I am 50 year old female. Okay, let me give a bit of what is happening with me. About four months ago, I started experiencing some bloating and pressure sensations in the upper abdominals, in my stomach area. I would have these occur several times per week and they could last anywhere between a couple of hours to a day then it would go away.

I felt that this was not normal to be feeling these so I booked an appointment with a doctor. I had some blood tests, stool test and a breath test to check for helicobacter Pylori. The test came back positive for H.Pylori. I was put onto triple therapy to treat this.

I was continuing to experience excessive bloating, lots and lots of contineous stomach noises. Its like a bunch of frogs having a splishy splashy pool party going on in there.  

My condition continues to worsen. For the past couple of months after this treatment, i am still getting lots of stomach noises, feeling of fullness, excessive bloating along with regular waves of pain that is like a pressure that builds up in my stomach and then the peak is sometimes very uncomfortable. The peak can last anywhere between 10 seconds to a couple of minutes, and sometimes they come and go every few minutes when other times they might happen once every few hours or not for a day or two. Its really bizzare.

Fast forward to the last few weeks. I got a really bad burning pain in my stomach that caused me to throw up. The pressure felt bad and I was very gassy and bloated. Also I will point out that I have difficulty passing gas and always have so its nothing unusual for me. I feel lots of gas inside but it seems higher up so its impossible to pass it.

For that week, most days I was bloated and have feeling of fullness. Then on saturday night i took a turn for the worse where I threw up all night. Almost every 20 minutes to an hour. Those pressure pains were really bad. When the pressure pain builds up, i feel movement around my navel and around my whole abdominals. The heartburn was awful. (I have hiatal hernia as well and lots of acid reflux). I was due to do another h.pylori test hence why I was off my Proton Pump Inhibitors.

I had no appetite for a few days but then by Tuesday i started eating again. Come Thursday night, i start throwing up again. I know there was bile too coz i barely ate a thing all week and most of the time my stomach was almost empty. By Friday morning, i threw up again and those stomach bloat pains were bad. I ended up going to the ER. They did a chest scan, no physical example and i explained my symptoms but they did not seem concerned. Blood work came back fine so they released me to go home where i further threw up a few more times during the night. This was last Friday, it is now Tuesday evening as of writing this.

I felt okay for a few days I started getting my appetite back. My doctor appointment on Monday (yesterday) tested negative for h.pylori. Thyroid is normal. Kidney (I have only one. Lost it as a child due to infection). My iron, B12 is normal. Ovaries seem normal. Liver fuction slightly lower due to Non-Alchohlic Fatty Liver disease. Cholesterol is slightly off but still decent. I tested negative to coeliac disease as well.

SO then, What could be wrong with me? I started feeling bad again last night. I am rarely constipated but the past week or so I have been. But then last night, I had a lot of watery stools and a bit today as well. Could it be possible i could have a partial bowel obstruction? Doctors in the ER and two other doctors I have now seen regarding this don't seem to think so. But they won't give me ease of mind by arranging an X-Ray or CT Scan to rule this out. Keep in mind, 8 years ago I had an umbilical hernia repaired that had complications that resulted in a further 4 surgeries to correct. So my concern are scar tissue (Adhesions) that i have read can lead to bowel obstruction. My stomach feels okay at the moment. Usually when this flares up which is like most part of the week, i get really bad bloating and lots of gas that I can't seem to expell out, and tones of super loud stomach gurgling and noises. I even suggested to the doctor if i might have SIBO (Small Intenstinal Bacterial Overgrowth) but says its not easy to test for those. I thought it was a simple test so I have no idea why he tells me this.

So I am here really baffled and i feel so alone. I feel as though the doctors do not want to help me. They just said that if i don't improve then they might need to arrange for an endoscopy and colonoscopy but the colonoscopy is what freaks me out even more than the other and that also is not pleasant. I have had 2 many years ago.

Could all this be IBS? I mean this bloating gets so bad and the pains in my upper stomach especially, with that pressure can often trigger nausea and occasionally vomiting. I don't really have anyone I can talk to. I feel so alone with this. I feel lost and don't know what to do.

PS: I had my gallbladder removed in 2008. So these can't be due to gallstones.

Edited October 8, 20241 yr by Aniston

Aniston 

im just gonna tell you some things I discovered over the years with IBS-C. For years I had horrible bloating,  intense and painful muscle spasms. I learned I was allergic to wheat, dairy and red meat. Then I discovered the fodmap diet. All these conditions began lessening as I ate from a new diet. Just saying. Good luck. 

Hi Renee

I have been looking into the FODMAP diet to give it a try. At the moment I have IBS-D. It still worries me it could be due to constipation or partial obstruction. I will have to make another appointment with the doctor to request an X-Ray to rule that out.

One thing however regarding the FODMAP diet confuses me. Green Beans is on the 'Allowed' list of foods. But don't beans in general cause a lot of gas? I love green beans but at the moment I am terrified to even try those. I might give those a miss for the time being and then if things go well, later introduce them and see if I have a flare up from those.

You’re working the fodmap diet. Which is exactly what I learned to do. Introduce one item at a time and see how your body reacts. That, I hope, gives you a sense of being in control. It does for me. Best wishes

UPDATE: Okay ... so I had a full CT scan done a couple of weeks ago because I lost 23kg in 4 months. That is a lot of weight to lose. And they found my digestive issue. I have small bowel loop. So now I will require URGENT surgery. I have an appointment at the hospital on Monday to discuss this. And to think that 2 doctors from two different clinics AND the people at the ER had no damn clue what was going on even after I described in the best details possible of my symptoms. And now it all makes sense. I am so angry at the incompetence of some doctors in this country. Its utterly disgraceful.

I am so glad I decided to pay a visit to my old doctor and made the long drive worth it in the end, because I now have some answers. And if this is left untreated for much longer, it can put me in a life or death situation because any bowel issue that has obstruction, incarceration is a medical emergency. And I have been getting intermittent obstruction due to the looping of my small intestines. And I begged the people in ER, the doctors to give me a referral for an ultrasound or CT scan but they thought it wasn't necessary. Even with the knowledge of them knowing that I have had complications with a hernia repair years ago, they refused me the scans.

So yeah, it seems that the hernia is back and also, many obstructions are caused by adhesions (scar tissue) which are high up there for the cause of obstructions, even many years post surgery can lead to obstruction of the bowels.. Unfortunately in my case, there is no way of knowing if there are adhesions until they open you up because they don't show up on scans, but I have read that the chances of getting adhesions due to abdominal surgery is around 93% chance. That is quite high. I am not a doctor, so always ask a health professional for statistics and medical advice.

I guess what I am trying to say is, you know your own body. You know something is not right. Be persistent. You sort of have to because there is no price to put on your own life. You have to do what it takes until you find some answers.

I hope this will help someone out there that might be having similar issues that I had described in my original post. Coz until you get the right scans and testing, a potentially serious issue can be present and you wouldn't even know it. I suspected it, but I had no definite answers until now.

Thank you for reading.

I am so glad that you got an answer.

Me too. At least now I have something to work with.

On 10/8/2024 at 7:05 AM, Aniston said:

I am 50 year old female. Okay, let me give a bit of what is happening with me. About four months ago, I started experiencing some bloating and pressure sensations in the upper abdominals, in my stomach area. I would have these occur several times per week and they could last anywhere between a couple of hours to a day then it would go away.

I felt that this was not normal to be feeling these so I booked an appointment with a doctor. I had some blood tests, stool test and a breath test to check for helicobacter Pylori. The test came back positive for H.Pylori. I was put onto triple therapy to treat this.

I was continuing to experience excessive bloating, lots and lots of contineous stomach noises. Its like a bunch of frogs having a splishy splashy pool party going on in there.  

My condition continues to worsen. For the past couple of months after this treatment, i am still getting lots of stomach noises, feeling of fullness, excessive bloating along with regular waves of pain that is like a pressure that builds up in my stomach and then the peak is sometimes very uncomfortable. The peak can last anywhere between 10 seconds to a couple of minutes, and sometimes they come and go every few minutes when other times they might happen once every few hours or not for a day or two. Its really bizzare.

Fast forward to the last few weeks. I got a really bad burning pain in my stomach that caused me to throw up. The pressure felt bad and I was very gassy and bloated. Also I will point out that I have difficulty passing gas and always have so its nothing unusual for me. I feel lots of gas inside but it seems higher up so its impossible to pass it.

For that week, most days I was bloated and have feeling of fullness. Then on saturday night i took a turn for the worse where I threw up all night. Almost every 20 minutes to an hour. Those pressure pains were really bad. When the pressure pain builds up, i feel movement around my navel and around my whole abdominals. The heartburn was awful. (I have hiatal hernia as well and lots of acid reflux). I was due to do another h.pylori test hence why I was off my Proton Pump Inhibitors.

I had no appetite for a few days but then by Tuesday i started eating again. Come Thursday night, i start throwing up again. I know there was bile too coz i barely ate a thing all week and most of the time my stomach was almost empty. By Friday morning, i threw up again and those stomach bloat pains were bad. I ended up going to the ER. They did a chest scan, no physical example and i explained my symptoms but they did not seem concerned. Blood work came back fine so they released me to go home where i further threw up a few more times during the night. This was last Friday, it is now Tuesday evening as of writing this.

I felt okay for a few days I started getting my appetite back. My doctor appointment on Monday (yesterday) tested negative for h.pylori. Thyroid is normal. Kidney (I have only one. Lost it as a child due to infection). My iron, B12 is normal. Ovaries seem normal. Liver fuction slightly lower due to Non-Alchohlic Fatty Liver disease. Cholesterol is slightly off but still decent. I tested negative to coeliac disease as well.

SO then, What could be wrong with me? I started feeling bad again last night. I am rarely constipated but the past week or so I have been. But then last night, I had a lot of watery stools and a bit today as well. Could it be possible i could have a partial bowel obstruction? Doctors in the ER and two other doctors I have now seen regarding this don't seem to think so. But they won't give me ease of mind by arranging an X-Ray or CT Scan to rule this out. Keep in mind, 8 years ago I had an umbilical hernia repaired that had complications that resulted in a further 4 surgeries to correct. So my concern are scar tissue (Adhesions) that i have read can lead to bowel obstruction. My stomach feels okay at the moment. Usually when this flares up which is like most part of the week, i get really bad bloating and lots of gas that I can't seem to expell out, and tones of super loud stomach gurgling and noises. I even suggested to the doctor if i might have SIBO (Small Intenstinal Bacterial Overgrowth) but says its not easy to test for those. I thought it was a simple test so I have no idea why he tells me this.

So I am here really baffled and i feel so alone. I feel as though the doctors do not want to help me. They just said that if i don't improve then they might need to arrange for an endoscopy and colonoscopy but the colonoscopy is what freaks me out even more than the other and that also is not pleasant. I have had 2 many years ago.

Could all this be IBS? I mean this bloating gets so bad and the pains in my upper stomach especially, with that pressure can often trigger nausea and occasionally vomiting. I don't really have anyone I can talk to. I feel so alone with this. I feel lost and don't know what to do.

PS: I had my gallbladder removed in 2008. So these can't be due to gallstones.

Hi Aniston,

Having the same darn symptoms, never heard of this looping but I did have an umbilical hernia repaired many years ago.

So thinking this might be the cause, the gurgling sounds are intense along with bloating and seems like the pressure is moving thru my system.

Had intense pain but attributed it to constipation, started a GLP a month ago too, so it’s a bit confusing.

Thanks for posting this.

Will see my PCP this week to determine it due to GLP or what. But I have experienced this before but this time extremely painful!

Diane