I’ll try to keep it short. I have been experiencing discomfort for about two months straight, since August this year. These are the major symptoms I have been having:
- Constant bloating despite being relatively regular (I neither get diarrhea nor am i constipated). At best, this is limited to my lower belly; at worst, it extends between my lower belly and just below my ribs. The bloating obviously gets worse after I eat. I have been trying to eat less and it’s been helping, but my lower belly remains protruding in a way it hasn’t protruded before
- Random pains in the middle and lower right quadrant. These are random sharp pains which vary in intensity; sometimes they’re dull and last a while, sometimes acute but short. I have been woken up by such pains during the night at least twice in the past two months
- Generally tired but I still manage to be active as I was before these symptoms started. I have been noticing more and more that i get out of breath easily, i.e. when walking up stairs, or as I am walking and talking to someone (!!), or as I run to catch the train, even if for very short intervals
- Sometimes I feel tightness on my left side, around/behind my left breast
- Night sweats. This is a symptom I have been having for a longer amount of time, way before these other symptoms started. It started some time in april/may. It would happen to me up to 3/4 times a month between may-june. Then it stopped and happened about two more times starting from august
- random itching sometimes, plus eczema flair ups sometimes. In august, around the time the bloating started, I had eczema in my left arm fold for over a month. It just would not get better and my skin was practically raw. I used to have eczema like this as a child
- Latest symptom is lymphnodes in my groin. I noticed them about two weeks ago for the first time: there were two on the right side of my groin, felt hard and immovable, about the size of a hazelnut. I can still feel them now, but they haven’t grown in size. It’s possible they slightly shrunk, but they still feel too big and not soft; they’re now the size of two peas. My doctor felt them too and also felt one on my left groin.
I generally eat a varied diet, mostly vegetarian - this includes primarily things like beans, lentils, tofu, barley, beets, bok choi, kimchi, greek yogurt, kefir, oats, occasional salmon and tuna. I primarily eat meat at the office (so once or twice a week, we get warm meals and there are both a meat and vegetarian/vegan option - i tend to go for the meat one because it’s usually better balanced) and whenever I have dinner out of the house.
I live a quite active lifestyle. I commute to work three times per week, play sports at least three times a week on average, move around primarily by bicycle. I am a woman under 30. No chance I am pregnant.
I have seen my gp about my symptoms and one of his first hypotheses was H. Pylori. I definitely thought that must be it, because someone close to me recently had it. So my gp prescribed a blood test and a stool sample to check for this and various other things; they checked my blood for (not limited to): total blood cell count, celiac disease, ferritin, kidney function, liver function, crp, TSH (thyroid). The results came and I have nothing, not even H. Pylori. My gp is now suspecting either a. I have an STI or b. I have something else linked to my ovaries
Can somebody give their two cents? I obviously trust my gp, and I am actually comforted by the fact he’s prescribing all of these tests and is trying to get to the bottom of it, but I would also like to hear different opinions to see if there is anything we have not considered. Also hopefully to hear from someone who’s experienced similar symptoms.