I'm so bloated right now I can hardly stand it. I've had chronic stomach issues for the past 6 years and the bloating started a few years ago. I've had every test in the book from blood work, food allergy panels, CT Scans, and random GI testing and everything is normal. I've also tried to eliminate foods from my diet, I even went gluten free for a few months and that did nothing but make me one mean bitch. I have no idea what is triggering this.

My belly is as big as 4/5 month pregnant belly. It hurts when I sit in certain positions. As far as my weight goes I'm at a healthy BMI but could stand to lose some weight so it's not like I'm severely overweight. Honestly my belly weighs so much that if it wasn't there I would be 10 lbs lighter.

The only doctor that took me seriously was my family dr so in August he ran a ton of blood work to see how I was digesting things and everything was normal.

My mom who is a nurse thinks that I'm holding on to any fat in my diet in my stomach. She thinks I cannot break down fat normally because we've tried everything else.

The worse part is having people ask me if I'm pregnant because my stomach is out so far and I'm small every where else. It hurts to wear jeans and it's so awkward because to find jeans that find in the waist I have to buy larger jeans and that are super baggy everywhere else.

Anyone have any ideas or insight?

Eating gluten free should not cause any changes to your mood unless you are not making good choices or not eating enough.

Reduce your sodium intake and be sure you are getting adequate fluids and fiber. A very useful test for determining if you have celiac disease or another intolerance is an endoscopy. That can help see if the villi are being damaged and can help rule out a number of inflammatory and auto-immune conditions.

When I was in my late teens - early 20s, I used to get SO bloated. What worked for me was eating a diet high in fiber plus Gas-X (simethicone) when it got really bad (once every other day or so). I supplemented with Konsyl twice a day, a psyllium husk supplement.

madseason wrote:

Eating gluten free should not cause any changes to your mood unless you are not making good choices or not eating enough.

Reduce your sodium intake and be sure you are getting adequate fluids and fiber. A very useful test for determining if you have celiac disease or another intolerance is an endoscopy. That can help see if the villi are being damaged and can help rule out a number of inflammatory and auto-immune conditions.

I was cranking during the gluten free thing because I was unhappy not getting to eat what everyone was eating and eating special foods. I love pizza so giving that up was hard for that period of time but it didn't help anyways.

I should start tracking my sodium intake. I'm pretty good for the most part on getting enough fluids I'm always drinking water and I think my fiber is okay and I do take supplements for fiber to make up any I'm not getting and that has helped my GI issue just not my bloating.

I've also had a colonscopy and endoscopy and both were normal.

Where's Dr. House when I need him? haha

DefyingGravity wrote:

When I was in my late teens - early 20s, I used to get SO bloated. What worked for me was eating a diet high in fiber plus Gas-X (simethicone) when it got really bad (once every other day or so). I supplemented with Konsyl twice a day, a psyllium husk supplement.

I think I will give that a try by slowing adding more fiber and buying some Gas-X. I do have Gas-X now but I'm not taking it as regularly as I could.

Right now I'm on Prilosec and Librium to control my GI issues.

ballerinatwirler wrote:


Where's Dr. House when I need him? haha

Oh man, that is a thought I have had many times. I know the feeling. Hoping you feel better soon!

Have you had a fecal fat test?
It isn't pleasant to prepare for (you have to collect your feces) but it can tell you if you are digesting fats or not. I can't help with the bloating...sorry

On the jeans thing - have you thought about buying maternity jeans in your size? They have a soft waist band, so they wouldn't dig in to you, and they're cut to fit someone who's disproportionate in the belly but normal size everywhere else. At least then you could feel like you look better, while you're miserable. :/

Theresa wrote:

On the jeans thing - have you thought about buying maternity jeans in your size? They have a soft waist band, so they wouldn't dig in to you, and they're cut to fit someone who's disproportionate in the belly but normal size everywhere else. At least then you could feel like you look better, while you're miserable. :/

I have considered it and that's probably why most of my clothes now are yoga pants except when I'm working and required to wear jeans. I'm so embarassed to go out and buy maternity jeans and have people think I'm pregnant and I really don't want my boyfriend to see me wearing maternity pants as shallow as that sounds.

It sounds like dream to have jeans fit though. Even before when I had bloating like this I was okay wearing jeans and now I'm literally in pain and can barely button my baggy jeans.

I hope you'll find out soon whats going on. I am assuming the bloat is from gas and not water? If it were water I'd suggest Diurex. It makes you pee a lot but it works.

Have they done an ultrasound? Just to see if there was anything they could see?

They thought James might have a problem with a muscle spasm-ing in his pelvis, and they told me in advance that it would require alot of x-rays, because they couldn't fix it unless they saw it happen. :/

At any rate - since it doesn't sound like allergy tests or anything like that is turning out any answers, maybe just an ultrasound, to see what they can see would help?

^Was about to suggest the same thing.

My cousin's stomach became distended and she thought her tubes tying years before had come undone. (Well it did, different story, that.) But they had to do an ultrasound and she had a huge cyst.

majere wrote:

I hope you'll find out soon whats going on. I am assuming the bloat is from gas and not water? If it were water I'd suggest Diurex. It makes you pee a lot but it works.

I pee non-stop as so I can't take a Diurex. I've always had an overactive bladder

mirrim wrote:

Have you had a fecal fat test?
It isn't pleasant to prepare for (you have to collect your feces) but it can tell you if you are digesting fats or not. I can't help with the bloating...sorry

I haven't had that done so maybe I'll look into it.

I've had a few abdominal ultrasounds over the years and they've all been normal.

I'm thinking about going on a low-fat diet and just trying to eat healthy fats.