Wish I Had An Anwser...

[KLynne0509]

It was about two months ago that I was training for a half marathon. Right in the middle of training, after somewhat of an easy run, that's when everything started. I was so overcome with cramping and shooting pains in my stomach and intestines, that I was doubled over in pain and could hardly walk for the next 3 days. I thought that maybe I had just somehow overdone things in my run so I thought I should just take it easy, so I did. But the pains never went away. I had a tiny bit of diarrhea but that had subsided. Then came sharp pains sometimes after I ate and random waves of nausea all the while sharp pains all over in my intestines and still all of the cramping. It was about 3 weeks of this and then I started seeing the doctor. He has seen me once a week for 3 weeks now doing blood urine and stool samples. Havn't gotten the results back from the stool sample yet (I will be in to see this Thursday) but the urine and blood tests all came back negative. My doctor is still testing for Crohns, diverticulitis, celiac, colitis and all sorts of other stuff. At the moment, he is having me take extra fiber and also be on the gluten free diet. I am just frustrated, annoyed and I wish I could find out something. With everything coming back negative, it makes me feel like they think I am making it up or something. But Im not, especially after the regular exams he had done the first session, it was almost like just after I ran I was in so much pain...

Does anyone have any suggestions? By the way, I love food and man is this gluten free thing hard! Never knew how many things contained or could contain gluten.

[ravenwoodglass]

Hopefully the doctor tested you for celiac before he had you start the diet. If your gluten free the tests will be a false negative. You can have a false negative even on a full gluten diet though.

It sounds like he is checking for all the likely issues. Yes it can be depressing when you feel so horrible and all tests come back negative but excluding possible other issues is always a good idea.

Are you getting any relief from the diet yet? If you go with whole unprocessed foods that is best as there is a lot to learn about the gluten free lifestyle. Do feel free to ask any questions you need to.

I hope they get things figured out for you soon.

[KLynne0509]

I do have one question for you. Since I am only seeing a family practitioner, how long do you think I should wait until I see a GI?

[Skylark]

  On 10/5/2010 at 10:28 PM, KLynne0509 said:

I do have one question for you. Since I am only seeing a family practitioner, how long do you think I should wait until I see a GI?

If all the usual blood and stool tests come back negative and it's time for an endoscopy/colonoscopy, that's when I'd ask for a referral. It really doesn't matter one way or the other whether your family practitioner or a GI is running all the bloods, and your family practitioner probably has a more open schedule. I would want an experienced GI on the scope. I don't think family practitioners usually try to scope people anyway.

Good luck figuring out what is wrong.