Has anyone been diagnosed with Abdominal Wall Pain

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Hi Sherry, It sounds like it may be Abdominal Cutaneous Nerve Entrapment ACNES. It does not show up on any tests and almost all doctors are not familiar with it. Step one: Take the Carnett Test (watch youtube) and next get trigger point shots into the area. You need to find a Pain Management Center that has heard of ACNES. If confirmed ACNES there is a surgeon at St Josephs Medical Center in Phoenix, Dr Thomas Gillespie, that does Robotic Laparoscopic Surgery to cure the pain. He cut my T8, T9 and T10 nerves and left the hospital same day cured. If you would like to reach me my name is Jeffrey Groudan, Gilbert, AZ.

I've been diagnosed with ACNES. Before your surgery, did you ever try trigger point injections?

Yes, I had 4 trigger point shots. First one was great but lasted about a week. By the 3rd and 4th shots they had not effect.

I was just diagnosed with anterior cutaneous nerve entrapment syndrome aka chronic abdominal wall pain on February 1st. I've had two injections so far and have two more scheduled. I hope they work because surgery is the last resort. I also don't want to be dependent on the Gabapectin they prescribed me. What a crazy diagnosis but every other test they ran was normal! It is so frustrating! And no one understands unless you have the same diagnosis. I am glad I have support but I had to close my business and now move in with my in-laws because we cannot afford to live where we are anymore. Plus all the depression/anxiety it brings with it! So I can empathize.

How were you able to get the surgery? What steps did you have to take to get it?

Surgery should not be your last resort since this will not go away unless you have the effected nerves cut. My surgeon, Dr Thomas Gillespie at St Josephs Medical Center in Phoenix performed Robotic Laparoscopic surgery cutting T8, T9 and T10. After 9 horrific months of debilitating pain I "walked" out of the hospital same afternoon totally CURED!!. He does take new patients. He is said to be one of the few in the world who recognizes ACNES and performs it Robotically which is the safest way. He is a great and compassionate surgeon.

So here is an update and I am hoping this can be helpful to others and perhaps if anyone has similar experiences they can share them.

I had trigger point injections this morning into my muscle layers at the site of my pain. I have a focal area of pain that is right off the midline below the xiphoid process. The pain definitely radiates to other areas, but the main area of intense pain has always been this small focal area (for 20 months and counting). the pain feels deep and the injections verify that my rectus muscle is very sensitive and seems to be the offending muscle. Here is some of the conversation that I had with my pain medicine doctor: He says that the pain I have in my mid back can be related - it wraps around like a "belt of pain" from the pain center in my muscle. I also have pain the runs down the entire length of my rectus muscle to my hips. He says that one spot on the muscle being affected can cause the entire muscle to be tight and in pain. I also have pelvic pain that can be related to this muscle as well, or there could be another trigger point area present.

He injected bupivicaine (local anesthetic) and deep-medrol (long acting steroid) into the muscles. I think it was about 5-6 injections total with only the rectus muscle injection causing a "twitch" and a lot more pain. I experienced pain relief (!!) about 30 minutes after the injection. I could stand up straight, take deep breaths and I was laughing as I felt such relief. My back pain disappeared at the same time. The relief was relatively short lived, about 90 minutes later the pain returned first in my abdomen and a few minutes later the back pain came back. This was to be expected, according to the doctor, because the local anesthetic wears off and it may take a while for the steroid to take action. His plan is to repeat the trigger point injections because I did get relief. He says it may take a series of injection to get better and more sustained relief. After all, this has been going on 20 months and for a muscle to cause this much pain, well, it must be pretty severely affected. The steroid could take affect anytime within the next week and could offer more sustained relief. I have to be patient as this process is slow and methodical (as most of you can relate, I've heard this SO many times before).

So, I have hope and I wanted to propose this as an idea for those of you that are suffering from pain like mine, or pain that has no visceral cause and could be related to muscles-fascia and the nerves. I would say that these injections were a cake-walk compared to the pain I've been in and the 90 minutes of relief was a HUGE boost to my outlook as I was starting to feel hopeless and despair these past few weeks especially. This has been the first time that a cause of this pain seems more than likely and a treatment has worked (even for 90 minutes). It also seems to correlate my other pains with the abdominal wall pain, which is another relief as I was struggling with the concept that I have more than one pain area and what could that mean for my life moving forward?

Anyone else have experience with trigger point injections? I hope that my story (to be continued...) can help someone else in a similar situation.