Medical Questions > Conditions and Diseases > Abdominal Pain Forum

upper (mid) abdominal pain - all tests normal.

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I have been suffering from very sharp upper abdominal pain for about 6 months. It started off as what I thought was food related. About 1 hr after eating, I'd get these sharp pains that felt like swords were stabbing me from the inside out about 3 inches above my belly button. Nothing could give me relief; I'd just have to wait anywhere between 10 mins to 2 hrs curled in a ball for the pain to pass. I never considered myself an unhealthy eater to begin with, but I then changed my diet to eating very little amounts (wasn't sure if it had to do with the fullness of my stomach), only crackers, rice, soup etc., and saw a GI doctor. He did blood work that came back normal, and an endoscopy that came back as mild Gastritis and Esophagitis and put me on a prescription for Dexilant (similar to Nexium I think) once a day. After a few weeks the pain let up and I slowly eased back into normal food (still healthy foods and not much alcohol), but then out of the blue last week I woke up with a stomach ache that progressively got worse and more intense throughout the day. By about 1 o'clock I had this terrible stomach ache that turned into these attacks every 15 minutes or so where my entire stomach had this sharp sword-like stabbing feeling, almost spasming... like a charlie horse or something, but sharper and in the upper middle part of my abdomen. This would let up a bit and then suddenly an even sharper, more intense attack 15 minutes later. After hours of excruciating, tumbled over, screaming, contraction-like pain, I was rushed to the ER where they admitted me overnight with morphine drip for the pain. Long story short (or am I already too late for that? they released me without doing any tests because no GI doctor could come see me to order them. So I saw my GI doctor the next day who sent me to have a CT scan and a HIDA scan with cck, both which came back normal. Still now, a week later, my stomach just doesn't feel right. It feels much better than that attack I had, but I can't live with these "normal" results because I'm scared to death it's going to happen again at any moment! I hate how doctors offices call you and say your test was "normal" and hang up as if that's it. Has anyone else experienced attacks like this? Most people I talk to jump to the gallbladder as the cause, but so many tests have said it's fine. Plus my pain is in the upper middle, not the upper right quadrant. Any ideas what this might be? I'm seeing my doctor in 2 weeks for a follow up, but I'm scared he's out of things to test! Any ideas/ similar situations?? I'm scared to set it off again and I don't even know what does it!
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replied November 10th, 2011
Hi it sounds like it could be abdominal Migraines I have recently found out about these as I have had similar problems but was ruled out for me also IBS do you suffer diarrhea? Other option is stress response you can get councilling to help with this. Don't know if helps at all but few options I have similar problem definate pain but with all normal test results its really annoying!! Good luck
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replied December 8th, 2011
i have the same exact pain and have been rushed to the ER as well. i am an 18 year old female and every test has come back normal. when i was 15 i had an upper GI done, normal. i was in the ER this past march for the same excruciating pain with a fever and pain urinating. also, the pain radiated to the back of my ribcage. in the hospital i had blood work, urinalysis, xrays and morphine. nothing helped & everything came back normal. two weeks later i was sent for a ct scan, normal. about two weeks ago i went for an ultrasound to see if it was my gallbladder? ...nope, normal. today i went for the gastroscopy, apparently everything looked fine. i think they did a biopsy to look for bacteria, and ill get my results back in a few days. im scared of the pain. its usually almost all day everyday. ive lost 30 lbs in a year since this pain has gotten so bad. no one can figure out what is going on and i just want relief. no antacid has ever worked for me and id like to at least know what is the main cause so i can avoid it, and finally get some treatment. good luck. i hope you find out whats wrong soon, i feel your pain;(
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replied January 11th, 2012
Hi everyone, sorry to hear about your pains and the lack of a clear diagnosis. I have a very similar experience. I am a 43 year old male, I work out 5 time a week, don't smoke, very occasional drinker (once overy three months or so) eat healthy and I am in very good shape. I have every test done under the book (my dr. Calls me the million dollar man because of all the tests) they all come back normal, which is good. My question would be do you have any increased stress lately? The reason I ask is because I am seeing a clear pattern in my symptoms when I am feeling more stressed. The irony is that feeling the symptoms make me feel MORE stressed. This all started happening two years ago when the company I worked for after 15 years went out of business. I didn't have any lapse in employment thank god but I can pinpoint the date to about 2 months after that happening. I am trying to reduce the stress (far easier said then done) and I am also going to try a gluten free diet for three weeks to see if that works. One word of caution, the Internet is an awesome tool for finding information, but it can scare the hell out of you as well. They might be frustrating and could use a course in customer support, but stick with your doctors they really are the only true source of information
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replied January 11th, 2012
Hi everyone, sorry to hear about your pains and the lack of a clear diagnosis. I have a very similar experience. I am a 43 year old male, I work out 5 time a week, don't smoke, very occasional drinker (once overy three months or so) eat healthy and I am in very good shape. I have every test done under the book (my dr. Calls me the million dollar man because of all the tests) they all come back normal, which is good. My question would be do you have any increased stress lately? The reason I ask is because I am seeing a clear pattern in my symptoms when I am feeling more stressed. The irony is that feeling the symptoms make me feel MORE stressed. This all started happening two years ago when the company I worked for after 15 years went out of business. I didn't have any lapse in employment thank god but I can pinpoint the date to about 2 months after that happening. I am trying to reduce the stress (far easier said then done) and I am also going to try a gluten free diet for three weeks to see if that works. One word of caution, the Internet is an awesome tool for finding information, but it can scare the hell out of you as well. They might be frustrating and could use a course in customer support, but stick with your doctors they really are the only true source of information
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