Not Sure What To Do Next

[Melstar23]

I am not sure if I have a problem with gluten and I was interested to see if anyone else has any suggestions.

For the last 3 months I have been having increasingly bad pain on my upper left side of my abdomen. I mostly feel the pain in the front, but when it gets really bad I also feel it in the back. The pain always comes in waves, sometimes it is just a discomfort, but other times it is so strong I am doubled up in pain and cannot think or do anything.

When I first went to the dr, he thought it was kidney stones or UTI, but a urine test and ultrasound showed nothing. He told me I just had gastro and sent me off. When it only continued to get worse for a month, I went back and I was sent for 2 more ultra sounds, a CT scan, blood test(I'm not sure exactly what was being looked for), urine and stool test. Nothing was found in any of these tests. I have been told that my next options are to have colonoscopy and if that has nothing, a laparoscopy. One problem is because my only symptom is pain, it will take me about 6months to get in for a colonoscopy and who knows how long for a laparoscopy.

As the pain was getting much worse, I'd been unable to sleep, pain killers were not helping much, I was getting desperate. A friend suggested that I try giving up gluten and dairy. I have done this for almost a week now. The pain has not completely gone away, but it has become much milder. I have only taken panadol twice. I was planning on trying dairy again on the weekend to see what happens with that. I'm not sure if I am doing the right thing avoiding gluten and I don't know what my doctor will say about it. Should I keep avoiding gluten and see if my symptons improve more? Could my pain be related to gluten?

[ravenwoodglass]

Yes it could be related to gluten. It could also be related to other issues but hopefully your doctor has tested for those issues. Can you call your doctors office and see if they did a celiac panel on you? If they didn't you might want to pick up a lab slip and get those tests done. Do it ASAP because once you have been gluten free those tests will show a false negative. False negatives are not uncommon even on gluten though.

In the long run though if being gluten free takes care of the problem you have your answer. There are quite a few people here that are self diagnosed. Getting relief from the diet is part of the diagnostic process along with a return of issues when gluten is added back in either on purpose, a challenge, or by accident.

[Looking for answers]

What kind of pain is it? Sharp, gnawing, achey?

I've had on and off pain in my upper left for the past three years. Eliminating gluten and dairy definitely helped, but about three months ago it came back worse than ever, following a week-long vacation in which I was eating little to no food that I typically eat. Well, doctor ran a bunch of tests, including food allergies. It turned out I had a high allergy to eggs, so I eliminated them. It helped some but I was still in agony. I cried every day, and I could find no relief. Having a full or empty stomach made no difference, but I started to lose my desire to eat. Finally, I decided to cut out psyllium husks that I add to my smoothie each day. Within three days the pain was gone and hasn't returned.

What I get is gastritis. It's a gnawing, awful pain in my upper left that often radiates to my back. I'm sharing this with you to consider that something even beyond gluten may be causing this. You may want to try to eat completely different than you normally do (try very bland gluten-free diet for a few days) and see what happens.

If this doesn't help, also consider having your gallbladder ultrasound to ensure you don't have stones.

BTW, while the gallbladder is on the right (I beleive, I could be wrong) my husband, mom and sister all had pain in the left that would come and go.