I don't want to eat anything anymore.

[midnightrae]

It seems like no matter what I eat, I have horrible pains in my stomach/side of my stomach. Most of the time it is really sharp and it feels like I'm being stabbed. I can't seem to win. I know I need to get surgery, but I don't have the money for it. I also think that surgery is going to help with my stomach pains, it will only help when I have to go to the bathroom. I'm probably allergic/intolerant to more foods, but it is hard to tell what it is when it hurts every day. I would just rather not eat anything and have my stomach not hurt. I will see my GI, but it takes awhile to get an appointment. Until then,  any advice? 

[Deleted]

May 3, 2013 10:54:55 GMT -5 midnightrae said:

It seems like no matter what I eat, I have horrible pains in my stomach/side of my stomach. Most of the time it is really sharp and it feels like I'm being stabbed. I can't seem to win. I know I need to get surgery, but I don't have the money for it. I also think that surgery is going to help with my stomach pains, it will only help when I have to go to the bathroom. I'm probably allergic/intolerant to more foods, but it is hard to tell what it is when it hurts every day. I would just rather not eat anything and have my stomach not hurt. I will see my GI, but it takes awhile to get an appointment. Until then,  any advice? 

what makes you think this? my surgery took my daily pain away.

[midnightrae]

May 3, 2013 11:08:22 GMT -5 tacom said:

May 3, 2013 10:54:55 GMT -5 midnightrae said:

It seems like no matter what I eat, I have horrible pains in my stomach/side of my stomach. Most of the time it is really sharp and it feels like I'm being stabbed. I can't seem to win. I know I need to get surgery, but I don't have the money for it. I also think that surgery is going to help with my stomach pains, it will only help when I have to go to the bathroom. I'm probably allergic/intolerant to more foods, but it is hard to tell what it is when it hurts every day. I would just rather not eat anything and have my stomach not hurt. I will see my GI, but it takes awhile to get an appointment. Until then,  any advice? 

what makes you think this? my surgery took my daily pain away.

Because they are removing the stuff from my colon and I don't see how that would help the pain I have when/after I eat. It will just make it less painful/blood when I go to the bathroom. 

[Deleted]

May 3, 2013 11:42:55 GMT -5 midnightrae said:

May 3, 2013 11:08:22 GMT -5 tacom said:

what makes you think this? my surgery took my daily pain away.

Because they are removing the stuff from my colon and I don't see how that would help the pain I have when/after I eat. It will just make it less painful/blood when I go to the bathroom. 

We removed 1.5 feet from my small intestine and it got rid of pain that occurred when or after I ate. It also helped with that feeling of fullness and increased gastric motility. When something is diseased downstream it affects everything upstream as well. I had fecal matter in my jejunum. 

[midnightrae]

May 3, 2013 11:58:19 GMT -5 tacom said:

May 3, 2013 11:42:55 GMT -5 midnightrae said:

Because they are removing the stuff from my colon and I don't see how that would help the pain I have when/after I eat. It will just make it less painful/blood when I go to the bathroom. 

We removed 1.5 feet from my small intestine and it got rid of pain that occurred when or after I ate. It also helped with that feeling of fullness and increased gastric motility. When something is diseased downstream it affects everything upstream as well. I had fecal matter in my jejunum. 

I was supposed to get the surgery done over a year ago(almost 2 years ago, I think). I also think they have to do a biopsy on a growth they found. That makes me scared. But I have to get the skin tags removed first because they are on top of the growths and internal hemorrhoids. 

[Deleted]

I'm sorry it's a mess.

IBD is not fun.

but you can push this off, or you can get real about your treatment options. the problem is if you push it off too long, you can end up in an emergency position (like I did) where you have to have an open surgery immediately (instead of laproscopic), risk sepsis and death because fecal matter is spewing into your abdominal cavity, and you go into surgery very diseased, which impedes healing. If the surgery is planned your doctor can put you on bowel rest or do pre-surgery drug therapy to calm disease activity down/push it into remission, and you can have better long-term outcomes.

I understand the money part being stressful, but the hospital will work with you on that.

good luck

[aimeedyan]

I'll echo Tacom. Putting off surgery doesn't make it go away. Eventually, the pain becomes a hole and the hole spews fecal matter into your abdominal cavity and your life is threatened. That's really the natural progression of things.

The pain you're experiencing is likely due to extreme inflammation and scar tissue in your colon. Surgery removes that. Foods on their own should not cause that kind of pain. If you have an intolerance to them, you might have cramping but not that awful, gut wrenching, pain.

Look, I've been there. I should have opted for surgery earlier than I did but I opted to wait until I was popping Vicodin like candy and sipping maybe a can of chicken broth a day before I finally gave in. It wasn't easy, believe me, but they found a lot more damage than we knew was there and that complicated the surgery and recovery. That was 3 threes ago and I am not in remission (never was) but I have gone back to eating anything I want - pain free - since.

There is a point at which all the TnF blockers in the world can't stop the pain and inflammation because it's too far gone. Those meds can't remove scar tissue, or fully repair a hole leaking into your gut. They can work miracles but even they have a point of no return. I tried them all, as an attempt to avoid surgery, and ran out of options. What are you on right now?

It's expensive, no doubt. It took me 2 years to pay off my resection in small monthly payments. There ARE ways to pay it off over time in small increments - just do your homework prior*

At my very worst, I sipped on chicken broth and Boost. My GI prompted me to suck down any high calorie drinks I could but since I can't do lactose, I had a hard time doing that. If you can do lactose, try milkshakes. They have high calorie counts plus make you feel full. Even with limited liquid diet the pain was overwhelming but anything solid caused an obstruction.

*the hospital that was under my network didn't allow you to make payments. They sell your account to a bank and you owe the bank WITH interest + the balance. It's nearly unheard of in the medical community and a horrible practice, I think. Thankfully, I learned my lesson before my surgery and knew we'd have to pay the entire hospital portion within 30 days of discharge so I had arrangements lined up elsewhere. I say that so that you can carefully check before scheduling so you're not facing a huge surprise just weeks later... like I did