Hi, was wondering if anyone else has abdominal pain with their lupus. The abdominal pain seems to be one of the first things that occurs when a lupus flare is about to start as well as low grade fevers. I have had a ct scan, sitz marker test and gastric emptying study done and all have come back normal, although the xray test did say I had alot of stool in my colon. I do have IBS and gastritis, so I am not sure if there is something else going on or if the IBS and gastritis is flared up because of the lupus flare up. Really frustrated though, especially with the pain worsens whenever I eat and I keep losing weight. Have had the pain in my abdomen lower right and right above my belly button since mid February. I also have these weird purplish black spots that randomly appeared on my stomach over a month ago and are still there. Any comments or information on this would be greatly appreciated.
Hi:)well if all your scans and test are ok that's a very good thing, no organ involvement is always a blessing. Being very constipated can definitely causes great discomforts so maybe you should ask your doctor for a prescription stool soften or laxative... my CT showed impacted stoll because I was only going 3 times a month so my dr gave me tons of samples of "linzess",it works great! Unfortunately my pain was from an inflamed gallbladder full of stones , a non alcoholic fatty liver and a small hypodensity on the head of my pancreas:/actually just have my gallbladder removal this morning so my drs and I are really hoping it will help alleviate most of my upper right quadrant pain, im suffering right now though this is a rough surgery! Hope you get your pain figured out soon:)
It sounds like vasculitis. The purplish spots on me are that anyway. I also get severe abdominal pain and my doc finally figured out that my abdominal wall was being affected by the vasculitis. All of my tests came back normal as well, despite the pain doubling me over. It felt like a metal centipede with hooks on each segment and pincher feet was crawling around in me. I also have IBS but the probiotics have pretty much cured that as well as a massive change in diet. I react badly to conventionally raised beef and chicken so I avoid them as much as possible. That and very fatty foods. When the vasculitis was attacking my abdominal wall, I lost over 20 lbs in 6 weeks, which at that time I could not afford to lose. I’m 5’8" and dropped to 115 lbs. I hope you get an answer soon!
Thanks for the thoughts and information. Annemarie, how did they determine the abdominal pain was from vasculitis and how did/are they treating? I also seem to have some spots on my legs and arms that looking different then moles. I have lost 8 lbs in the past 8 weeks and lost the same amount about 2 yrs ago when I had a flare up pre-lupus diagnosis. I am down to 108 and don't want to lose anymore. I did email my GI doctor mentioning the possibility of vasculitis and the spots I have, so I guess I will wait to see what he says. Thanks for any additional information you can give me.
I had the spots on my legs biopsied and it came back positive for vasculitis. As for my doctor figuring out that my abdominal pain was from the vasculitis, it was a process of elimination. I had numerous scans, a sigmoidoscopy, barium swallow, etc… Tried a bunch of different meds and nothing helped until my doc put me on cytoxan infusions and it cleared right up. I’m on cellcept now to control the vasculitis but I prefer cytoxan as it had fewer side effects for me. It took almost 5 years to figure out what was wrong. Oddly enough prednisone makes the abdominal pain worse so I try very hard to avoid it. I hope my situation helps your doctors find answers for you. Oh, you might want to check for kidney stones just to rule it out although that pain isn’t truly in the abdomen, more in the back. Gentle hugs, Annemarie
Holding onto Hope said:
Thanks for the thoughts and information. Annemarie, how did they determine the abdominal pain was from vasculitis and how did/are they treating? I also seem to have some spots on my legs and arms that looking different then moles. I have lost 8 lbs in the past 8 weeks and lost the same amount about 2 yrs ago when I had a flare up pre-lupus diagnosis. I am down to 108 and don't want to lose anymore. I did email my GI doctor mentioning the possibility of vasculitis and the spots I have, so I guess I will wait to see what he says. Thanks for any additional information you can give me.