Abdominal Pain

[BabsV]

I've been suffering abdominal pain and tenderness issues since May 2011 -- since my Celiac diagnosis (August 2011) and going gluten free the pain has lessened but I've still got it. Some days are better than others...but honestly, I am exhausted from dealing with it.

Tylenol doesn't help at all. I shouldn't take ibuprofen or naproxen sodium due to past history with GERD and gastritis (either of these will set it off and I've got enough to deal with right now, don't need that!)

I've been talking with one of my doctors but he seems really leery to offer anything. I don't know if it is because I am too stoic and I should be in tears when I talk about it but since all the doctors originally dismissed my Celiac symptoms as "it is all in your head" I have tried to stay very unemotional when dealing with the doctors so they take me more seriously. It could also be a cross-cultural issue since I'm in Poland (but I'm not Polish!) and maybe a Pole would be acting differently.

Whatever it is, does anyone else have serious pain issues from Celiac? What do you take? How do you deal?

I have 5 more months here in Poland and then I return to the United States (yay!) but I'd really like to not spend the next 5 months still in pain.

Thanks.

[color-me-confused]

In the past for injury-related inflammation I've found that large doses of fish oil capsules worked amazingly well. I'd take around 12-16 a day (reasoning that fish oil is food) and the efficacy was superior to ibuprofen for me. Usually I just use naproxen sodium for inflammation but if the max dose isn't doing the trick I add some fish oil and it helps. After my recent glutening which resulted in awful stomach distension followed by days of ab pain I found drinking a lot of natural ginger ale (i.e. sugar, water, ginger) helped. Or at least was a good placebo. I haven't yet tried the fish oil treatment for ab pain since it resolved after a few days so I can't say for sure it would help.

[BabsV]

Thanks for the tips. I will pull out the fish oil capsules...we've got some. And I will try natural ginger ale -- never even thought of that.