Constant Abdominal Pain, nausea, change in bowel habits

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Hi. I feel like my life is on hold and falling apart right now. until a few months ago i was a healthy 39 year old male enjoying life. I started to have a strange pain above my belly button and to the right. After a few weeks, the pain moved to the left and I start to get belching and nausea and change in bowel habits. I've never had any digestive issues in my life up to this point. The pain has got steadily worse and eventually I signed off work as sitting at a desk was too uncomfortable and the pain was affecting my concentration.

My GP started to treat this as a suspected ulcer or gastritis and gave me omeprazole. That seemed to help the nausea somewhat but did nothing for the pain. A week later, the nausea was back so the GP doubled the dose of omeprazole. Nausea settled down as long as I don't go too long between meals (3+ hours and i start to feel really rubbish again).

I've since been going to a consultant colorectal surgeon who's directed some tests but has found nothing so far other than slightly raised calprotectin. I'm waiting on a meeting with an upper GI surgeon (pancreas, liver specialist), an MRCP in a few weeks and we're doing a colonoscopy next week even though he's said there's nothing really to indicate a lower GI problem at this point.

Test wise:

  • 1x Gastroscopy - nothing found (no ulcer, no inflammation), biopsies all clear
  • 1x Abdominal Ultrasound - nothing found
  • 1x Abdominal CT - nothing found
  • 2x GP standard blood counts. Everything fine (inflammatory markers, liver function, kidney function, bilirubin etc)
  • 1x blood test for coeliac, negative
  • 2x H. Pylori - negative in stool and confirmed negative in Gastroscopy
  • 2x Fecal Calprotectin - first was 170 (2 weeks since symptoms started), second was 65 (6 weeks into it)

After my Gastroscopy results, my consultant advised reducing the omeprazole dose to see what happened and over a few days the pain has got worse and nausea is back with a vengeance, waking me in the middle of the night.

My current symptoms are:

  • Constant pain in the middle and left of my abdomen, under my rib cage. There is a spot I can push which is sore. Sometimes a pulling sensation when moving in a certain way. I cannot lie about and play on the floor with my 3 year old daughter because it is too painful to twist and roll about. A sneeze or belly laugh hurt.
  • I have had back pain in the middle back left, under my shoulder blade from about 3 weeks into this which has steadily got worse. This is aggravated by some simple things like brushing teeth or chopping food. However, I can lift a heavy box no problem.
  • I haven't done a normal poo in about 2 months, with it varying from type 5 to type 7 on the stool chart, the vast majority type 6. I have had no stomach cramps but I do sometimes feel the need to go after a meal even if nothing comes. Typically I'm going very first thing when I wake up but sometimes I'm going 3 times per day. It's never been really pale/yellow or clay coloured, but most of the time smells very strong, has had bubbles, a few bits float from time to time, and generally seems to dissolve into the water.
  • I am drinking 2L+ water per day yet my urine is coming out way more yellow than normal (not orange).

From reading around, all I can find that seems to match is chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer or people who have all these symptoms but the Drs can't find anything and leave them to it. Is there anything else that could explain all this? I'm going crazy with worry, and now suffering from anxiety which, along with nausea, is waking me multiple times per night. I want to hold onto some hope that this isn't my life now for the rest of time.

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