Please read and hope you can answer?
 

I know we dont give medical advice on SR..........I am just asking for people to share their personal experience please?

I stopped drinking 3 weeks ago, I was drinking daily and heavily for around 8 years (usually Brandy or Wine)

I wont drink again, I have no interest in the rubbish at all!

BUT.. I started getting a bloated stomach, it is so hard and it is even difficult to bend down and put my shoes on, it is hard and uncomfortable.
I had right upper pain where liver is so I went to the hospital.
They took bloods and said all was fine except I had raised GGT levels which were 103.

After I stopped drinking the bloating would come and go throughout the day.

I would get up in a morning quite slim but by afternoon I am massive and three sizes bigger and have to unbutton my clothing?

I have a scan on my stomach tomorrow but they will make me wait 2 weeks for results.

I have some slight tenderness in the right upper side still.

I am not swollen anywhere else, my legs are fine and no swelling apart from stomach...........Anyone ever had this please???

My bowels seem fine too, my urine looks fine and the correct colour.

I am also very very tired all the time.

I went through digestive issues when I quit drinking, but I've never experienced anything like what you describe. I think it is best to wait and get the results of the scan. I understand 2 weeks of this discomfort and concern over what the scan may or not reveal is going to be stressful and I am sorry you will have to through this. One question though, did they rule out the gallbladder?

Are you saying you had bloating while you were drinking? Did you have pain while you were drinking? I definitely advise you to continue with medical treatment and testing. I can say though, I had pain for the last nearly 2 years in the upper right under my ribs, as well as pain, tingling and numbness in my back. I had an ultrasound, upper GI, liver and pancreas tests and things looked normal. I did notice that drinking seemed to make it worse. Well, I stopped drinking 3 weeks ago and the pain and numbness is gone! I am still undergoing testing to rule out the gallbladder, and just for piece of mind, but it seems it may have been the alcohol all along.

They have not ruled out anything yet, they keep telling me I have IBS but surely if it was IBS I would have some other symptoms?

The bloating was there when i drank but it never caused this much discomfort or grew to such a big size?

I never get any back pain.

It could be many things. Are your bowel movements ok?

Call the doctor again and talk.

I am having stomach scan at hospital in the morning Sugarbear.
Bowels are fine.

Lookahead,
Congratulations on your three weeks! :c011:

Medically you are doing more than many here. I had several things happen when I quit drinking that were enough for me to have several panic attacks, and I never have had panic attacks before. I too had severe digestive tract issues. In the end I was pretty healthy considering my years of drinking and chain smoking. I not only was getting blood tests and had two GPs, my private one and my VA doc, but did a 7 day in hospital detox.

My medical advice is to continue seeing your doctor/s, and to continue abstaining completey from alcohol.

The experience I can share is this. I went through some intense PAWs for a long time. That was my body trying to adjust to no alcohol. I had pain I never experienced before while at the same time feeling like I was on a roller coaster energy wise and physically. I had a lot of energy and then more pain from my gut with wild swings in irregularity.

I am a guy and never was a hypochondriac but came pretty close to that line when I was in my first 90 days. So let's look at it this way. If you indeed have a separate medical issue, that you could not really feel or was sedated by alcohol, that needs to be treated by your doc/s anyway. Going back to drinking just exacerbates any problem. If it is simply PAWs then if you drink you are goingnto have to get through it again. Another thing is that if it is serious, it won't get any less serious because you get anxious and worry 24/7.

Hang in there with your docs, and post your fears here. I did and it helped immensely. I also went to AA for some of the same reassurances. While AA was not for me as a long term recovery tool, there are none better for my first 90 days, and for many even more. I needed all the support I could get, and wasn't shy about getting it regardless of having to admit a problem. It beats continuing and doing it as a homeless indigent, or finally getting to the hospital through the back door to the morgue, as so many of our fellows do.

You came to the right place, and are using your doc/s. We can fill in some of the early gaps. Go here to this link for information about PAWS:
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...periences.html

Thank you so much Itchy.......it helps to read the replys and know someone really is there listening and has experienced similar experiences.

I get a lot of benefit from hearing about other peoples withdrawal symptoms.
:tyou

I hope your Dr can get to the bottom of whatever this is lookahead :)

D

I've been experiencing the same thing for a few years now. It's like it comes and goes where at first I'm normal, then my stomach swells like I'm 6 months pregnant and gets rock hard, makes it difficult to bend over etc,..
I went to a doctor a few years ago and they said "IBS", went to another doctor recently and they said the same thing "IBS" or gas retention (which I'm not gassy thankfully :tongue:) though like you, I don't see how this could be.
Keep us informed, I'd like to hear the results as well.

YW Look.
Just keep passing it on. Oops! I meant it will come out alright in the . . .never mind. Maybe we are all just full of it?

Courage is not the absence of fear, but thinking the fearful thing all the way through, and doing what needs to be done, in spite of it. Ask any hero, they know.

Most times when you think it all the way through the fear evaporates. See, all that fear does not make it better, and trying to relax until the results are back won't make it worse.

Like Dee I hope you get a definitive diagnosis and don't have to wait further. Find something to do! In early sobriety I would do something and then go to get something for it and forget what I was doing to begin with. That no longer happens but I used it to advantage back then and just got immersed in something else. Rather than panic I found out about PAWS and then just went with the flow and was working on several different projects at one time and would pass by an earlier one and start on that. I did actually get a lot done that way and was not freaking out thinking I was permanently damaged. I gave it until the end of the first year before I freaked out and sure enough my memory issues resolved completely.

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What was I talking about? Oh yeah hope it all comes out in the . . . Oops, now I remember?