Chronic Abdominal Pain: Seeking Answers

No problem! No gagging with the endoscopy- you'll be asleep/unaware by the time they put the scope in. Nausea isn't common with that type of anesthesia, the way it is with general anesthesia, but I always request it anyway because of my phobia. The endoscopy truly isn't too bad ime. For colonoscopy prep, I would ask your doctor what your options are. For example, you might be able to take laxatives in pill form vs drinking a bunch of liquid laxative, which will probably be easier and more comfortable. When you know what kind of prep you'll have, definitely Google it for tips! If it's a liquid, people often suggest things like keeping it as cold as possible, and that was really helpful for me. There's not a great way to make diarrhea a better experience, but I always make sure I have something like reading materials or a movie queued up in the bathroom to distract me. You can try to make your surroundings as comfortable as possible- candles, soft lighting, maybe a blanket/pillow nearby in case you can't go far but don't want to stay on the toilet the whole time. For me, the stomach cramps hurt at first, but after a bit it's just gross, lol. I also take my anxiety meds beforehand, and make sure that I keep hydrated as much as possible. And after the prep is all finished, I often do feel good for a few days, like my body has gotten rid of a bunch of stuff that might have been sitting around in my digestive system, since I'm often constipated. Not good enough to do it all the time, of course- but it can sort of help press the reset button, if that makes sense? So that's the silver lining. I can understand having fear around it, but it truly does feel different for me when the cause is laxatives and not food poisoning or something, because I know it's supposed to be happening. I know this is a hard process to go through, especially with this particular phobia, but it's not as scary as it seems. Good luck- you got this ❤️

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I went back to my GP last week and he’s referred me to a gastroenterologist who will most likely do a colonoscopy and an endoscopy. I have severe health anxiety and emetophobia so I’m very scared for those procedures, but hopefully there’s things they can put in place to help calm me down a little bit. I still don’t have a diagnosis but this is a step in the right direction. I was prescribed mebevrine 135mg and esomeprazole 20mg, but I’m scared to take them. Thank you all so much for all your advuce

I have similar symptoms, and for me I think the culprit is chronic gastritis. (I do also have IBS, GERD, esophagitis, and a history of mesenteric adenitis and duodenitis, soooo... sometimes hard to pinpoint exactly what's going on in there. But chronic gastritis seems to fit the most with what you're describing.) I've had this show up on multiple upper endoscopies, 10+ years apart. If you haven't had an endoscopy and/or colonoscopy yet, that might help you get some clarity. As for the causes, I think some of the most common ones are H pylori, and pernicious anemia. I have the second, so I'm taking 1000 mg of B12 orally every day to see if it helps this time around. You can also get B12 injections. Since I started taking it regularly, I've seen a decrease in pain, although I still feel like I'm in a healing stage and have to be careful about what I eat. My GI also wants me to be taking iron daily but I can't quite stomach it yet. I hope you can get some answers. It's so incredibly frustrating to be told that everything is fine and normal when you KNOW it absolutely is not

Have you ever gone gluten free? Your symptoms could be signs of an intolerance to a food, and gluten is very common allergen. When I finally cut out gluten it made a world of difference to my digestion.