In so much pain... gas pains feel like labor pains above belly button

For me, acid presents as hunger and as gas, a reaction to foods.  When I moved to mushies, I experienced it, and switched PPIs a couple times till I found one that worked well for me.  Nothing since then, until I had a horrific gas episode last Sunday where my stomach filled with so much gas it pushed up on my diaphragm, causing unbelievable pain in the sternum area.  It also radiated upward into chest, shoulders, neck, jaw, head, back.  I couldn't take a deep breath, couldn't lie down - I actually slept sitting up b/c I couldn't move position.  I felt nauseous, burny, and above all gassy, belching every few seconds. I took Tums, Maalox, Gax-X, all of which helped bust loose the gas eventually.  The pain was so intense in my sternum area that even after the gas was gone and I stopped having to belch, the pain took a couple extra days to finally go away.  It happened after I ate a crustless quiche I made that had spinach in it, first time I've had spinach since surgery, but I can't IMAGINE that spinach alone would have caused such an episode.

Especially, after 8 months!  I had been taking my PPI faithfully (Prevacid, 2 in the morning) right along and was feeling so good I thought I might be able to cut it out, so I skipped a day a couple times during the previous week.  Apparently I woke up the Snarly Acid Monster, which has been growling ever since.  This is scary, what if that had happened to me while I was traveling or something???  The posts here about acid are very instructive, I'm not seeing that much on the VSG board.  Thanks, everyone!

 Thank you ladies for everything. My ER/Urgent care visit was awful. I will probably end up in the "real" ER tomorrow. I am still in tons of pain and they said it might be my gallbladder which would surprise me for where the pain is located and because I was having liver/gallbladder pain and had ct scans and u/s that showed nothing going on. However they did not check my gallbladder as they were closing. They did x rays that showed nothing apparantly and blood work that showed nothing apparantly. They didnt know what the DS was and it was just a nightmare.

On top of it all one of my dogs is really sick (both ends) and he wont take his meds for his arthritis for some odd reason. I am going to have to somehow get to the ER if the pain persists tomorrow and get him to the Vet. When it rains it pours!

Swinging schnauzers for you. Hopefully you wake up feeling better and puppy does too.

 Thank you hun. My main concern is I will feel better for a few days and it will hit again and I need to get down to the bottom of this and dont know how or what to do.

I also called my surgeons office and spoke with the Dr on call and he told me to stop the Iron and do a fleet tomorrow and go back to liquids if needed. He told me to ask the ER for an X ray which I did but they said everything looked fine. 

Not a good time for my doggie to be sick either. He has never went potty in the house and he is an older dog so he must have ate something as he has been vomitting and having bad diarreah. He normally takes his meds no problem I wrap up his 3 pain pills and his 1 arthritis pills in cheese or turkey and he gobbles it down. Well tonight he made sure he took the pills out and he needs his meds. Sigh! 

  Heidi, you may have to go to the pet store and get one of these pill guns or pill injectors for your doggie.  Sorry you are having these problems.  I would cut out the nuggets with flour and the BA  with sugar alcohols, go on a diet of broth,  jello and plain vanilla yogurt for 3 days.  If you go to the ER take a picture of the DS, and explain to everyone that it is possible for you to pass gas and have a BM if you have a bowel obstruction in you biliopancreatic limb.  Demand a CT with contrast.  They'll give you something to help with the pain (ask for it.)  Hope you feel better soon.  hugs, Jenny

Definitely cut out anything breaded. The flour would have done that to me. And the sugar alcohols. Same thing, although I get the crampy runs with sugar alcohols, too.

If you do go back to the ER, you must INSIST on a CT scan WITH contrast. It may take a fight.

I had a blockage in November and they were ready to release me from the ER without one. I told them that I'd just have to go straight to another ER and that, if they had a bariatric surgeon on call, they needed to call him ASAP. The bariatric surgeon approved the CT with contrast over the phone and had the results by the time he reached the hospital.

Did I gloat to the docs who ignored me? Indeed I did.

Maybe they'll listen to their patient next time. (though I doubt it)

 I am still feeling awful so I am going to go to the ER today. The other ER that I went to yesterday used to be Urgent Care but now they are a smaller ER (they dont have as many things as a real ER and cant keep people and have hours but they were about to get me in fast and I was in so much pain thats where I went). I dont quite understand why they wouldnt give me paperwork with my labs they drew and any results of the 4 xrays they took.

I will be asking for a CT with contrast. Do I want IV or oral contrast? I am hoping its IV as I dont think I will be able to get the oral down right now. I am also going to mention the other Dr saying it could be my gallbladder and have them look at that hopefully. 

In my move my husband misplaced my DS binder (my bible) so now I am freaking out. I usually always bring that with me and now I cant find it. Going to have to get him to go somewhere to print out a picture because of course we cant find anything for the printer yet either. Moving stinks. 

In other news my ass is killing me once again from straining to try and go to the bathroom. I guess I am going to have to mention that. I have an appt with a NP for that on Wed so I dont know if its worth mentioning that along with this awful acid reflux that is getting worse by the day even with my Protonix 2x a day and added in Zantac. 

I will update when I can. Thanks for all the continued help and support. 

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