What is wrong with my tummy?

[Anonemousse]

I know AIBU is not the right place to ask.

I'm 99% sure I have gall bladder issues. I have all the signs but an ultrasound didnt show anything.

I also get random bloating and feeling blgh. Not nausea as such, just off. I've not been able to identify a pattern apart from hot chocolate which makes me look pregnant almost instantly and very mild cramps. If I have a hot chocolate from Cafe Nero in morning. I will feel full for the rest of the day. And possibly oats. I've not noticed an patterns with dairy or gluten as a wider issue.

Tea makes me very sick.

I also sometimes get an urgent need to poo if I have too much chocolate. I had an accident and dont eat chocolate now.

No weight loss.

I need to go back to the dr but apart from pushing for further gall bladder tests, I dont know what to push for with the rest of it. He can be quite dismisdive so I need to go in and say what I want. Not asking for a diagnosis, just something to research.

Theobromine possibly? Chocolate and tea both contain it, more in Chocolate though. Might be an intolerance.

Read up on IBS it could be that - my gall bladder was checked for similar reasons and both the sonographer and my GP said it’s likely a touch of IBS

Have you done a proper food and symptoms diary - not just general thoughts but times, portion sizes, all ingredients (including cooking oils)… there’s guidelines and templates on nhs website

IBS. All those things you listed are triggers for me too.

IBS can cause all those symptoms, especially the urgency after caffeine, hot chocolate etc. Plenty of good info online

I can't drink black tea or green tea first thing in the morning or on an empty stomach. Ive always wondered why? 🤔

That doesn't sound like gallstones to me OP. Gall bladder attacks are significant and debilitating, sometimes to the point of needing inpatient pain management. Definitely sounds more like IBS. Have you tried any IBS type remedies? Digestive enzymes are good for bloating I find.

Sounds more like IBS or just food intolerances to me. If you were having gallbladder attacks you would almost certainly know about it. Mine hospitalised me several times and had to be controlled with morphine. Bloods and ultrasound will be fairly definitive if is gallstones so I would pursue another avenue.

You could try a low fodmap diet for a bit to see if that helps with the symptoms.

How are your stress levels in general? I got IBS after a very stressful time (work/pandemic related). Random food would trigger vagus nerve and I would get the urgent bowel movements, bloating, feeling like I was going to pass out, abdominal pain.

Now I don't have the stress and can tolerate a lot more food types.

Sounds like dairy is an issue to me, try excluding it and see how you get on and then cut out other things.

Gallstones is more attacks of excruciating pain, I had no bloating.

Get checked for coeliac. You don’t get symptoms immediately after eating gluten it can take a while to show or to accumulate and give you symptoms. The bloating is a big sign.

from a coeliac

It doesn’t sound like your gallbladder

Another who agrees it doesnt sound similar to when I had gallstones/gallbladder issues.

Sorry for not being clear.

The gall bladder thing is different to the bloating. I just thought it would be helpful to mention. My gallbladder attacks (I think) leave me bent over with a gnawing, twisting pain around my diaphragm, sometimes my back. They are not "uncomfortable", they have made me cry and I have a reasonably high pain tolerance. I can go months without anything but then get 3 in a week. Sometimes they last 30mins. The last attack lasted hours. If I'm having an attack I cant think about anything else. I did consider going to hospital last time but it was the middle of the night so they wouldnt have been able to do anything and the idea of having to sit on a plastic chair in the waiting area in that much pain was just too much. It doesnt make any difference to my toileting.

What Im asking about now is the bloating and discomfort which seems completely unrelated to the gall bladder stuff.

I'm willing to be told they are linked but they seem like 2 completely different things to me.

I will look into IBS /Coeliac. I had a friend who had issues with gluten and his tummy would make really awful noises.

I always thought "IBS" was a bit of a catch all?

It sounds like gastritis, which can be very painful. If it is that, then managing your issue is about avoiding high fat foods, particularly in the evening before sleeping. Your GP should test for h pylori as that can be a cause.

I’m sure if it’s a gallbladder problem you’d certainly know about it, the pain is horrendous with no bloating.

Yes. I know. As I've said, I am having 2 distinct issues. I only mention the gall bladder stuff for info but I can see my post wasmt clear. My question isnt about that.

They should rule out all IBD and Coeliac before diagnosing IBS. But it's something you can see for yourself if its fodmaps causing your issues. Look up the low fodmap diet.

Tea, hot chocolate and oats are all made with milk - if out and about whole milk. Could be regular lactose intolerance (the majority of humans are).

I am sorry you arein so much pain.

i had similar, starting in January. It felt like giant hands were wrenching my intestines apart. Horrific. I got bloating and constipation with it too. Previously I ate a very varied diet with no issues at all.

I found that mebeverine, available on prescription or OTC helped, along with a hot water bottle or wheat bag, and cyclizine for nausea. But take it at first hint of trouble. Don’t wait till the pain has escalated.

I began a low fodmap diet at the suggestion of my gp, using the app and food diary from Monash University . They pioneered the research into fodmap.

For a foodie like me, it was very restrictive, but I noticed that the space between attacks increased from every three to every seven days. I never entirely established what might be triggering an episode, but nevertheless the attacks got further and further apart and after ten weeks, stopped altogether.

I am now eating entirely normally again and it is a miracle. The pain would lasr for hours and leave me exhausted. In my ignorance before this happened,I had no idea the symptoms of IBS could be so severe, so you have my every sympathy.