I have read through most of the posts here on the digestive disorders board and I seem to be experiencing a lot of the same symptoms of those of you that have gotten no answers from your doctors. This in turn makes me verynervous! I have had dull pain for about two weeks now located very near to my left rib cage which sometimes turns into sharp shooting pains where I start to sweat and feel light headed. These sharp pains sometimes move around to my back and across to my right lower abdominal area. I am not constipated and I am not nauseated. I have had no change in diet or physical activity. I feel like I have to burp all the time and ocassionally will have diarrhea. Two nights ago I was up four times because of the pain so last night my husband took me to the emergency room where they did blood and urine tests which came back normal. They also took chest x-rays and could see that there was excessive gas in my stomach and it was explained to me that the pain "could" be caused by my stomach pressing on my left lung. The doctor however did not explain to me why I have this excessive gas and said I might want to see a gastroenterologist if the problem gets worse. I'm not sure if I should wait for the problem to worsen before I do something about it. I guess I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions or advice on what step I should take next.:confused:

I found your post quite interesting, because you described my symptoms too. Mine started almost nine years ago and I went to my PCP, who gave me a checkup and prescribed a antibiotic to make sure there wasn't some kind of infection that needed to be taken care of. When that didn't help at all, he referred me to a GI doctor, who ran every test you could think of, but mainly the endoscopy and colonoscopy, CT Scan, MRI, Barrium folo-through and I know I'm leaving some out. End result, Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

I'm not going to write a book, but I'll tell you I'm on disability from work and after all this time and trying many medications to help, I'm today taking Methadone for the pain and have Lomotil if I need it for the diarrhea. The narcotic pain med slows the bowel considerbly, so I don't have to take anything else too often.

Make an appointment with the doctor and have your GI tract checked and see if there is something else going on, but my guess is you have IBS. I hope it works out for you and they can find a way to get you some relief. You won't find too many doctors like mine, who are willing to prescribe narcotic drugs to help you.

Thanks for the info. I am going to have enough trouble finding a good doctor anyway. My husband and I moved to Turkey 4 years ago and it's hard to find doctors that practice good western medicine unless you want to pay out the ..... My husband is also a little more on edge because his mother was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer about a year ago so anything having to do with "that" area is a little more scarry for him. Thanks again for your help and I'll let you know what happens. :dizzy: