Worrying Symptoms - Some Advice Needed

[damianjmcgrath]

Hello all,

I've just registered, after researching into celiac disease on the internet. I haven't been diagnosed, but my mother thinks I might have it so I started to look into it.

I'll give you a brief background to my symptoms:

- When I was 17, I started feeling nauseous all the time, pretty much every day, and had stomach cramps a lot. This affected me to the stage where I stayed off school for pretty much 75% of Years 10 and 11 (aged 17/18). This went on for about 18 months. The annoying thing was that I wasn't actually ever sick, and had no actual real symptoms that anyone could see, so it was very frustrating. I think my worry and panic over it contributed to my symptoms and I definitely felt worse in social situations.

- Strangely, when I was about 19, I learned to control this feeling, with breathing exercises or simply just ignoring it and getting on with social situations regardless and over time, I started feeling 100% again - no symptoms at all. I used to get occasional stomach cramps/pains/general ill feeling that I couldn't place but not frequently enough for me to think it was anything other than regular normal bugs or illnesses or odd food etc. I classed myself as completely healthy for a couple of years from 19 to about 23/24.

- I'm now 25 and recently, over the last few months, I've been getting a different type of stomach complaint - stomach rumbles. Really loud and gurgly, like a broken water pipe or a bubbling sewer/drain - and the rumbles last about 5 or 6 seconds at a time - which is long enough for people to look at me weird.

- My girlfriend has IBS, and I thought I did too. Her stomach rumbles occasionally, especially when she eats bread, but she said she's never heard rumbles like mine. When they're loud, they can be heard by people in my office which is fairly embarrassing. I can sort of feel my stomach move and shake a little bit when they're rumbling, and with the rumbles, I get a general ill feeling - a feeling I can't describe but it's a feeling that makes me feel something's not quite right. I sometimes get cramps and shooting pains but not that often. Maybe once or twice a week.

- When my stomach isn't rumbling loudly, it's still fairly active. If my girlfriend puts her ear on my stomach, she can hear it rumbling quietly. I don't know if this is normal rumbles or not - hers definitely isn't as loud as mine.

- Another odd symptom is a bit of my stomach bloats up - actually physically inflates and when I run my hand over it, it feels like a little hill. It's hard to describe the exact position of it, but it's between my stomach and right hip bone. Basically, where my tummy button is, surrounding it is the slightly protruding round shape of my stomach. Between my stomach and right hip bone is a slight dip and it's this dip that inflates. It does this when I'm feeling my worst. My doctor said this may be something filling with gas.

- I notice the rumbles more during eating and in the 1-2 hour gap following eating. Again, it is worse during social situations, or during times when I can't get home. I feel better when I can lie down in bed and watch something funny on TV (basically control my environment) but when I'm out in a pub, or staying at someone's house, it definitely feels worse so I'm thinking panic may be contributing again. I don't feel panicky though.

I have been to the doctor a few times over the last 2 months - one of them said "yes, you do have active bowels" and they have mainly been going down the IBS route. I am having a blood test tomorrow, I think to rule some more serious things out.

However, after researching into celiac, I am starting to think it may be that.

- I have a bowel movement probably twice a day, and I haven't noticed myself having diarrhoea that often, although I do have it maybe once a week, or 3 to 4 times a month, and it only lasts for one toilet visit - the next time, it's gone and I go normally.

- I don't think I'm losing weight, although I might be. I seem to remember myself being around 12.5 stone (175lbs/79kg) last year, and I just weighed myself using the Wii Fit now, and I'm 11.5 stone (160lbs/73kg) so perhaps I am. No-one has noticed it in how I look and I haven't noticed myself, but it's something I'll watch over the next few months. I am 25 years old, and 6 foot tall and 160 lbs is within the healthy range, so I don't think I'm rapidly losing weight and I don't think it's dangerous but I will keep an eye on it.

- The pain and discomfort and rumble noises I get are pretty much directly on the tummy button area or just around it. Is this my abdomen? I'm not sure what the difference is between abdomen and stomach?

- I haven't yet cut out any types of food, nor have I noticed any particular food making it worse or better. I am keeping a food diary however, which I started 5 days ago.

People's advice or comments would be much appreciated - what do people think might be wrong?

And does it sound like common celiac symptoms?

Thanks in advance.

[damianjmcgrath]

Basically, in summary:

Symptoms:

1. Abdominal pain, shooting pains, cramps
   
2. Gassy a lot
   
3. Foul smelling passing of wind
   
4. Occasional loose bowel movements
   
5. Might be losing weight slowly
   

Things I don't have:

1. Increased appetite
   
2. Immediate symptoms - I don't get any symptoms immediately after eating, it can sometimes be very random timing
   
3. Severe symptoms - I don't get sudden urges to need the toilet or sudden nauseous feelings after food, it's normally a slower build-up with rumbles
   
4. Symptoms linked to certain foods - I havent been able to identify trigger foods after 1 week of a food diary - it does appear to be random