severe abdominal pain and swelling

[Sara_85]

I have had abdominal pain and swelling for about five months. I have had my gall bladder removed and been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in the past two years neither of which to my knowlege explain my symptoms. The swelling and pain are more on the right side of my abdomine from the belly button down. The pain includes severe cramps, sharp stabbing pains, and a feeling of presure like my stomach is going to burst. I have had a pelvic ultrusound,blood test, urine test, and x-ray that were all negative. Then a ct scan that was normal except for a partially distended bladder and dextroversion of the uterus.(which I have no idea what that means). Then yesterday I had my 3rd colonoscopy and endoscopy which showed a healing of my colitis, but a problem in my small intestine which my gi doctor biopsied, and told me he thought it was crohns. I am waiting for the results. So today I went back to my primary care doctor to tell him the findings and ask him if chrons would explain my symptoms. He said no and that he thought I was fine because my ct scan came back normal. He basically told me that he didn't believe anything was wrong and I was just wanting pain medicine. I told him this was untrue and I just want him to fix whats wrong and he blew me off. Being sick and in great pain all of the time is really burdening my life. So I was just wandering if anyone had any suggestions on what could be wrong with me, if my symptoms could be consistent with crohns, and what if anything I can do.

[John Kenyon, CNA]

Hello -

You certainly have enough inflammatory autoimmune history to make such pain and swelling (or bloating) likely, even though the ulcerative colitis is now starting to resolve (maybe). Given this fact plus dextroversion of the uterus (your uterus is shifted over to the right of where it would normally rest) could certainly all be converging to cause the symptoms you describe. There are a lot of nerves in the abdomen, too, so the potential for pain is pretty significant when something is wrong or even just abnormal.

While you seem to be getting results for the most part with the doctor you're seeing, pain is pain, and swelling or bloating is observable, so it may be that you're going to need to seek a second opinion on this problem if it doesn't resolve on its own soon.

The symptoms, by the way, certainly could be consistent with Chron's, and while your current doctor has seen you and should be able to make this determination, he also sounds as though he may be overly sensitive to the potential for drug-seeking behavior, which could get in the way of solving your problem (which probably wouldn't involve pain medication, but rather something to relieve the inflammation if that's what's causing it).

I hope this is of some help to you. Best of luck, and please follow up with us here as needed.