Fibromyalgia Support Group

I really hate to ask a personal question like this, but this is causing me a great deal of concern lately. Does anyone know if fibro. can cause problems with the "internal" workings of the body? By this I mean having bathroom problems? I am sorry to ask this but I have rad various articles and they seem split 50-50 on the subject.

Primarily why I ask is that 1. I am having certain problems in that area, and 2. the day after christmas i was rushed to the hospital suffering from pancreatitis. Now, normally to have pancreatitis one has gallstones, which thankfully I dont have. After being incredibly sick for 3 days the doctors finally decided that it had to be from the medication I was taking (gabapentine and effixer [sp]).

Because of this I have greatly reduced the amount that the doctor prescribed me on a trial basis because I was beginning to exhibit some of the same symptoms again. I have been trying to contact my doctor for the last 10 days (he is a VA doctor)and the best I can do is send messages to his nurse and she passes them on. I have still heard nothing back and I am worried, and my wife is beginning to get frantic over the reduction of the meds, as well as having taken them I get sick. I need answers and I am willing to listen to anyone who might have information on this topic, or is going through this same thing.

Dale

Don't be sorry to ask anything on here and I mean ANYTHING! We talk about it all.lol Now on to your gut, are you having regular bowel movements? Is your stomach aching, on fire, cramping or just nauseous?

The reason I ask so many questions is that the type of pain can help you or your doc figure out whats wrong. I have a defective gallbladder, and IBS, both of those and some of the meds I take cause constapation of the super grand size kind. The gall bladder causes cramping and lava like fire, and the IBS can cause all of the above.

I would be careful lowering your med intake with a docs ok, sometimes it can make things worse. I know getting a hold of a VA doc can be an extremely difficult frustrating thing. Hopefullu you hear from yours soon.

To be honest it is like a stabbing pain on bottom right of my rib cage. you know how the ribs kind of look like fingers on the skeleton? at the tip of the bottom right rib, and in that general area. Now to offset the backup I am taking stool softners, fiber, and a powder laxative that I mix with my morning coffee. The only reason I know about this is that during the holidays I tried to have a bowel movement and it hurt so bad I screamed and came out of the bathroom bent over telling my wife to get the truck and get me to the hospital NOW!

The doctors at the ER rushed me through a battery of tests only to find out that whatever the enzyme, lipid, or whatever levels where astronomical high which was a sure sign of pancreatitis. I didnt have any other symptoms except for the pain. Once i was in the hospital they put me on IV fluids and said no food or drink and that the pancreas had to rest for several days. Within 2 days I exhibited all the signs of pancreatitis: Fever, nausea, pain, vomiting the works. Funny part is that it hit all at once about an hour be the doctor came in making rounds that day. He was trying to explain things to my wife, and I was busy throwing up for the third time.

Since I have lowered the meds in the last few days I am feeling better, which means to say no pain and things are beginning to work like they should. My wife being a CNA and CMA has done her research on these meds and has read that pancretitis is a possible side effect fromt these meds. Apparently Im one of the however small percent that can suffer from it. Because of this I have upped the pain medication while lowering these meds and I feel so much better. I hate playing doctor with these meds since I dont know enough about them but sometimes it is necessary to self medicate and experiment on our own to find out what works, especially when the doctors wont call back with instructions.

with all the test I would asume they checked your gallbladder? do you notice the pain worse after you eat?

I wound up having mine removed but I still feel like I have a bad one there..I asked my doc can it grow back,lol..

stay on top of it, if its the meds that is interesting(not for you Im sure)..but it is important to fight for your health regardless..good luck

Well this sounds verry familure to me as my husband also has similar problems. He has a sphincter of odi disfunction and gets cronic pancriantitas from it. He has gotten better now that he has stopped all narcotic pain meds as they cause the spincter to spasim and send fluid from the galbladder into the pancrius causing pancriantitus. So to get quick releaf we did a clean out with magnesium cittrate witch is a stimulant laxitive you can get over the counter. He watches his diet and stayes active and that seems to keep his pain under controal. We saw doctors for 3 years from VA to Balboa,to private and they couldent fix it. An old navy doc friend told him about the narcotics causing the problem. The verry same ones the doctors here were upping weekly to try to controal the pain and every other week stays in the hospital for the pancrintitas. Hopes this info helps. Also another friend has this as well and he manages it with diet. ( spell check not working sorry for spelling errors)( fibro and dislexic bad combo)

Bobbie

good to hear that you have been able to find some relief by altering your meds. Hope you can get in to see your doc soon so you can get a permanent fix to your meds. Sometimes we have to alter our meds to be comfortable and then we tell the docs what we did that works. Don't have a lot of personal expierence with pancreatitis,sounds a lot like gallbladder issues though and those are painful, hoping you continue to feel better.

bobbiejo don't worry about the spelling errors all of us fibro-warriors have spelling issues and are used to reading and writing misspelles words. As you can see by reading mine. LOL