Sudden Stomachache persistent for 2+ months, not responding to anti-acids

Digestive health
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2+ months ago, my stomach felt fine, I had a normal body weight, was exercising daily and felt healthy and was living my best life. I’m in my early 30s and have no other conditions. For the past 5 years I’ve had a flexible vegetarian diet (and supplements), but I do have 1 cheat meal a month, mostly chicken sandwiches or ice cream. After the last cheat meal 2 months ago, after a mild diarrhea, I took 2 imodium tablets and the diarrhea stopped. The next day and since then I have had a burning sensation in my stomach, at the height of the belly button on the left side. I feel bubbling in that area as well. No reflux. Nausea is sporadic. Vomited twice in 2 months, clear liquid both times.
Pain ranges from a 1/10 to a 8/10 but it is always somewhat present. It feels worse when the stomach is empty or with small meals and there is no correlation between what I eat and pain. I’ve seen 3 general practitioners and a gastroenterologist, who have prescribed at different points, pantoprazole, esomeprazole, pepcid complete or famotidine alone, and dicyclomine, none which has helped. They added sucralfate recently and I’m not sure it’s helping much.

Have been losing weight since but not underweight yet. Fatigued at times, bone pain, but that could be the anti-acids. The dicyclomine made the stomach pain expand to other areas beyond the left belly.

I have had days when stools are normal frequency, and periods of 2-3 days where I don’t go number 2 (never had that problem before). Probiotics only help with that sometimes. When I go, stools look normal.

Regular blood tests came back normal and it showed I was not sensitive to gluten.
Ova/parasite stool sample came back negative.
Lipase was slightly above range (160) and was told to take viokase enzymes with bigger meals. I haven’t had big meals since but taking it sporadically anyways.
Full abdominal ultrasound came back normal.

History:

I had an apendectomy when I was a kid, so it is not that.
5 yrs ago, before turning vegetarian, I ate a lot of spice, and had reflux and an endoscopy showed irritation in the upper stomach. It was treated with omeprazole and sucralfate in 2 weeks and never had reflux again. This feels different.
I had h.pylori 10 years ago, it was treated with the antibiotics pack and it went away. Had a breath and stool samples and both came back negative. I was taking pepcid complete/dicyclomine during the exams (not sure if that affects results)

My educated guess is that anti-acids aren’t solving the root cause. No antibiotics have been given since this started, and perhaps I should have had - at least when this started.
No appointments available for endoscopy until the end of the year, so I’m pretty much stuck with this.
Any ideas?

Thanks for reading this.

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I’m starting to think that most people who post at this site are from the same region. So many of you share symptoms and in a handful of cases it looks to be toxicity from electronic cigarettes. Aside of that, if it actually is regional, it’s either environmental or dietary because many of you are sharing the same symptoms and it’s very interesting.

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Never had a cigarette in my life and I am not exposed to anyone who smokes. I do not drink either.
Environmentally, I couldn’t be living in a cleaner environment.
Did not have any issues with my diet until I went off it for a meal out and have been ill since.
Only thing I could think of at this point is food poisoning from eating out that went untreated, since I haven’t taken antibiotics for it.

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Hi @nic43646

I know this may initially sound far-fetched but could it be a muscle strain or tear? I had stomach pain (also on the left side) for a couple months and at times it would feel like a burning sensation. I tried some antacids as well but it did nothing. My “pain” didn’t really hurt as much as it was annoying and would prevent me from wanting to work out or even eat. I lost weight (~10 lbs) just because I was worried about my stomach and not sure if it was what I was eating. I just mention that since you said you were also losing weight. Muscle pain is sneaky, and it can last a while, especially in areas of constant twisting/pulling, etc like our core. I don’t recall hurting myself at all, which made the whole thing even more of a mystery.
You had mentioned supplements.. do you mind sharing which ones you’re taking? I told my GP about my stomach pain and shared the supplements I was taking which included Turmeric and she said that too much of it could cause stomach pain. I try and use it in spice form now vs. pills.
Another thought is that maybe your stomach is having a hard time processing dairy? I switched from a vegetarian diet to vegan about 2.5 years ago, but before I went vegan i would get stomach pain after eating cheese/ice cream, etc. It didn’t happen every time but enough that I could tell dairy was no longer my friend. Maybe cut out all dairy and see if that helps? Another thought is to increase your fiber intake so you can have more consistent bowel movements. I have sprinkled ground flax seeds on my cereal, vegetables, or put it in smoothies just to make sure I am getting enough. Additionally, I have started taking fiber supplements.
I hope you find relief soon, I know how frustrating it is to have ongoing discomfort.

Take Care,
Elizabeth