A Happier Stomach

I've been having issues with my stomach since January. Issues like intense, long-lasting, ridiculous pain every few weeks or even every few days.

I went to the doctor in France to try to make it better. He asked if I was stressed (to which I replied "Of course, I'm living in a foreign country.") and then diagnosed this pain as the result of stress. The French are really big on psychosomatic illnesses.

I thought he was right at the time. It seemed to be the only explanation for this otherwise unpredictable thing.

I quit my theatre class (which involved me driving into Marseille during rush hour, convinced each time that that was the day I would die) and lived with the worry that every time anything nerve-wracking would occur, I would be in pain as well.

While I was over there it happened a lot. And it was miserable.

But then I came home. For the first few weeks, and even now, being at home was the least stressful thing I have ever experienced. I literally did nothing for days at a time. It was boring for sure, but not stressful. But still I had days of pain. I decided that this had to be dealt with.

So I went to my doctor. I described what was going on and she said she didn't feel like it was just stress. So we did blood tests and only came up with one slightly unusual thing. So she referred me to a specialist. He asked questions, poked and prodded, and then had me scheduled for a biopsy of my stomach.

I was terrified of the biopsy. The plan was to put me to sleep, stick a camera down my throat, and take out a piece of my stomach. Yikes! I'd never had anesthesia before and I was not looking forward to it.

It turns out that it was fine. Kinda fun actually. I remember parts of that day like they were a dream and that's kind of amusing.

But after all that, they didn't find anything wrong.

So I had an ultrasound. That was fascinating. I got a good look at my kidneys, spleen, and other various organs, but so far, it looks like everything is fine there too.

I am so frustrated! I obviously don't want them to find anything seriously wrong, but I know something is going on and I want to know what it is. But the pains have been a lot less frequent these past few months. What if the French doctor was right and it was just stress, or maybe something about the food, or some other random thing? Did I waste all this time and money on nothing?