bksw

I'd like some opinions from anyone here who might have a similar experience to mine. Last October I had a bout of abdominal pain below my right ribs a little right of center. I thought it was my gallbladder. Prior to this I had noticed for some time, an awful lot of very loud stomach growling and stool changes including thin stools and mucus. Anyway, the pain lasted for days and I saw a gastroenterologist who didn't seem very concerned about it but I ended up with a colonoscopy due to family history of polyps. The result of that was all clear but the next day I became extremely ill with chills, dizziness and anxiety. It seemed like a possible reaction to the demerol they gave me for the colonoscopy. A week later I was still under the weather with fatigue and some abdominal "pressure" mostly when sitting, so I went to a family practice doc and had all manner of blood tests done. I was concerned about my liver by that time because prior to this I had drank more than I should and the initial pain came on one night after I had eaten some fatty food and had 3 glasses of wine. The blood tests all came back fine the doc said. He said there's no way it's your liver. Well, I got better after a few more days and didn't think anything of it. I also didn't know whether I believed him about the liver, so I didn't drink for the next two months. This year, feeling all back to normal, I went back to having from 1 to 3 drinks at night, about 5 nights a week. I had some heartburn off and on, which was helped by famotidine (pepcid). Then the pain came back one day, this time like a ton of bricks. I had terrible burning pain all along my right ribs and below a couple of inches, going all the way around my side and across the back. I had chills and wouldn't eat, lost a lot of weight. My anxiety was through the roof and I do have panic attacks and general anxiety anyway so I wasn't sure how much of my symptoms were from that. I thought it might go away like the last time but over a week later it hadn't so I went to the doctor who did all the blood tests again, did h. pylori, stool tests, and eventually a CT scan. All were normal, and during the time this was going on, the symptoms were changing week to week. After the rib area pain subsided I got horrendous heartburn (sharp stomach pains) and a lump in my throat and back pain, along with "heat" sensations all over my abdomen centered on the stomach. The week after that, the heartburn ended and I had pain along my upper spine, neck, and even TMJ-like symptoms, as well as numbness in my arms and joint pains. Now, a couple of weeks after all that, I'm eating and my weight's going back up, I still have "pangs" in that one spot a couple inches below my ribs and now also just to the right of my belly button where it actually hurts to push on it. I don't think I'm digesting fats very well...mostly I've avoided them completely but if I eat ice cream or even 5 or 6 potato chips at night I'll wake up nauseated and I'll have a lighter color stool and stomach discomfort. I also still have the periodic "heat" sensation on my abdomen, like I have a heating pad on it. The diagnosis BOTH doctors gave me was STRESS. Really, my question is, doesn't this sound like pancreatitis or hepatitis...could stress truly have caused so much pain??? The GI doc has me taking Librax, which actually does help a little bit, and prilosec, which I believe does nothing at all. Thanks for ANY input you may have! I am not sure I believe these doctors, but I must admit that I have suffered from panic attacks and anxiety for years and I could very well be in total denial here looking for a biological cause for the pain. Also as a result of all this I did start some counseling and my counselor also feels that it's entirely possible stress could be the root of the problem, she still feels I should explore other medical explanations if other tests are warranted. Have my doctors ignored a true medical problem because they feel I'm hysterical? ANY OPINIONS? Thanks!!!!