don't determine how good of a doctor that you are" and he said that there is definitely something wrong, and he'll get me a referral to where ever we need to go to find the problem.
Since this started, I haven't been able to attend school (i'm on a homebound program) and I haven't been able to go to dance either. I haven't really been able to do much of anything at all. I just wish they could find out what the problem is SOON!

Has anyone gotten a proper diagnosis and had it treated?

I have major cramping pain in my right lower abdomen followed by gas that won't go away. It is very painful and even parolizes me for days. I can go number 2 but not much comes out each time. The dr. says I have IBS she gave me med and it went away well it's back and I found out it never goes away but they can stablize it with medications so go see your dr. for relief u will thank yourself for doing so.
xoxo good luck B

Here is a little Joke my BF told me it's better to be told then writen

how do you spell Relief????

if they answer R- e- l -i- e- f

say no:

F- A- R- T

I hope that out a smile on someones face it made me laugh.... good luck with finding your relief humor is good med

Hello I would just like to say I also have IBS and only really goto the toilet when I use senekolt. It can be 7 days where I dont go until I use them for relief. I suffer from bloating and abdominal pain mostly down right side. I have found certain foods tend to make it worse so try and figure out what they are and avoid them as other than that I dont think theres a cure, its just something you have to live with. I know stress can also flare it up so try not to get stressed about it too much. I know with me cheese, white bread and spicy food certainly dont help but I still indulge sometimes and then put up with the bloating getting worse. Altho I am mostly constipated I also have bouts of diahorrea. I can live with this but the bloating I'll agree is very annoying as I can sometimes look pregnant and like to go out at weekends and its hard to hide when it goes out. I got medicine from doc, spasminol but didnt feel it helped me much so have not continued taking it long term

I am just now this past week experiencing the same symptoms everyone is stating but my pains are worse at night with bloating so bad it feels as though my ribs are being crushed along with my internal organs! I have had little bowel movements this week and I have even tried laxatives which have not kicked in yet....which I find very odd! I haven't been able to sleep all week and no matter what I eat my stomach bloats up and I have a full feeling for hours upon hours....wondering if it has something to do with gall bladder or kidneys or some other internal organ that may be causing this???? I have no health insurance and am currently unemployed so seeking expensive hospital treatment I know I will not be able to pay for I thought I might write a reply to your post because I am experiencing the same symptoms and I too can not lose weight no matter what I do and I myself use to be under 100 pounds and now for some reason whether I eat or not gain weight and can not get rid of it and I also had my thyroid tested because thyroid disease runs in my family but the test keep coming back that I have a normal thyroid function...so I am clueless as to what is going on inside my belly as well!


Laura- New Jersey

i have exatly the same smptoms as you but I have been diagnosed with ceoliac disease. Although it could be IBS, i belive that through experience most of you probably have ceoliac disease, or even lactose intolerance. To diagnose ceoliac disease you have to have an endoscopy and also, nowadays, a blood test. Good luck.

judarsh wrote:

[I have the same problem as you. im sick of it. and i cant find anything wrong medically. its been 9 months that I've had serious constipation with a lot of abdominal pain. ive tried everything. now im on Zoloft, just a few days now... how is it helping for you?

quote="Guest"]It sounds like IBS to me. There's two types. IBS with diarrhea, and IBS with constipation. I have the second one. It's awful. Abdominal pain, constipation, gas... it hurts, big time.

I also have a problem with weight gain, and being able to lose it. Basically, I can't.

My doctor put me on Zelnorm.. and because I have such a bad case of IBS with constipation, and he also put me on Zoloft, which is a depression medication (and I have that too), because reduced Seratonin levels (which are part of depression), also "slow" everything else down too, like mood, bowels, everything. Makes your entire body "sluggish".

So seratonin also helps with constipation sometimes too, if depression is also one of your side effects.

Still, I often have probs with constipation, along with other symptoms that led me to believe I might have hypothyroidism. My doctor did blood tests though, and I don't have that. So I'm thoroughly stumped, and almost feel despair because I can't figure out what's wrong with me.

If anyone knows what else could be causing these symptoms, please let me know as well.

Thanks.

Don't give up on being checked further for hypothyroidism. I strongly suspected I was hypothyroid, but my tests never showed. They checked my anti-thyroid antibodies, which were very elevated, indicative of sub-clinical hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's disease. My TSH was never "abnormal" according to the normal ranges. I also found out later that my TSH was above 1, which is not recommended by the endocrinology association and considered hypothyroid regardless of the ranges.

This Message is in reply to the below threads and the common trends I found in them all.

I would be very wary of any doctor that immediately prescribes anyone on any form of anti-depressants. Depression, in my opinion, is not something that only a few people get, we are all able to have depression, its not a freak disease or mental state. Its an American way of culture, and its "symptoms" are definitely treatable. Diet, exercise, and a healthy dose of loving yourself. We have much much more cases of depression in the US than anywhere else in the world. Its not our genetics, its not our people, its our unhealthy lifestyles and culture. We are one of the few cultures that works as much we do with little vacation, eats as much chemically enhanced foods, is as lazy, and is as obsessed with how other people perceive us visually.

so i found it tragic sounding that these people who said they have IBS in one paragraph, and then said they felt depressed about it and their doctor prescribed them to zoloft?!!! That is madness!! You of course felt down, you were ill! There is nothing wrong with your mind or your normal state of happiness. We are human and things effect us in many different ways. I think everyone needs to take less medications period. IBS is a real situation, my father had it...but it turns out it was caused by STRESS. He didn't change his lifestyle, and in fact the stress increased, and his symptoms for IBS became symptoms for cancer of the lymph nodes.

less pills, more natural organic foods, exercise, and giving yourself a break. you will be healthy and happy.

has anybody found a diagnosis? I am having horrible stomach pains, gas, either days of constipation or then days of diarrhea - and it's getting worse!!! I have gained 40 pounds in the last year and a half and no matter how much I work out I don't loose weight...a year ago I had a an upper GI scope and it showed nothing - possibly a start of an ulcer but nothing to cause pain - and blood tests came back regular...I haven't gone to a doctor again because basically they dismiss it as IBS - I feel like som :cry: ething is wrong with me....HELP! ***this post is edited by moderator *** *** private e-mails not allowed **
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I truly understand the 15-year old who posted in '09. I'm the mom of a 16-year-old with exactly the same problem -- months of it. I agree that not all doctors are geniuses. My daughter also missed months of school. She's on a modified schedule, now. She can handle half days, even though it still hurts.

Two emergency room visits and two clean-outs, upper & lower GI endoscopy, and tons of lab tests revealed . . . wait for it . . . ok, it revealed nothing. The digestive equipment appears to be in working order. IBS is the usual diagnosis at this point. I'm completely convinced IBS has causes, though.

We opted to see a gynecologist -- a very good one. The pain was intense (narcotics didn't even touch it, so she quit them and just endured the pain.) Laparascopic surgery was the best option, just to have a look and fix anything fixable. And we found . . . wait for it . . . endometriosis. Huzzah! A real cause! The doc removed all the spots she could find, and some intense pains went away within a few days. (Endometriosis in teens, by the way, used to go unrecognized because it can be so small and look like simple little blisters. Those blisters can cause excruciating pain, bloating, and weight change, apparently.)

We thought the trauma would end.

Only problem for us: there was more pain that did not diminish. Nobody in the last six months -- not the pediatrician, not the GI, and neither emergency room team -- ever wanted a stool sample. To me that seems, well, lazy. We were fed up with the GI doc we had seen. The expensive drugs he prescribed had truly scary side effects. We asked more trusted docs for antibiotics. Did two rounds. The pain went down a little (from a "10" to an "8".) Intense bloating after eating starchy foods got even worse, though. This led to lots more research.

Here's what I found out: the critters that usually live in harmony in the guts can really get out of control. Along with the antibiotics, my daughter modified her diet to be mostly vegetables, protein, and low-starch carbs. We saw less bloating. I'm taking this as a sign that whatever is eating her isn't getting quite as much of the food it loves. Maybe a small selection of pathogens is re-adjusting. We want to finish off whatever balancing act needs to happen. The plot recently had a twist, though.

One day, there were tiny worms in her stool. Gross. But Eureka again. We're asking the doc to test for and treat parasites.

If this doesn't work, we'll go through some more methodical testing for unusual levels of the following microbes: Blastocystis hominis, Brucella, Coxsackie Virus, Toxoplasmosis, Campylobacter, Streptococcus, Salmonella, Dientamoeba fragilis, Staphylococcus, Giardia Lamblia, Ascaris, and Candida


If you want the sources for this list of pathogens, do a search online for: "IBS, pathogens" then "IBS parasite" and "IBS, bacteria"

We're not done with this problem yet, but we're certain to triumph in the end. There are synthetic drugs and also natural remedies to change the balance of power inside the intestines back into something more like ideal. We might explore both worlds. Plus, we'll look into the emotional and dietary factors that might have led to such an awful conglomeration of symptoms. We'll fix that too.

Life is a puzzle to be solved. That's why you're born with a brain. Nobody has to accept a treatment plan that says, "Too bad for you. Live with it." That's ok, temporarily, but we're determined to find the wonderful world of "normal" again. Good luck to everyone who's got the same issues.

Same problem, im in my 20's, exercise a lot and go through periods of weight gain and IBS, both ways. I have found eating less, and much smaller portions at a time, cutting out dairy, bread, nuts, sugar and starch really helps, and peppermint oil capsules, the strongest that you can get.  

I had gained weight, and then lost a lot of it.  I was put on Zoloft for depression, and I have gained a few pounds back...about 10 pounds actually.  I get the feeling like throwing up whenever I eat, I am extremely fatigued, I get sharp pains on my abdomen, get very gassy, and then I will feel like I need to have a bowel movement, and not able to have one, or if I do its very thin, and will need to make more than one trip.  I wan to go back to the way I used to be. I went from 135-200 pounds, went down to 169 with diet and exercise, and am now at 179.  please help!