April7

Hi everyone.

First off, I have a history of ibuprophen use in high doses. I have had 3 knee surgeries and always have relied on it for pain.

At the end of September I started to feel what I thought was indigestion. It would only ever happen late at night around bedtime. I would eat a lot of Tums and it would seem to help. I had never had indigestion before so it was strange to me, but I tried to let it go.

Mid-October it was increasing a lot so I started taking Prilosec OTC. I took it for 14 days with no relief. The indigestion was frequent and I was getting worried. Tums and Rolaids offered no relief at this point.

November 11th I went to a pot luck and ate some chicken wings, rice, chips and queso dip, and a beer. I started to get indigestion and we left early. An hour later I was in the worst pain of my life. Burning, terrible pain in the middle of my upper stomach. It hurt worse than anything I ever felt. I never went to the ER because honest to God the pain was too bad for me to get off of my couch to wake my boyfriend to drive me there. I thought I would die. It stopped suddenly at about 5 am, and then I just felt a dull ache in my entire abdomen area.

The next morning I went to the doc and they put me on Nexium and ordered an ultrasound to see if I had gallstones. I had none. Since the first episode I started having chronic indigestion-type burning that could be very intense.

2 days later I saw a GI. She ordered an upper endoscopy with biopsy. With my use of ibuprophen she thought ulcer or gastritis. The following Sunday, after having been on Nexium for 5 days, I had another episode and went to the ER. They did nothing for me, just gave pain meds and said follow up with GI. GI put me on Bentyl 30 minutes before I eat. It does help a bit with the constant burning and makes me more able to eat. I strictly began adhering to an ulcer/gastritis diet.

Last week I had my endoscopy. I have some mild redness but no ulcers, lesions, GERD, etc. Just some minor irritation that they believe would not cause this kind of pain. He suggested a HIDA scan. Found out yesterday the biopsies were all normal.

Was in the ER again this Sunday and the doctor did an ultrasound and saw no gallstones. She did however think I need a HIDA scan. She made sure my GI ordered one immediately. I will be having that tomorrow.

Symptoms tend to be a chronic burning in my very upper abdomen. This can be very intense. I have pain in both the upper left and upper right quadrants. It is worsened by eating. My pain is doubly worsened by eating anything with fat in it, or by eating until I am full. I need to eat small quantities of fat free foods, and make sure I don't eat too much. Otherwise it seems like I have pain. I have lost 10 pounds since 11/11 because I have mostly eaten white rice and oatmeal because they are 2 things that fill me up and don't cause bad pain. When I am having an episode, I do feel pain radiating to my back. Also, when you push on my stomach the only places that are tender are the upper middle abdomen and the upper right abdomen under my ribs. Mostly the upper middle though. Blood work has been all normal.

So, does anyone have any ideas at all?

I'm so upset and frustrated. And hungry. It hurts so much to eat and it's really starting to bring me down.