Intense brief pain episodes - best treatment?

Digestive health
1

Hi folks,

I've been googling really hard trying to diagnose my issue, and come up with a few potential causes but can't find much relating to my exact situation.

Occasionally, I have a sudden onset of incredibly severe upper abdominal pain that has me writhing and whimpering in agony, utterly incapacitated, until it suddenly subsides. Untreated, these episodes generally last between 5 and 15 (very long and anguishing) minutes. I have seen some symptoms where stomach pains linger for 6 or more hours, but never as brief or painful as what I experience.

Here is a bulleted list of details and symptoms I experience:

- Swelling/bloating of the upper abdomen

- Severe sharp, gnawing pain in the central upper abdomen for 5-15 minutes.

- Occasionally cured within ~2-3 minutes by chugging liquid antacid immediately upon symptoms arising.

- Attacks sometimes do not occur for months, but often after having one, I will have 2 or 3 within days of each other

- Often followed by runny stools for 1-2 days

I recently had an episode, then the pain lingered at a moderate level for roughly 20 hours before subsiding. During this time, I had no appetite, bloating, runny stools, and occasional nausea. After recovering for a day, I had another acute pain episode lasting a solid 15 minutes.

So friends, what do you think is the diagnosis here? Symptoms fit a diagnosis for ulcers, gastritis, food poisoning, and more... But I have not found any mention of what these brief, acute pain episodes might indicate. The recent prolonged yet milder episode, sandwiched by the severe and brief ones, have me worrying and researching again.

Does anyone have any thoughts? I would also love to hear any ideas to counteract the pain from these horrible attacks. When antacid fails or is unavailable, I feel the need for something else. Thanks for any info in advance, and don't hesitate with additional questions!

2

IBS could be another possibility. Have you tried a food diary to see if the problem is food? Have you been under any stress?  Have you tried seeing a doctor for tests and a proper diagnosis?  Googling your symptoms will make you worse because it will cause anxiety. I had constant stomach pain, constipation nausea and back pain along with  severe anxiety about my symptoms. I went to my doctor for help after suffering for two weeks.  I had to see several doctors, had lots of negative tests over three and a half months and eventually I got a firm, definitive diagnosis of IBS.

It was a very gruelling time for me with panic and hyper health anxiety because at first no one knew the cause.  However, seeing a doctor worked for me.  Google made my anxiety far worse.  Your best option is to see a doctor.

 

3

I have seen a doctor, my primary is a gastroenterologist. He had me try the antacid when the problem arose, which worked initially but not the last couple of times.

Here are some possible factors I've noted:

- Too much acidic food with no bases like milk to counteract it all day. I love spicy stuff, and it seemed like the problem would happen after eating hot sauces or similar. But this is not always the case.

- Overeating could be a factor? Pushing the stomachs limits would, I would think, make it easy to create a problem involving acid reflux, ulcer pain, or whatever.

- stress could be a factor but I don't openly exhibit anxiety symptoms usually. It would have to be some sort of subconscious anxiety. I am actually on my honeymoon in Aruba right now - I couldn't think of a less stressful situation, so while possible, stress does not seem like a key factor.

- I think the most likely answer is food intake, or maybe alcohol. The recent episodes I can recall have occurred after drinking, which would further point to a reaction from certain chemicals in the stomach.

I will be revisiting my doc after the honeymoon, meanwhile I'm just trying to not ruin the experience for the both of us by constantly being unable to eat or drink all of the things we paid for in the all-inclusive price. What bad timing for this stuff to pop back up in my life!

4

I would avoid spicy food and limit or avoid alcohol if you suspect they have triggered symptoms. Eat little but often.  The period leading up to your wedding may well have been subconsciously stressful withe the amount of planning involved.