Abdominal Pressure Points Or Tender Spots?

[Karina]

I am new to the board. Have seen a GI guy who ordered blood tests that came back suggestive of Celiac. He is doing an endoscopy at end of month. He feels this will just be confirmation that I have celiac disease, as he says I present with many typical symptoms. I am very thin, have diarrhea many times a month, have abdominal bloating, and STRANGE pains around my umbilicus. I will feel this pain and when I reach down to touch it , it hurts REALLY bad! I feel this pretty much daily, but at different times and on and off. Are these types of pain typical?

Karina

[Dwight Senne]

Karina,

Have you mentioned this to your doctor? If not, please call him and tell him! I do not want to scare you, and I am not a doctor, but please mention this to him ASAP.

[Karina]

Yes, I have told my DR. Also, I am a nurse. I am wondering exactly what you are thinking (I know you are not a DR--I am not holding you accountable for guessing)? I have had these symptoms for a few months, and at first he wanted to do a colonoscopy, but after the celiac panel came back now he wants to do this. He is having me test for occult blood in stools. Are you thinking colon cancer? Whatever you would say, I assure you I have probably already thought of it so don't worry about scaring me--this is why I am getting checked out. But now that you have resonded this way I hope you will share what you are thinking.

Thanks,

Karina

[Dwight Senne]

Hi Karina,

Thanks for mentioning you are a nurse. It makes it a little easier for me to tell you that my fear (based entirely on my non-medical knowledge!) is that it is small bowel lymphoma. Since you are a nurse, and since you have obviously done some research on this, you probably already know of the significant risk increase of this lymphoma to Celiac patients. I'm a little surprised he has not ordered an upper GI series for you. Maybe you should request it.

Please keep me posted.

[Karina]

Hi,

I failed to mention that when I first got the pain it was around my appendix, and so when I went to my family practice DR> he ordered a CT of my abdomen and pelvis with contrast. That CT came back negative. Now my GI DR. is following up on this celiac thing with an endoscopy, but like I said he originally wanted to do a colonoscopy. His other major concern is/was Crohn's disease. He also told me even if we find out after the endo that I have Celiac he is not certain that it is the cause of all my symptoms. I thinks he means the

[Karina]

whoops! somehow I hit post before I finished. Anyway I was just saying that we (my DR and me) do not know where this paplable pain is coming from in my abdomen--he said it could be the celiac......

Karina

[Guest gillian502]

I've read that pains around the belly button are typical of Celiac, and a floroscopy would rule out small bowel lymphoma if you continue to be symptomatic. I knew if this disease were left untreated some people may have an increased risk of developing lymphoma, but I didn't know that it was a really signifigant risk for us as one of the posts said here...I hope that's not so!

Gillian

[Dwight Senne]

Hi Gillian,

Sorry if I led you astray. It has been awhile since I read the study. Technically, the study found a high incidence of previously undiagnosed Celiac disease in patients with small bowel lymphoma. By extrapolation, I said there is a higher incidence of that lymphoma in Celiac patients. The study was very limited in it's scope and did not go on to determine the incidence of lymphoma in Celiac patients after being on the diet.

If you would like to read the synopsis of the study here is a link:

Open Original Shared Link

Following my diagnosis, I had quite a bit of trouble gaining weight. My doctor was very concerned about small bowel lymphoma, so unless he has seen another study I don't know about, me thinks he made the same extrapolation I did!

Hope this clears things up.

[Karina]

Well, this is a long process--getting diagnosed isn't it? Today was a bad day for me, lots of abdominal pain ALL OVER my belly, but the tender points were extremely painful also. I am fighting the urge to get scared here, and was near tears tonight, not because the pain is so unbearable, but because right now I don't know for sure what is causing it. I don't want to have Celiac, but frankly right now, Celiac is less frightening than some of the other things going through my head.

Karina

[Guest pear_fairy]

I have this too! I am undiagnosed as of now and my family doc diagnosed me as IBS but I am leaning towards Celiac myself as so many other symptoms. The tummy tenderness for sure bothers me and most conscience of it at night while laying in bed. We are moving right now (Japan to England) so I have stopped pursuing my doc but as soon as we get settled in the UK I am hunting down a doc that is good with all these digestive problems that can properly diagnose me!

~Steph

[Karina]

Steph,

Goodluck with your move! Are you originally from the UK? I have seen some posts here from people in the UK and someone here may be helpful in helping you find a good doc. I am sure these boards will be hearing from me for a little while at least as I find my way around all this. I really hope you find out what is causing your pains--I hope you will post your progress!

Karina

[Dwight Senne]

Steph, it's probably better for you in the long run that you are going to the UK. They are much more aware of the disease there than in Japan!

You should have no trouble finding a competent doctor!

Karina, I'm sorry if I have contributed to your fear. I did not mean to upset you - that was why I was originally ambiguous in my post.

Do not worry about being diagnosed with Celiac. Yes, it is overwhelming at first, but you WILL get used to it. Soon it will be second nature. You are absolutely right, there are much worse things than Celiac!

[Guest pear_fairy]

Thanks Karina and Dewey,

Nope from the U.S. originally but been in Japan for 6 years now. Husband is military so now that is why we are off to the U.K. Hope i am able to find a great doc there also. Thanks again

[Guest aramgard]

Karina, I also had the pain in the right lower abdomen, McBirney's point, which was suspicious of appendicitis for years and years and no one could understand why. Then after I was diagnosed the pain began subsiding and now it is altogether gone after three years of gluten free. Perhaps there is still hope??? Shirley

[Meenucat]

I also have pain around my naval, but it's about an inch above the naval and to my right - if I press on the spot then I will be in severe pain for hours - it feels more like an obstruction in my case, but I don't know - I'm baffled by this - I cannot wear pants with a tight waist beause it triggers the pain.

Anyone know why pressure would cause pain in this area for me??? I'm okay as long as nothing touches or presses on it in a certain way...???

[vegasvic]

[vegasvic]

hello

I am new !

my sister found this forum board and suggested I look into it- i have been having off and on pain on my right lower side for over 12 years-

It has gotten worse over the years and now I have loose stools, feel horrible and full sometimes after eating only a little and have more pain on my side when my stomach is full, bloating, gas, sometimes constipation and when I walk alot I get right sided pain- it seems to flare up if I walk!!

Recently got my gall bladder out (6 months ago) and this hasn't helped with the pain. If I don't go to the bathroom right away I get sharp side pains- already been tested for appendicitus but was negative, also for ovarian cysts, female probs, etc. I am 30 and just married- Want to start a family but not until pain goes away!

Does anyone else have right sided pain or symptoms like mine? If so, were you diagnosed with celiac? I love bread but would stop eating it if it meant no more pain.

[lisa922]

Meenucat -

I know exactly what you mean! My pain is above my belly button and right under where my ribs comes together under my sternum. If a doctor examines me and pushes on it, then it hurts a lot. Do you still have you gallbladder? My pain started when I had some weird gastro attack and then it turned out only 1% of my gallbladder worked. That was removed and I had a lot less pain, but still a weird kind of bloaty feeling there. Then, about 15 months later, another attack and I was told I had a stone in my bile duct. Bloodwork indicated Celiac, so they did an ERCP and swept out the bile duct (of course the stone was suddenly gone by the time they got in there) and did the biopsy at the same time. They cut this little muscle in there to promote a better bile flow and I've had a lot less pressure since then. Of course, I'm also on the gluten-free diet now since the biopsy was positive, so it's hard to tell what helped the pressure. For the most part, the weird "swelling" is still there, but it doesn't seem as sensitive as much.

LISA

[vegasvic]

I had my gallbladder out in October (10 days before my wedding!)

Right sided pain still there though and all same symptoms as before- however- I too had a weird "Gastro" attack before I ended up in the ER- felt like a knife in my side and major gas/ diahrrea, could barely move etc. Like a weird "attack"-

So I had hoped the surgery would get rid of chronic pain-but didn't.

My sister works in surgery- she asked one of the surgeons about my complaints and he said to have an ERCP done- or at least an MRI- I asked my GI doc and she said she wanted to try me on a few more meds (!!) before doing more tests (??)

So she put me on Robinul Forte-didn't help-

I am going back next week to her and demanding an MRI-

from researching the internet and going on forums it sounds more and more like a stone is still in there- ALso ended up in the ER (twice in 2 weeks) with extreme "Gall baldder like" attacks- middle of the chest pain which radiated to my back like someone was trying to pull an arrow out of me the wrong way (I never had this type of pain prior to my surgery)

Utterly confused!!

I had asked doc to test me for a wheat allergy about 2 months ago- she said one test was + but one was neg. -- I falied to ask her more details but will now that I know more about all this-

I am considering buying a test from enterlab- have you done this?

[lisa922]

No, I have not ordered a test yet from Enterolab, but I am most likely going to do that soon. You may want to consider having an Endoscopic Ultrasound. In this test, they go in through your mouth and then are able to ultrasound the bile duct to see if there are any stones in there. My GI did that prior to the ERCP since with ERCP there is a risk of developing pancreatitis. The ultrasound showed the small stone, so I thought that was my problem and they'd go whip it out and then I'd be fine. Needless to say, I was bummed that has not been the case. The only thing is, I guess you have to know whether they're going to treat you or do it in 2 stages. I had 2 procedures since one did the ultrasound and another did the ERCP. I've also read that you should make sure you have someone with a lot of experience do the ERCP because of the risks. Today, I have had the recurrence of pain under my right rib cage and pale stools. It doesn't make sense to have done all this stuff and still be having problems! I have also just learned that there is a genetic test for Celiac. You're supposed to ask for the HLAeq2 and HLAdq8 tests (I don't know which letters are supposed to be capitalized and which are not). I am just not 100% certain I have Celiac and so I am going to pursue having this test done. It may just be that I am in denial, but, as you well know, when you have procedures done that are supposed to "cure" you and they don't, you get a little wary of any subsequent diagnosis. Let me know how things work out for you! I'll be on the lookout for your username.

LISA

[vegasvic]

thanks for the reply-

I have been reading more about enterolab- I checked the internet high and low for negative info and found none so I felt comfortable and ordered the $349 test- it tests for Celiac disease/genetic/ and milk allergy too. I'll let you know how it goes-

I go to GI doc this Tuesday and will find out more info on the test she did on me before- (I asked her a long time ago to run a wheat allergy test (blood)- had it done and all she said was "One part was positive and one was negative" and basically the part that was positive doesn't mean anything (Ok?)

So I blew it off and went back to trying meds for IBS (Zelnorm, Nulev) but they didn't help -so I'm back to square one. Now that I'm learning more about this i am going to pay more attention!

Let me know how you are feeling- Sorry to hear the pain is coming back-mine is there about 80% of the time..and my diahrrea is getting worse.

The ERCP test sounds a little scary- Have you heard if an MRI works too to see if a stone is present?

That would be my luck too-have it down and have no change

I am so sick of being poked and proded (I have no veins practically!-usually takes 2, 3 sometimes 4 times to find one!)

Sorry I sound so negative- this has been going on for years and am losing patience!

Good luck and let me know how you're feeling!!

-VegasVic

[Guest Nita]

Hi Meenucat: Sorry to read about your pain. I am experiencing the same kind of pain all over my abdomen and I nearly fell off my chair when I read that you can't wear tight pants!! I haven't been able to wear a proper size for years and thought I was the only person in the world with that problem. They always have to be at least one size too large and I can't stand elastic waistbands.

The pressure from the belt triggers the pain and it will last all day. I haven't been diagnosed with celiac yet but am going on that assumption and have been gluten-free for 3 months with positive results. Good luck to you. Nita