Abdominal pain

[Mickeymaus]

1 hour ago, moogradod said:

I did not know what IBS is, so I googled it. And it is very much probable that I have exactly that. I do Colonoscopies regularily at a renown hospital in Pattaya, but my Gastroenterologist does not really help apart from taking away polyps if they find some (which is normal for me) and recommendations of a ridiculous diet which is impossible for me to adhere to. I would starve.

 

The procedure itself was really painful the last time - it should not be. But a very easy to manage (no anesthesist necessary, a nurse with some experience is enough - have done it in Switzerland) Propofol Infusion would take away any pain completely. Exept the pain in the wallet. They demand a fortune for that, a multiple of the colonoscopy itself.

 

So I would be happy to see some recommendations for an alternative hospital / specialist. If we all PM Sheryl she would maybe not be so happy. I guess many have that kind of ailment.

Where to you get a colonoscopy in Pattaya and how much does it cost?

Sometimes I have abdominal pain too. So far we assume that it is a muscle problem. Sometimes I can hardly get up from a chair. But when I stand it's gone. Pills didn't change anything. Swimming helped a lot. But there is an uncertainty. It didn't disappear completely. But the pain is very mild now since I go swimming almost every day. 

 

[Chicksaw]

5 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

The best doctors in India don't stay in India

Not true. It's almost impossible for an Indian-born doctor who's got his qualification in India to emigrate to the west. Re the US, where there is a large number of Indian doctors, these are Indian Americans, born in the US who've graduated from US schools.

 

I want to clarify my comment about Thai hospitals. I think they are great if you are in a situation where the problem is understood and it's a matter of doing x and y and z and off you go.

 

Diagnostics is another matter. From my experience Thai docs try to map symptoms/test results to a book or paper they've read and draw the conclusion there. Little room for their own intuition/experience.

 

Ok, here's an incident related to friend who went to India for diagnosis. Coincidentally, he too was suffering acute abdominal pain like the OP and had been advised everything from immediate surgery to massive doses of medicine. The Indian doc looked over his history and talked to him at length, then palpitated (is that the word?) him carefully and came up with a diagnosis from left field "diabetic neuropathy". Turns out he was right.

[Mickeymaus]

12 minutes ago, Chicksaw said:

Not true. It's almost impossible for an Indian-born doctor who's got his qualification in India to emigrate to the west. Re the US, where there is a large number of Indian doctors, these are Indian Americans, born in the US who've graduated from US schools.

 

I want to clarify my comment about Thai hospitals. I think they are great if you are in a situation where the problem is understood and it's a matter of doing x and y and z and off you go.

 

Diagnostics is another matter. From my experience Thai docs try to map symptoms/test results to a book or paper they've read and draw the conclusion there. Little room for their own intuition/experience.

 

Ok, here's an incident related to friend who went to India for diagnosis. Coincidentally, he too was suffering acute abdominal pain like the OP and had been advised everything from immediate surgery to massive doses of medicine. The Indian doc looked over his history and talked to him at length, then palpitated (is that the word?) him carefully and came up with a diagnosis from left field "diabetic neuropathy". Turns out he was right.

Thailand has great dentist. But that is it then. I will never forget when I was diagnosed in one of the "best" hospitals here with lung cancer. Then I went to a professor in Manila and he was laughing and said they ripped me off. He gave me Ibuprofen and after three days my chest pain that I had for many months was gone. I still have all documents, X-rays and expensive CT scans. No, I should write CT scams.

 

Edited May 21, 2023 by Mickeymaus

[Lacessit]

18 minutes ago, Chicksaw said:

Not true. It's almost impossible for an Indian-born doctor who's got his qualification in India to emigrate to the west.

Seems to be quite a lot of them in Australia, although I understand they have to meet Australian Medical Association requirements before they can practice.

[Sheryl]

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

Seems to be quite a lot of them in Australia, although I understand they have to meet Australian Medical Association requirements before they can practice.

There are well established pathways whereby foreign educated doctors (including Indians) can get a position in the US, but they usually have to start as an intern or at best 1st year resident after first passing stiff exams. And then pass boards for their respective specialty after completing the required internship and residency. It sets them back several years but still, many do it.

[proton]

7 hours ago, Dan O said:

You could have IBS. Go to a good gastro\enterologist and stop guessing. No one on the forum can tell you as it could be a number of things. Shoot Sheryl a message and see what her advice is. 

Thats really a catch all when they don't know exactly what it is, I got diagnosed with that years ago. I wonder if he might have a twisted colon like me, that did not cause pain until my 50's, diverticulitis is another possibility

Edited May 21, 2023 by proton

[Liverpool Lou]

9 hours ago, Chicksaw said:

The doctors are well-groomed and nurses pretty. But beyond that medical skills are questionable.

Absolute condescending garbage and totally false.

[JimTripper]

There is a condition, I forget the name, where feces gets blocked in the intestine and it ruptures, sending poison (feces) into the system. It kills you.

 

I had a relative that died of this, and a roommate in college as well (don’t remember if he died but was taken away in an ambulance). It strikes without much warning, sharp pain, and you need to get to the hospital right away. You don’t just bare it though, your on the phone calling for help pretty much, but some people kind of wait to do anything.

 

if I were you I would go to Singapore for a checkup, but not sure if your covered there and it’s likely expensive. Otherwise, back to home country if your from somewhere decent and let state coverage take care of it until they find something, as long as you have housing there or friends and family.

[Liverpool Lou]

8 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

come on we are all sceptical about doctors here

No, "we all" definitely are not.  Such cobbler's.

Edited May 21, 2023 by Liverpool Lou

[Liverpool Lou]

4 hours ago, connda said:

For those posting "laughing emoticons."  That's pretty callous and disrespectful. I wouldn't call this a laughing matter

Prior to your posting that, no one had posted laughing emojis at the OP and to claim that it had happened multiple times is just as "callous and disrespectful", one did appear to be directed at a clinic's doctor, not the OP.  

[JimTripper]

4 hours ago, connda said:

For those posting "laughing emoticons."  That's pretty callous and disrespectful. I wouldn't call this a laughing matter, nor the care you can receive in India.  It is a option.  There is nothing funny about that, especially considering the OP's issues.

Laughing can mean many different things. Nervous laughter; laughing because it sounds ridiculously bad, laughing because you have a pain now and you thought it was just gas and now your afraid of dying, a street vendor laughs at you when you order, etc, etc. it’s not always making fun of the condition or ailment. Same as in Thailand, many reasons to laugh, could mean hundreds of things.

Edited May 21, 2023 by JimTripper

[jts-khorat]

6 hours ago, Sheryl said:

Best advice I can give is to gather all records, test results (inlcuding DVD of any scans or endoscopies) and see this doctor in Bangkok.

I agree.

 

In my case, the horrible side and intestinal pain I had whenever I just started walking a bit was a 1.3 cm kidney stone, which must have grown over some years. This had been misdiagnosed multiple times, until I had such a severe episode that I landed in the ICU.

 

Therefore, as your symptoms are well beyond unpleasant and for such a long time, you do need professional help instead of self-medicating, as the possible reasons are so plentiful and guessing wrong could have nasty long-term effects.

[Chicksaw]

2 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Such cobbler's.

I was puzzled. What does this mean? Then I looked it up and learned:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_load_of_old_cobblers

 

Obviously, I am not a Brit but this is fascinating!

[scubascuba3]

5 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Prior to your posting that, no one had posted laughing emojis at the OP and to claim that it had happened multiple times is just as "callous and disrespectful", one did appear to be directed at a clinic's doctor, not the OP.  

Some trolls post sad emojis or laughing emojis all the time, strange people

[Dan O]

8 hours ago, proton said:

Thats really a catch all when they don't know exactly what it is, I got diagnosed with that years ago. I wonder if he might have a twisted colon like me, that did not cause pain until my 50's, diverticulitis is another possibility

No it's really not really a catch allbut more a category. It can be caused by several different things, from foods you eat, condition of the lining of the bowels, chemicals you produce as part of digestion or medicine you take. That's the reason I suggested seeing a specialist and not just guessing and Trying different medication on your own, especially antibiotics. I've was diagnosed over 35 years ago and given a regiment of foods to avoid and medications to avoid and control it pretty successfully but I did have to change things in my diet. 

[Dan O]

On 5/21/2023 at 6:53 PM, Lacessit said:

Seems to be quite a lot of them in Australia, although I understand they have to meet Australian Medical Association requirements before they can practice.

His statement isn't completely accurate there are lots of Indian born doctors in the USA. In the Washington DC area there are probably 30% of the gp's are Indian born. 

Edited May 24, 2023 by Dan O
Spelling

[PPMMUU]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm feeling confused. So, do they find nothing or do they find that it is an amoeba infection? It can't be both, right?

[Sheryl]

6 hours ago, PPMMUU said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm feeling confused. So, do they find nothing or do they find that it is an amoeba infection? It can't be both, right?

No amoeba infection found with OP. But they did, about a year or so ago, find gastritis on endoscopy (he omits that in this post) and treated him for such and he did feel better for a while (the pain had not been continual as he now says - I know this from many prior communications). Apparently the pain is now back. He does seem to over use tramadol, dating back to when his abdominal pain first started years ago, which is why I suspect narcotic bowel syndrome. He has had scans etc that showed nothing.  I forget if he ever had a colonscopy.

 

If not narcotic bowel syndrome or unhealed gastritis (he is vague about where the pain is or what it is like)  might be IBS. 

 

He is in Phuket, limited selection of specialists there and I think he has pretty much exhausted the local options.

[save the frogs]

In general, for this or any medical issue ...

I wonder if it's possible to get a diagnosis from a doctor in your home country.

ie find a doctor with an online presence (facebook, etc ...), contact them directly and ask them if they can do a consultation on Zoom or Skype ... 

in the future, this may be more common ... so I'm thinking you don't need to confine yourself to doctors in your local area. 

just a thought. 

 

[Badrabbit]

On 5/24/2023 at 7:16 PM, Sheryl said:

No amoeba infection found with OP. But they did, about a year or so ago, find gastritis on endoscopy (he omits that in this post) and treated him for such and he did feel better for a while (the pain had not been continual as he now says - I know this from many prior communications). Apparently the pain is now back. He does seem to over use tramadol, dating back to when his abdominal pain first started years ago, which is why I suspect narcotic bowel syndrome. He has had scans etc that showed nothing.  I forget if he ever had a colonscopy.

 

If not narcotic bowel syndrome or unhealed gastritis (he is vague about where the pain is or what it is like)  might be IBS. 

 

He is in Phuket, limited selection of specialists there and I think he has pretty much exhausted the local options.

Will this help me, they say it will make me better.

[Sheryl]

Extremely unlikley.

 

This is just a form of curcumin  which is active ingredient in tumeric.

 

There are many Thai traiditonal medicine products containing this, you can even get at 7-11.

No reason to get an expensive imported version if you want to try turmeric.

 

[fredwiggy]

On 5/21/2023 at 4:11 PM, Sheryl said:

It is entirely possible that the tramadol itself is the cause of your problem now, whatever it may have originally been. (Narcotic Bowel Syndrome).

 

While you now state that you have been in pain "continuous pain for 2 yrs", we have had multiple communications in which you reported the pain had (temporarily as it turned out) ceased. So it has not been continual for 2 years.

 

Best advice I can give is to gather all records, test results (inlcuding DVD of any scans or endoscopies) and see this doctor in Bangkok.

 

https://www.bumrungrad.com/en/doctors/Parit-Mekaroonkamol?gclid=CjwKCAjwgqejBhBAEiwAuWHioOoGFC_mCEFIRFoRm11vfE-ocuOtOnZxEVMcXWGCp6d-nAGgKxg42BoCVusQAvD_BwE

 

He has successfully diagnosed many people when other doctors could not.

 

By "see", I mean a consultation., There is no reason at all to think inpatient hospitalization would be required.  And it sounds like you have already had pretty extensive testing. What you need is a more skilled diagnostician.

 

 

Best advice. Taking advice without knowing what is causing you pain is not good. Only a specialist in GI can help you here. My ex wife had her colon removed because doctors kept prescribing her Opioids for pain, but were giving her two at a time, Fentanyl with morphine, Vicodin with Fentanyl, Fentanyl with Dilaudid., Morphine with Vicodin. I was very angry over this, especially after her colon had to be removed because her bowels stopped working, at times for a month straight! Idiots. I had an H Pylori once, and the doctor here prescribed antibiotics and antacid and it vanished in two days. IBS has symptoms that are easy to decipher, and dull pain is one. Ulcers are another suspect, but again, need to go to someone who specializes in this. Taking opioids for a long time isn't a good thing for your GI tract.

[georgegeorgia]

I just had right side abdo pain ,all the tests find nothing !

Yesterday got a bone density scan it found rib and back problem so that may be radiating to your abdo area 

Get a bone density scan