From: Laura
Date: 03 May 2004
Time: 21:24:52
Remote Name: 68.161.108.225
Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this ... about a year ago, I started getting a pain in my right side, just below my ribcage. Sometimes it radiates, and I can feel it in my back and across the left side of my chest. When I had it checked out, the doctor thought it was a gall bladder problem, but this may have been based on the fact that my mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother all had gall stones removed. When he had me get an ultrasound, he found a little sludge in my gall bladder, but said it was nothing to worry about and that otherwise I was perfectly healthy.
Around December, I had my first really bad stomachache ... it felt like my stomach was being torn in two, and the pains came and went in waves for about an hour. Since then, I have had similar attacks maybe three or four times. In the past few weeks, I have had diarrhea off and on and foul-smelling gas. Irritable bowel syndrome also runs in my family, so I have wondered if maybe I have developed it ... I know it can be based on anxiety sometimes, and I have been under a lot of stress. My brother started getting bad attacks of it when he was studying for his CPA exam and I have to wonder if the digestive crisis for me could have anything to do with the fact that I have been out of work since my father died in August, and I was hired for a job I didn't really want the day the diarrhea started. I also live in New York City where I don't really know anyone, so that's stressful in itself ... the pain on my right side started when I moved here last year, but seemed to go away a few months after the move ... it didn't start up again until after my dad's death. I tried to ignore it until I started having actual bowel movement problems, as I am having now. Is it possible that these stomach attacks are because of anxiety? I am only 26 and since I am not working yet, I don't have health insurance. The only medication I take is an anti-depressant that I have to pay an arm and a leg for. I started taking it in college when I was on my parents' insurance ... the medication restricts my diet because it is an MAOI, so I wonder if that could be causing these problems too, but I doubt it. I don't eat anything aged, ever -- that includes cheese, red wine, smoked meats, etc. If anyone has any clues as to what could be happening, please let me know ... oh, I'm sure my diet is not the greatest either as I seem to have adopted my boyfriend's eating style and I am not the greatest cook yet ... I've only been on my own for a year now and we probably eat take-out far too often! Thanks!