I am desperate to help my daughter.
She is 25, trying so hard to look after her 3 year old and study at Uni for her nursing degree but her pain and problems are really interfering with her life!!
She has been getting awful stomach pains, cramps and bloating for a few years now. She gets terrible headaches on a regular basis and they seem to be getting worse and lasting for days even weeks at a time (an MRI came back clear). She is going through a lot of inhalers even though the doc says her chest is clear!!
The coeliac blood test came back clear so we are at a loss as to what it could be.
She does have an underactive thyroid which is currently managed well.
I cannot think what else may give someone a clue as to what it could be - the doctors act disinterested and seem to be fobbing her off. She gets incredibly embarrassed of needing to go to see them and now is just trying to manage but she is miserable.
As a mother it is so hard for me to see her suffering so much.
Please if anyone can help or advise, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
The only person that should be getting headaches is her GP. Get her to have a look at any meds she's on for side effects. Some take a while to show so even if not present right from the beginning of taking them. Is there a pattern tied to foods she's eating ? Get her to ask the GP surgery's Practice Manager if they're going to get to the bottom of the problems without a formal complaint. She should feel free to state that it's having a negative effect on her mental state - and rather than feel embarrassed, she needs to see the situation as a fight - hence the threat of formal complaints.
She could ask the GP for a second opinion. That may sound like 'just words' but it's more than that as it doesn't mean an opinion from someone else in the practice. The GP can refer her to a hospital - and you should be able to choose a hosp of your preference that deals with those problems.
As my Dad said several years ago - in this day and age, there's no need to suffer pain in silence. So nag the GP.
She's only on thyroxin but been on them 6/7 yrs now.
I intend to insist they sort her out and i don't give a damn if they think i'm an interfering mother!!!
Thanks for your input. ;-)
I too suffered with severe stomach cramps and diarrhea for over 4 years, I would get up in the morning and have to dash to loo about 5-6 times then I would be ok for rest of day, sometimes I would eat something and within 20 mins bang stomach cramps and dash to loo. I had loads of tests done all came back fine, I began to think it must be something I am eating and drinking so for over a year I started to notice after eating certain foods it triggered stomach cramps but it was a wide range of foods and usually high in salicylates, after about another 6 months I thought long and hard about what I had changed in my diet when it all started and it was about the time I wanted to improve my diet and I had changed to olive oil for cooking. I cut that out of my diet immediately not holding out much hope and hey presto no more stomach cramps and dashing to loo and I am able to eat and drink anything I want the olive oil must have been reacting with other stuff causing me to not realise what the culprit was. My point is if all tests are coming back fine it has to be something in her diet. Good luck x