Upper abdomen & back pain

@cristina9532 - Hi and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect! I understand how worried you must be to see your father having undiagnosed abdominal pain. Your FP did not order any tests? I agree with you that your father should have more diagnostic tests done. I can think of abdominal ultrasound, CT, lab work and EKG.
Remember, we are not doctors, but members who have gone through various difficult to diagnose illnesses or more common problems wanting to connect with others.
I can’t tell you where to go, but he needs someone experienced in Internal Medicine. If you have a major university hospital nearby you could call and get an appointment. Obviously, if the pain gets bad enough, he should go to ER where they would do a lot of these tests.
I hope he can be seen soon- unusual to have abdominal pain for so long.
Can you get back to us when you know more?

Hi @cristina9532 – I would like to add my welcome to Connect along with @astaingegerdm. Thank you for advocating for your father. Here is some more information you may find helpful - Abdominal Pain Causes by Location: Upper, Lower, Left, Right: https://www.medicinenet.com/abdominal_pain_causes/views.htm.

I agree with @astaingegerdm that it would be good to seek treatment at a large teaching hospital or health facility like Mayo Clinic. If you would like to seek help from Mayo Clinic, contact one of the appointment offices. The contact information for Minnesota, Arizona and Florida can be found here http://mayocl.in/1mtmR63.

You mentioned that your father is very fit and the pain usually comes after some physical effort. Are you able to keep track of the physical activity your father was doing before the pain occurred? That might be good to provide to the doctors.

Hi Ingegerd and thank you for taking the time to reply to this, I appreciate it. Our GP is currently on holiday so we're waiting for him to get back to refer my father for a CT scan hopefully. The pain is not severe so I don't think he could go to the ER. He actually had absolutely no symptoms for a few days and now they're back.

It's not even that they're bad, he says it doesn't feel like pain, but rather like a fullness / bloating on his left side and sometimes right side. No back pain since that one evening. He also says he's constipated and that also went away those few days he had no abdominal issues. The GP comes back in a week so fingers crossed everything goes well.

Hi John! Unfortunately we're based in Germany, so we don't have access to the Mayo Clinic. We've been trying to track the "pain" (rather discomfort) but it seems rather random now that we thought about it. It doesn't intensify after eating or anything like that. He sometimes gets it first thing in the morning, before having anything to drink or eat. Thanks for your recommendations!

@cristina9532 - Thank you for getting back to us! It does not sound as if your father is worse, thank goodness. I hope you get to see your GP as soon as he is back. You seem more confident now knowing what to do. Are you using the German Health system?

We went to the GP yesterday and he did a physical exam again. He said he's sure there's gas / air trapped in there and it's what's causing the bloating / pain. He prescribed some medicine and we'll see how that goes and that he can't advise him to get an ultrasound right now as from a clinical perspective, there are no other symptoms to worry about. I feel slightly more at ease given his confidence but still somewhat worried as I've seen plenty of people misdiagnosed who were given the same medication when in reality there was something much more wrong going on. And yes, we're using the German Health system.

@cristina9532 - If your father’s symptoms are not improved with the new medication, you should go back to the doctor and request testing.

Hello @cristina9532, I agree with @astaingegerdm. If your father's symptoms are not vastly better after a week on the new med you should request additional testing.

You might also consider keeping a food journal to see if there are specific food triggers that cause more discomfort. Gluten is often a problem for many people, especially as they age.

Perhaps you could suggest to his doctor that he/she run an MRI, CT scan, or ultrasound in order to rule out anything more serious than a gas problem.

the only thing that helps me is making sure that I follow the FODMAP diet guidelines. When I don't, I get that trapped gas and bloating. Miserable. I copied the chart and I have the app on my phone.

I first learned I had an issue with particular foods was when my son was in the 2nd grade and I was on a field trip with his class. I ate an apple and had the worst bloating and stomach ache in the center of my stomach. An attack that I became familiar with off and on for years but didn't know why. That was 45 years ago and I am finally "getting" it. It is about certain foods. A lot of people can eat a lot of things but I cannot. I just can't.