severe abdominal pain and a bad doctor
I have been experiencing severe pain in my lower left abdominal area(right below my ribs) for about 3 months now. My doctor gave me Nexium and that worked for about 25 days but now it is getting worse again. When i called to talk to him he had the nurse tell me to eat a GI "friendly" diet. This just doesn't seem right since everything that i have been reading makes me thing that he should be running tests to see what is wrong with me. Would you agree? Also can you tell me what he meant by a GI friendly diet since i am not sure but need to do somehting to make this pain go away. I am dying here!!!
Hi Leslhart,
While online sites are wonderful resources for information to help you manage your care, they can not take the place of your doctor's sound medical advice. If you are not getting the service from your doctor you think you should be getting, it's time to find a new one. You should look into a gastroenterologist. Someone who specializes in the gastro tract, stomach and esophagus. Once you get a doctor you can rely on, you can use these resources to help manage your care with his/her help.
It sounds like you might be experiencing acid reflux, but you need a stronger dosage of the Nexium. Sometimes it takes larger doses for longer periods of time to get you to the point you need to be. A GI friendly diet is one that doesn't trigger the acid reflux. Tracy Davenport has a series of articles about Acid Reflux friendly meals. You can read the series here. You can read more about Nexium here in the drugs database. You can read what Dr. Eisner has to say about Nexium and long term use here. You can also find information about what to eat and more importantly what NOT to eat here as well as some lifestyle changing tips to help with the acid reflux. Here's a great article by Jan Gambino about healthy eating at work.
There are some steps you can take to help lessen the acid reflux. You should be eating 5-6 small meals a day. Snacking sortof, not eating one big meal a day. Not eating late in the evening before bed is also recommended. When you sleep, you can sleep elevated and/or on your left side. That will help ease some of the nighttime problems. You can read more about treatment and alternatives here.
It's a delicate balance that you and your doctor need to work through to get you to the point of not having pain.
Hope this helps!! Stay in touch!
Vicki M
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