Anyone experience this: Chronic stomach pain, fatigue, right flank pain?

Question

The stomach pain started back in December, and has gotten progressively worse. Within the last week, a chronic fever (99.2-99.8 about 12 waking hours per day--have no idea what it is while I sleep) and left side and back pain, have developed too. I have been to three doctors, and none of them know. One said a kidney stone I probably passed (when the left side/back pain started), another said a peptic ulcer, and all have thought gallstones (but I have already had that removed). Just wondering if anyone had any ideas I could present to the dr when I see them next.

Answer 1

? chronic Renal failure ,

Answer 2

Many possibilities exist for this.  We would need a complete medical history, physical examination, routine tests like a CBC, Urinalysis, Blood chemistry profile, and the results of any abdominal x-ray studies you have had so far.  

A teaching hospital is not necessary at this point.

Ovarian cancer is not the first consideration.

This is the kind of detective work I loved as an internal medicine specialist.  

Most of the information is in the detailed history.  

We do not have enough of it here.

What is needed is a good primary care specialist who has the time to listen, examine and evaluate thoroughly.  

Of course I am partial to internal medicine specialists because that is my background.

I guess it is not always easy to find a really good doctor who will follow-up and pursue a case until the answer is found.  

If you are jumping from doctor to doctor without giving them a chance to finish the evaluation, that could be part of the problem.  

Sometimes it takes a while to get to the bottom of a problem.   The answer is not always apparent at the first visit.

Or, you may not have found a doctor you feel good about yet.

Hard for us to tell from here.

Medicine is not easy.  It is still an art as much as a science.  

I would spend many hours with someone like you to work out all the possibilities.  Often, doctors today do not have that kind of time.  There is pressure to move people through in assembly line fashion.  That is one of the reasons I retired in my late 40's.

Good luck with this.

Wish we could tell you from here.  

There are a number of good docs on this site.

Answer 3

If you aren't already, go to a teaching hospital (a hospital affiliated with a medical school).  They tend to be more up-to-date on current literature and may be more familiar with your problem.

Answer 4

Could be anything. Make certain they rule out ovarian cancer, Gilda Radner had abdominal pain for months before they figured out what it was.

See an ob-gyn doctor, make certain they are board certified, next to that see a board cetified Gastroenterologist.

A teaching hospital might be good, but sometimes they just want to get you into a clinical trial of some type, sometimes waiting until the last minute for you to sign on the dotted line before some procedure or test to give you any indication of that is what they are up to. UP FRONT say you do not want to be part of any clinial trial, and repeat it every time you talk to someone.