Severe pain, told to “forget about it”

[Glitterballofdreams]

I’ve been experiencing pain in my abdomen for two months, it’s increasingly gotten worse. I saw my GP on 3 separate occasions, had blood tests and was referred for an ultrasound.
Last week the pain was so severe I went to A&E, I was kept in for two days and had an ultrasound & blood tests. Doctors couldn’t find anything wrong and discharged me with painkillers.
i attended the ward twice more in agony, had a CT scan and two more loads of blood tests. All of which were clear, yet I am still in severe pain. Alongside this I have become very dizzy and have blacked out twice (I am anaemic and I fear all the bloods they took have made this worse).
I visited my GP again today as I cannot function with the pain and dizziness, I am bedridden and am having to have family members help me look after my children. My GP told me today to forget about the pain and it will go away.

i am so upset, and fed up. I know that it is very reassuring that the scans showed nothing, yet why am I still in so much pain?!

has anyone had any experience of abdo pain that went away?

Go back to the GP and do the following.

1. try and see a female doctor
2. go in business wear - take a handbag.
3. take a man- preferably your husband or dad to repeat everything that you say. So you say “I’m in constant horrific pain” and they repeat “I have seen her in constant horrific pain.”
4. write your symptoms down in a note book with dates and times. Or even better a spreadsheet that you print off. Be really specific about bleeding, pads, exact times of symptoms. Give them a copy and ask for it to be added to your record.
5. similarly, write a timeline of when symptoms started when you went into hospital the tests they did and any meds they prescribed. Preferably typed. Give them a copy, and ask for it to be added to your record.
6. explain that the pain is affecting your ability to work, parent and do day to day activities like shower, do the dishes and drive a car.
7. decide what you want before you go in. Do you want endo investigations? Make that very clear what you’d like from the consultation.
8. if (when) they fob you off, say politely “that’s not going to work for me so can you get a colleague to give a second opinion”. When they say no one available repeat politely “I insist on seeing someone for a second opinion”. Get your man to repeat what you’ve said.
9. research the guidelines for gynaecology referrals and try to find some evidence of when a referral is recommended.
10. if the above does not work, complain to the practice manager, attaching your symptoms and timeline of events. Repeat your wish for an urgent referral.
11. make a data subject access request to both the GP and your hospital requesting copies of your recent records. This is free- template letter on the ICO website.

Does the MN hive mind have anything to add?

This really sounds like endo to me. Heavy periods, previous c-sections, abdominal pain in shoulder the same as an ectopic pregnancy. I think you need to push to see a gynaecologist.

I despair that we still fucking living in a world where a man's word is given more weight that a woman's, but sadly, here we are. The above will probably work.

I had severe abdominal pain in my right side just under my ribs and ended up in a and e. They gave me morphine which I have to say was absolutely marvellous. They weren't quite sure what it was but went with a twisted ovary. I had an ovarian cyst and the weight of it had something to do with it. I think the term is ovarian torsion? Did they do a scan of your whole abdomen? Another alternative they did explore was kidney stones. But I'm guessing they have tested for that already? Edited to say the pain was excruciating and I had had it on and off for a while before it ramped up to morphine needing proportions. I feel really sorry for you. If you can't do normal everyday activities you need medical help, are there other GPs in the practice?

Did they do a urine dip? This sounds blindingly obvious but I got discharged after 4 days for similar pain and it was pyelonephritis, which they missed because nobody did one.

The morphine was amazing. 😂

Have you thought you may have gastritis? Sounds similar! Worth checking out if everything else has come back clear x

Truly amazing but by then if they had said I'm going to hit you over the head with a brick and you won't have the pain in your side I would have said go ahead.

Yes they did urine tests x

Oh god yes. I’d been in agony for about 8hrs by that point and they were insisting they could only give a couple of paracetamol.

Have you recently put on or lost weight? As fat cells change they can form a 'globule' around a nerve, causing trapped nerve pain. I had this, diagnosed by a pain management consultant. Before that I'd been seen by gyno & had a colonoscopy, the consultant diagnosed me in 30 seconds by pressing my stomach in a specific way.

I had similar symptoms,had all sorts of investigations,but a colonoscopy found diverticulitis.

My severe abdominal pain has always been ovarian cysts, usually never getting above 5cm as they always rupture around that size (which is agony) except for my most recent one, which grew to 12+cm and half twisted my ovary and I recently had surgery to remove it. It’s a horrible pain!

I too have been struggling with right sided pain where appendix is that goes on a nice radiating journey round my abdomen until it feel like it is running with liquid nitrogen. If I lie down it improves. Had Cat scan, blood tests, etc all came back clear. The GP after sending my to Urgent care due to hideous hideous pain twice, thinks I have an impinged nerve either in my pelvic floor or my abdominal wall. fabulous a diagnosis what are we going to do - nerve painkillers for six months and hope your brain forgets about it. At that point if not we can inject it with anaesthetic and ablate it if it’s not going to cause continence issues….

if you pick me up and shake me I probably rattle and just about cope, have a good day - do too much and end up in bed before the kids. When my husband works away my parents have had to come look after my kids as all I want to do is go to bed.

You have my sympathies OP

I was watching Loose Women the other day and they had Kate Lawler on. She’d been suffering with agonising stomach pains where she’d been in hospital multiple times, had scans, collapsed etc but they couldn’t find anything wrong. She happened to go to a doctor about the varicose veins in her legs and through questioning they discovered she had varicose veins in her pelvis which was causing Pelvic Congestion Syndrome. She had a simple treatment and is better now.

I’d never heard of it until she was on. It might be worth thinking about. The interview is if you want to watch it

Look up hepatic flexure syndrome.

if CT is clear I’d be pushing for a colonoscopy.

I got offered diclofenac by suppository and I was in so much pain I’d have agreed to my head been chopped off. I would have preferred oramorph but actually did give a surprising amount of pain relief in a short amount of time.

You are anaemic and have severe abdominal pain… have you had a colonoscopy?

You can get biliary symptoms without stones. Look up biliary dyskinesia. Worth following up with your other GP and asking for surgical opinion if the cause for symptoms remains unclear.

Could be a liver issue, such as cirrhosis, which also causes anemia. The pain the anemia are surely linked.

Nope I have not been offered this yet

Or referred cardiac pain/peptic ulcer symptoms come to think of it.

Do you have reflux or pain before or after eating/palpitations or respiratory symptoms e.g. cough/fever, have you had any cardiac investigations/chest x-ray?

It can do. Mine was so bad it was diagnosed from an ultrasound and the surgical plan has been done from an MRI. They’re doing a laparoscopy but that’s not a diagnostic one, it’s a treatment one

Not RTFT so apologies if this has been mentioned. Pain in that location could be your gallbladder. Gallstones don't always show up on ultrasounds - it took my mum years of suffering before she got an MRI and they found the gallstones that had been making her life miserable

Yes I had an echocardiogram and ultrasound on my heart 3 years ago, due to palpitations and irregular heartbeat. They discovered a murmur.
i suffer now and again with acid.