All my life .....Stomach trouble

Hi, I am 45 years old and suffered with so many stomach symptoms over the years that I hope this information might help someone to not feel alone!!

As a child my stomach would make me lie down and rest and often my appetite would be very small. When the bad stomach passed I would be able to eat normally and I would eat everything. I could never identify a specific food causing the problem, but I could have an attack and be sat on the loo, until it passed. Rest was always a big healer and the only way my stomach could sort itself out. I was a nervous child and most people would say I was nervous, but this would happen suddenly sometimes and I knew in myself that my stomach didn't work properly.

At the time my gran who was a nurse almost guessed that there was something going on with my Liver, as I looked mildly yellow.

As I got older my stomach problems expanded due to the stress of going to work. At 17 years old the episodes of stomach trouble were then diagnosed as IBS. The fatigue and shear exhaustion kicked in, as working made you tired and the rest was not available as it was when you were a young child.

So I battled on with these episodes that would occasionally make me have time off work or I would suffer at work, just thinking that I have IBS and this is the way I am. I never really ever felt well. The attacks stopped my career as a qualified Spatial Designer and stopped my confidence to move away from my family to London where the work was, as I knew that I would have days that confined me to lie down and rest. How reliable would I be in a fast paced career like that.

So by know I take an office job in my 20's where I knew I will could sit down on those bad days and struggle on with out being noticing I was ill.

As the years went on, I had two boys 12 months apart. One birth was very demanding and stressful on my body as he was very large and the other was so large that a C section was performed. After the births, both being difficult, I looked so yellow. The photos of me show how my body and my Liver must of been coping. And off course at the time, I felt ill.

This period of time was a blurr. Obviously with the care of 2 babies, the exhaustion of two years of being pregnant, followed by two heavy babies to lift, no sleep, breast feeding and of course my very bad stomach. I felt terrible.

So I ended up at the doctors feeling so sick and ill.......I ended up on anti sickness drugs to cope. Then the doctor did a blood test and continued to tell me that I had IBS and was tired. Then the Gilberts Syndrome was found on the results and I was told that this wouldn't be causing me the symptoms.

So like you do, you look on the internet and everyone is saying about the symptoms that I had. Goodness, a revelation........but no medication or acknowledgement of these symptoms!

I have explained to many doctors that people report symptoms but they almost don't want to hear that. Are they trained to believe only what they have been told. If lots of people have stomach pain, exhaustion etc, why are they not open to this?

So at this time I am about 34 years old. As my two boys grew up my pain then progressed and with my pain over the years some other factors have come to light that I am convinced may be related or are linked by the Liver's difficulties.

I have several allergies now as I've aged.... Hayfever from age 17 years, Allergy to Mould, Rosin (Sap of Pine Trees), Sodium Metabisulfite (preservative in Food medicines), very sick on aneasthetics. My body and my immune system is under stress and can not process these.  All of these allergies have been confirmed by the hospital and often my stomach will be bad when there allergies flare up.

Also I was diagnosed with Endometriosis and after years of so called IBS the Endometriosis was also on my bowel and was causing bowel problems. 

Endometriosis is an autoimmune condition and I always think if my immune system is suppressed, surely the vital role of the Liver and the high levels of Bilirubin must be a factor in the ability for my body to cope. I had my Ovaries removed at 41 years old and I was so lucky that I had two children, as the Endometriosis had not stopped me reproducing, like so many women.  

So I am now 45 years old and experiencing days of terrible pain in my stomach, odd episodes of needing the loo and lots of tiredness. I have brain fog alot and can not concentrate. Some of this pain in my stomach might be scar tissue from the Endometriosis and I fear bowel problems/function problems. But after having  breath tests,  3x Endoscopies, 2x CT scans, 1x MRI last year to look at my stomach in detail and lots of blood tests over the years, everything single one has come back NORMAL.

Everytime the result is normal it is such a relief, but you almost wish they could find something wrong with you, to fix it and then stop the stomach pain.

I know get pain under my right rib cage which is new this year, so possibly in the Liver area. My Doctor says it could be Fibremyelgia. Another autoimmune condition!! Is there a link here? I think it is my liver or Gallbladder, but I am so tired of guessing and just have to keep remembering that all my results are NORMAL and I am well!!!!!! Really!!

I feel a lot of pressure in my stomach now and I have back pain aswell. I lead a very busy life style and I'm sure that really you have to be completely lazy and rest to control this. When and if I feel a bit better, I will write on here again, to remind you that there are good days. If only there was help. I wish doctors and scientists would get on with helping us.

Please can more research go into this condition!!

So today I am sat here 14th September in lots of pain in my stomach, this episode started mildly at first in June/July. Whilst on holiday in July, probably after eating lots of lovely food (full of fat and cream) that was there in the restaurant, having some alcohol of which I can't usually tolerate at all and after the stress of getting everything done to go on holiday, I had a terrible night sat on the loo feeling sick and a day in bed exhausted unable to move. The following days I sat by the pool and went onto a basic diet and started the detox, that I forget I should be on permanently to stop the pain.

All Summer I have been in pain and find it hard to sleep. When I sleep at night my stomach can actually wake me up with the pain. It almost hurts more when I am lying down. I get pelvic pain a lot and a deep pain in the same area of my stomach all the time. The weird thing is that when the pain lifts, it goes suddenly! And I almost forget how bad it gets. But to be honest it never really leaves me for long.

I hope this doesn't make people feel worse, as I have definitely had a journey. I live in fear of something being seriously wrong with my stomach and they are missing it, but this is because the pain for me is so specific to one area in the middle of my stomach.

I take Easomepresol tablet for the acid and belching that comes with it for me. And I have Meloxicam for the pain. But I find that I can take them for several days initially to calm down a bad episode then the tablets make me feel ill, probably the Liver not liking the drugs as it has to process them as well as being compromised by Gilberts Syndrome.

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