Have you had severe abdominal pain and weren’t sure what the heck it was from? My first advice is to see your doctor ASAP. If you can’t reach your family doctor or you don’t have one, get to an Urgent Care facility or E.R. This is especially true if you are running a fever. If you are a female (of childbearing age), there are more things you have to worry about than if you are a male (such as a ruptured ovarian cyst). Your age is, also, of importance no matter whether you are male or female. But no matter what, severe abdominal pain needs medical attention. I remember a 36 year old male coming to the ER with severe abdominal pain that he had never had before. He thought he had appendicitis. He was not running a fever, and did not have nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. The final diagnosis was Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). He was put under the care of a Gastroenterologist and has done well. Another case involved a young, healthy 19 year old male. He had had some rather minor pain in his lower abdomen for a few days that he thought was a muscle strain from his new workout program. Then this progressed to severe abdominal pain and elevated temperature. He was rushed to the ER by a family member and after a lengthy work up his diagnosis was diverticulitis and not appendicitis as first thought. This was a surprise considering his age. The CT scan showed one small colon “pocket” (one small area of diverticulosis) that had become inflamed and then infected. This is still unusual for a teenager to have. No surgery was needed at this time, of course, but rest and antibiotics were prescribed. The old school was to avoid anything with seeds, nuts, popcorn, etc. Later studies have shown this not to be true but I have known patients that suffer from chronic bouts of diverticulitis that swear popcorn, etc. will predispose them to flare-ups. So, each patient is different. Follow the advice of your Gastroenterologist as well as what your own body is telling you.
I, unfortunately, have a long history of IBS. My Gastroenterologist put me on VSL#3 which is a medical grade probiotic. It has pretty much solved my IBS problem, so I highly recommend it. It is not a prescription medication but the directions state it should be taken under the direction of a doctor. It does have to be kept refrigerated and this is a problem for many people such as air line pilots. I also advise you to start out with a small amount of the powder rather than the whole package. The directions say you can take up to four packets a day but I do not advise that. I did not even tolerate one whole packet a day. I take about one/fourth of a teaspoon per day. But I am hypersensitive to medications of any kind. You would need to experiment to find your proper dosage. This probiotic is very expensive but very worth it.
There are so many possible causes of severe abdominal pain that I won’t even begin to try to cover them all in this blog. But, as with any severe pain anywhere in your body, get medical help ASAP.
Thanks for reading and good luck.
