Has anyone been diagnosed with Abdominal Wall Pain

Also check MALS-Mesenteric artery ligament syndrome. It has all those symptoms. There’s a Facebook page MALS Awareness

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No. MALS, like MAST, has a constellation of symptoms making it difficult to diagnose. A.C.N.E.S was diagnosed and named in 1926 long before all the scanning and high-level lab tests currently available. The only complexity in diagnosing A.C.N.E.S is physician ignorance of the condition. Most important: "It's a good time to be in the business of gastroenterology. Not only do gastroenterologists enjoy one of the higher annual compensations among medical specialists, they are also driving substantial earnings for hospitals. According to the Merritt Hawkins 2019 Physician Inpatient/Outpatient Revenue Survey, gastroenterologists generated an average net revenue of $2,965,277 in 2019, more than double that reported in 2016." (Medscape,1/31/2020) It doesn't pay to have simple tests and obvious diagnoses when you can pile on countless labs, scans, and other testing to benefit yourself and your medical center...

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Do you know of any Doctors in US that specialize in A.C.N.E.S?

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Good Day,

When I found this forum post, I got excited that the posts were recent. Over the last year I have had abdominal pain and it has been a journey to say the least. I have just started down the abdominal wall pain journey a few months back. But here is my story:

I am a 32 year old male. I started noticing I had random abdominal pain about a year ago today. It was more of a nuisance at the time and I assumed it was muscle strain. Over the next six months it slowly got worse and worse. I would have one bad day and schedule an appt with my PCP then I would not have the pain weeks later at the appt. The pain continued to grow. I started having more and more bad days and the pain started to linger longer. So I thought okay something isn't right. [I also had this weird hernia like muscle spasm pain thing that would bulge out (right below my naval) every now and then. It would also hurt to my urethra, if I pee'd while it flared up it hurt like hell (oddly, ejaculating made it better). This started to become more frequent, from 4/year to 4/month (steadyhealth(dot)com/topics/abdominal-pain-that-is-felt-from-the-belly-button-through-the-peni) in that 20 page post people describe in detail what I had.] So I went to a hernia dr. He said I don't know what the hell is causing your pain but you have an umbilical hernia lets fix it.

He fixed it and also did a larascopy to check for any causes to the pain. This was Sept 2017. To date I have not had the bulge but sometimes when the muscles spasm I feel it in my urethra but it is very mild so I considered that aspect of the surgery a success.

However, immediately after the surgery I had a huge pain in my left side (a 4-6 inches from the naval). I assumed it was just from the surgery, but it was in between the two incisions. A few weeks later, surgery pain was gone but the original pain was now greater. At the time, it really only hurt in that one spot. So I thought the next logical place to go was the GI.

The GI did a scope of my stomach and a colonoscopy. Both came back normal and all blood work looked great. During this time the pain started to jump but the same original place hurt the most and most frequent. It was all only on the left side at this time as well. I met with my PCP and he was convinced it was chrohns disease. I felt defeated. A few days later it hurt so bad at work I said screw it and went to the ER. They did a cat scan of my organs and saw inflammation in my small intestine. So I went back to the GI and did the pill cam. Results came back normal again.

PCP still convinced it was chrons but also thought it might be my spine so I went and had MRI's with/without contrast of my brain, neck, and spine. There was some "stuff" with the lower spine but no trapped nerves they said.

At this point the pain had started happening on the right side as well. My PCP was still convinced I had chrohns and the GI was wrong. All labs and diagnostics said I was a very healthy individual except this pain. So I went to a pain clinic. It took two months before I got injections because they had to cancel the day before my injections and it was holiday time. I went and saw my PCP in this time and he did a test and said it was my abdominal wall he believed.

Then, three weeks ago I had my first injections, they were two nerve blocks lateral to my naval and some other injections for pain all over. After I left I had no pain. This lasted a week. My pain killer consumption was only for the first few days due to sore injections and after that no pills. The second week it slowly came back until it was fully back. During this time I started taking 1 pill a day. After 3 weeks, I was back to two a day. (I take 50 mg tramadol twice a day, among a long list of others) It also increased and started to linger much longer. It would feel like the weird feeling you get after someone punches you in the stomach. Plus burning, stabbing, throbbing pain. When I think I have a handle on it, it moves. But it has stayed in the same area for some time now. Essentially if you cup your hand around the naval, you touch most of the pain areas.

The called the mayo clinic and they said they could do nothing for me. I found this doctor forum below and today I asked if they used ultrasound on my injections. I was told "no that costs extra and most insurances don't cover it. We do use like an x ray thing but most of the doctors are so god they don't need that."

Today they told me they will try the injections a second time and to change to an alkali diet. I am not a fan of psuedo-science so the alkali diet thing pissed me off but to be honest, I am open to anything and have tried everything they suggest.

forums(dot) studentdoctor(dot)net/threads/abdominal-wall-pain.894846/

Do any of you know any doctors who specialize in abdominal wall pain?

I emailed the RN with the mayo clinical study about abdominal wall pain. At my injections appointment I am going to ask why they don't use ultrasound and if they don't, I will try to find a doctor who knows more about abdominal wall pain.

It is interesting about the shoes. I have felt like this might be the result of a posture thing. I also always catch myself yawning because I am always holding my breath and flexing my muscles. This is what my body does. I have been trying to make that not happen as much to see if that helps.

Sorry it would not let me post links cause I'm new. But those are important to my post.

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All, i’ve been dealing with severe chronic abdominal wall pain for 4 1/2 years, I am at a dead end and extremely depressed and frustrated that I can’t find a cure for this. They’ve done over 100 test and 15 different doctors and still nothing. Can anybody give me some type of a recommendation on what I can do?🙏🏽

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ozzy72, I have been dealing with chronic ab wall pain for almost 3 years, each month it gets worse. Pain from under xiphoid process down to lower pelvic area. About six inches wide down the middle. So many tests and doctors like you, mentally its so hard to live with. I am at a 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 every day. Did you figure anything out with your wall pain?

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Hi @erikas, I have had a constant gut ache 24 hours a day since spring of 2018. I had mild gut pain from navel up (2-7 level) for 20 years (up to spring 2018) and had it thoroughly looked at over the years and came up with nothing, Nortriptyline helped a lot of it and made it livable. An ache like you haven't eaten in a day type pain from above navel to under my xiphoid process. Now the gut pain that started in 2018 I thought was more of the same and that the nortriptyline stopped working. I had an upper endoscopy and CT scan which were negative, tried various meds and had labs. By end of 2018 the pain was a consistent 5-6. In the spring of 2019 the pain also added the area down to my lower pelvis with sharper pain when pushing in over my bladder. So now from pelvis/waistline area to xiphoid -always 24 hours a day, level 6-7 up to about end of 2019, its down the middle of stomach about 6 inches wide. More tests were done in summer of 2019 and no bladder issue, its sharper down low and more pressure under xiphoid to navel. Had an MRI of abdomen and bladder scope, all negative. The pain seems to be in the myofasical area, the thought at first has been an entrapped nerve but I dont have one small area that pinpoints the exact spot. I had injections in later 2019 and early 2020, first in my ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric nerves on each side far side of my stomach with steroids', after a day the lower pain was about gone and above navel improved-though only lasted two days. Tried also injections into genitofemoral nerve, erector spinae, and thoracic epidural (had an mri lumbar and thoracic) those didn't help. It was noticed then visually and it then dawned on me a long while ago that I noticed a bulge from a navel to my xiphoid, I just thought it was from being out of shape. I had a surgeon check and said I have a decent size diastasis though no hernia, i had never heard of a diastasis. Dr wasnt sure that it was causing my problem. Also had a hida scan, nerve and muscle conduct study and all good there. Oxycodone, Hydro, other pills and nothing to have pain let up. Since Jan 2020 pain is 7.5-8.5 every minute of the day. Its actually worse laying down, pain is so bad that I don't want any pressure or items laying on my stomach, I use to sleep on my stomach as it helped some with the mild pain I had from 2000-2018. If you lie on your side and then push into the side of your stomach the pain gets worse and shoots up and down the middle of ab wall, more so down to pelvis. My new GI doctor said she thinks its abdominal wall and muscle/nerve related and should go to Mayo as I have exhausted all in St Louis. I hadn't had a colonoscopy in 4 1/2 years so had one of those done recently with new GI doctor, all good there. I did talk to a hernia micro surgeon and colorectal surgeon and both no answers before new GI doctor. My bowel habits changed a year ago with softer and going a lot more often most days, I did start eating less out of depression and nothing seemed good back in June and July, in 4 weeks I lost 15 lbs. I started eating more normally since August (I have always liked to eat) and really haven't put the weight back on which is odd. I tried for years to lose 15 pounds as I was 6'0 and 225 lbs, most of my weight was held in the gut area.

I did call Mayo 3 weeks back and they created an ID # and told me to fax all records to GI dept. I first sent my full summary and test results that I had, then within a week had all doctors do the same. I got the Mayo form letter back saying at this time we can't assist you, that is depressing. I called and was told they are very busy now and that other depts didn't look at my case. I pleaded and they said to have my GI doctor send a referral to the Mayo Pain Clinic and they can review then as all of the records are in the Mayo system now. That turn down letter was dated a day after me just sending in my review of my situation and all I have tried.

From reading more and more it seems I have Myofascial Abdominal Pain Syndrome with many trigger points. I now for the last 4 months actually hold my stomach with my hand to hold it from moving around as it hurts more now when doing steps, twisting and to a degree now with just walking. I don't understand how a pain can't let up at all, I can't function well and barely keep up with work now-thankfully I work from home. Being in pain this long takes its toll on you mentally and beats you down. It affects your whole family, how can you be positive when your in pain all of the time. I am a tension headache suffer and always have some tension band going which can go up to an 8.5 at times, I learned to live with that as its not always that high but never a zero. This gut pain I cant live with. I wish someone had some advice or answers, seems most all doctors only work in a small box and immediately decide its not their field and say good luck.

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Please look into some compressions syndromes that have all these symptoms. There’s MESENTERIC ARTERY LIGAMENT, NUTCRACKER, SUPERIOR MESENTERIC ARTERY.

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