What can this pain be? Your experiences, please!

I had lap DS 190 weeks ago. One week after surgery, while I was still suffering severe nausea, I began to have ulcer-like gnawing pain. I was already on Prilosec. I was started on Zantac, too. That didn't fix it, so I was put on Carafate, too a week or so later. It was pain in my upper middle abdomen and just to the left and above my navel, even radiating into my back sometimes.(Which can be a sign of pancreatitis, but ACUTE pancreatitis or an ulcer on the back of the stomch, but both have been ruled out.) Finally I had an EGD (gastroscopy) today, and to my utter shock (and maybe the MDs), no ulcer was found! No gastritis, either, as least not visibly. The pain has worsened to the point I am up all night between short naps, and even Vicodin doesn't help much. It still gnaws/burns/aches like an ulcer, and it is helped a little by Maalox, etc. However, eating about 1/2 cup of bland food like yogurt used to be the only way to settle it down for 50-90 mintes so I could rest (and how unpleasant it is to eat during the night when you're tired--not hungry--you can probably guess). Now it's starting to hurt AFTER I eat, too! In a slightly different way, along with the pre-food pain. That's ironic, because whether the pain precedes or follows eating is an important diagnostic clue for the MD. Maybe I've been drinking bland liquids or snacking so often to relieve the pain that I can't tell whether it IS before or after! The whole upper belly is tender to moderate pressure. No fever, vomiting (rarely), but there are spasms because I can HEAR them sometimes. QUESTION: Did you experience anything like this, and if so, what did you find out? Did you get treatment, or did it get better on its own? I am desperate to get back to work, but on 2 hours of rest per night and with this pain all day, I'd make big mistakes--which, as a nurse, I don't want to do! Please share your stories so I might get a clue as to what else to investigate. I am too far away to see my surgeon so often, and had transferred back to my PCP. So far, though, the doctor I'm seeing has done just what the surgeon recommended. If I have to go back to the surgeon, I will, but it's a 3 hourdrive each way, which makes follow-up hard.---Jesse

We greatly appreciate your interest in helping us build our Q&A database. To discourage vandals from posting garbage, however, we require people to register before posting.

You must be logged in to post an answer. Click here to log in.