<p>While awaiting your appointment, you should quit the Mountain Dew, and you could try taking digestive enzymes with meals.</p>
<p>Talked to the aunt and the doctor. She was worried, but she always worries. She said if I wake up again with the pain before Monday, to go to urgent care. If not, she said I’ll be fine til Monday. It’s not in an area that you need to be rushed to the ER immediately (like your appendix).</p>
<p>I now have an appointment Monday morning at 8:45. </p>
<p>I called my parents and told them what was going on. They knew about the lettuce issues, as I first had symptoms when I was home, but thought that it had cleared up. Also found out that my dad has pneumonia and my mom has been sick, too. Awesome 
</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I’ll be OK. I’ll let you guys know what I find out.</p>
<p>Tree, yes I know. I’ve already gotten the lecture from my mother, my aunt, my boyfriend and HIS mom haha. No more mountain dew for a while :(</p>
<p>If it might be digestive issues, one way to test that is to aim for some sort of a liquid diet (assuming you are not sensitive to the liquid you choose) As a process of elimination you could spend the weekend only have one type of simple soup and see if that makes any difference. This does not replace the doctor visit and even if you felt better by Monday, get it checked out to be sure it is not something serious, if however, it is a digestive or allergy or other chronic quality of life issue, eliminating nearly everything and then reintroducing one at a time works better than just eliminating a couple of items.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention my D is also a vegetarian and has had stomach issues also…pains quite frequently. I was of the opinion she was eating too much roughage (ie: lettuce & vegtables with not much else ;)) and she went to the doctor and was told to basically go on a gluten free diet (and no soda-coffee-alchohol-sugar) and then slowly add thing back in. She also took some digestive enzymes all as suggested above–and she has been feeling better–good luck!!</p>
<p>Romani- i am glad you made the call to your aunt. </p>
<p>Does anyone know if restaurants still use potato whitener to keep lettuce from turning brown? This stuff is loaded with sulfites which might cause digestive issues.</p>
<p>That reminded me. She thinks it might not be the lettuce. She thinks it might be the cheese that goes on the salads. I assumed lettuce since that’s what the majority of the salad is. We went through my diet and symptoms and realized it might be more connected to dairy than to lettuce. </p>
<p>I will be a very, very sad person if I have to cut down on cheese. I love my cheese. Cheese is amazing. I’m already allergic to chocolate, please don’t take away my only other food pleasure!</p>
<p>Symptoms sound a little like gallstone attacks, and with the vomiting I wonder if you could have a blocked bile duct, although it seems unlikely that it would happen repeatedly like that. Find a doctor who can see you sooner. Call the insurance company and gripe, or go see someone through the university. I think an ultrasound would be in order.</p>
<p>Seems unlikely given your probably age, but gallstones can form if you seldom eat fat …because the gall bladder stays inactive and the junk in there forms stones and sludge. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Edited to note that this is an “amateur” opinion, but based on some experience :)</p>
<p>Lactose intolerance, is my guess.
Solved by taking lactose enzymes with ingestion of milk products.
Milk products in cheese causing you to experience uncomfortable bloat and interrupt normal bowel function, noticeable because the gas builds up in the twists and turns of your bowel as you sleep and are immobile for long periods of time.
You should cut down on cheese anyways, it is too much fat and not enough protein.
Make an appointment or email the college dietitian/nutritionist, they can help you get a balanced vegetarian diet within the school’s offerings.</p>
<p>dadx, I was able to get an appointment first thing Monday morning! 
If the pain wakes me up again, I already know where the nearest urgent care is. </p>
<p>I’m just really hoping to get it all taken care of Monday. I can’t miss work and school. Oh body, couldn’t you have just waited another month before you decided to break down. Grumble.</p>
<p>Battllo, that’s what I’m thinking, but hoping against. However, I don’t live on campus and I don’t have a campus meal plan. If it turns out to be a diet issue though, I’ll probably end up going back on the meal plan even though it’s ridiculously overpriced. My school is great with meeting dietary issues and it would be easier than trying to plan my own meals.</p>
<p>I think you can learn how to make healthful meals for yourself without an expensive school meal plan.
Plenty of help online about simple vegetarian meals you can create to meet your dietary needs.
You can still use the services of the school nutritionist, email their office.</p>
<p>I actually worked with someone who seems to have had the same symptoms as do. This is NOT to say the cause is the same though.
GI tests did not show anything in her case since x rays of course use liquid medium. Everything looked good on the GI tests.
It turned out that lettuce was the culprit (she was dieting and eating a lot of salads).
In her case the lower valve in the stomach which lets stomach contents into the intestines did not properly function when eating high roughage foods. Food was basically being trapped in the stomach with no where to go. The result was severe stomach pains, esophageal reflux, heartburn (and gas which can cause the back pain), and sometimes vomiting.
She was actually sheduled for a surgery which she couldn’t afford and in the end discovered she didn’t need when the diet detective work discovered lettuce was the culprit…</p>
<p>Hmm, that’s interesting gouf. I have most of those symptoms. </p>
<p>The only thing that baffles me is why it has only recently become an issue.</p>
<p>So many things sad about your last line. One, that she couldn’t afford the surgery (assuming she HAD needed it). Two, that she was about to undergo an unnecessary procedure if she had only had the funds or better insurance.</p>
<p>Good girl, romani. It must be nice to have so many caring parents. :p</p>
<p>Folks, just a thought – rather than scare romani with all the things it might be, let’s wait to see what the doctor on scene says. :)</p>
<p>Romani, that sounds a lot like how my stomach problems started. Though I had no problems with lettuce, and no specific food sensitivities for the first couple years. Eventually did develop a complete intolerance to dairy-- I throw up if I eat anything that’s even touched dairy. I’ll be interested to see what your doc says, my diagnosis is IBS but I am thoroughly convinced it’s only because they don’t know what else to call what I have. Hopefully they find a definitive answer! In the meantime, have you tried propping yourself up to sleep? That usually lessens most of my discomfort during the night for my assortment of stomach complaints. I have one of those reading pillows with the arms… I just throw my regular pillow on that and sleep half sitting up.</p>
<p>LasMa, there’s really nothing that can scare me with regards to medical scares. No worries :p. </p>
<p>But yes, it’s nice to have a lot of worried moms and dads haha</p>
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<p>Yeah I have. It hasn’t worked :/. It helps with heartburn, so that was the first thing I tried. No luck :(</p>
<p>Hi–someone mentioned me in an earlier post–I’m the one who almost died from blood clots that I thought was a charlie horse!</p>
<p>Take away: always, always, always listen to intense and recurring pain in your body!</p>
<p>My D had bad stomach pain when in teens; she described it as the worst pain in her life, but it had eased up and nearly disappeared when we got to the ER. Still, because she was not prone to exageration and because a close relative nearly died from undiagnosed appendicitis, I refused to leave without have appendicitis ruled out. The docs thought I was a nutty mom. I thought I might be a nutty mom. I honestly wasn’t happy or triumphant when they did a scan that showed her appendix was enlarged and needed to come out pronto. They had all tried to get us to go home, and told her perhaps she might be about to get a period, and was having cramps.</p>
<p>Anyway–they did midnight emergency surgery and when they got in found that the appendix had partially ruptured–probably when she had that initial pain. That had eased the pain, but it was already turning gangrenous and she’s fortunate to be alive. </p>
<p>As am I. So don’t ever dismiss severe or recurrent pain. Better to be safe than dead, I always say! </p>
<p>I’m still in the hospital and I’ve been told three times today that I would likely be dead now if I hadn’t come in when I did! .</p>
<p>Oh no, feel better IU!</p>
<p>I work in GI. If I were to guess, sub-sternal abdominal pain radiating to the back is likely an ulcer. Especially since it wakes you from sleep
See a doctor soon as this can become quite serious
The other 2 thoughts are pancreatitis (but you would be really sick with pain and vomiting) or gallstones but that typically does not awaken from sleep</p>
<p>Mom, would the pain from an ulcer be spotty like this? It only comes on 1-2 times per week. Although, this week, the back pain has been fairly constant.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s lactose intolerance but IF it is ---- you can still eat cheese that is aged, the lactose fades away with age. And goat cheese, sheep’s milk feta, and all the lactose free stuff. See if that lactose free cheese bothers you.</p>