I had extremely similar problems with my belly as well. Absolutely everything I ate made me bloated and puffy. Part of my belly would even get much warmer to the touch in the area that was hurting so badly. It got to the point I had to sleep sitting up on the couch because the bloating made my belly SO painful when I was laying down flat. The attacks only come now every 6 months or so, but last weeks to a few months, at a time. They especially flare if I'm VERY stressed (like final exams, going home for the holidays) or if I've recently changed my diet/exercise (like..going from not doing either, to doing both very frequently).

My idiot doctor said it was gas. I came back two weeks later, having not slept for days because of the pain, for him to say it still just sounds like gas. I told him I could no longer eat any dairy, fat, caffeine, spice, or acidic stuff, because the pain was just not worth it. I also couldn't take the stairs, or walk long distances. He put me on acid reflux medication FOR LIFE (without even a TRIAL run before prescribing it INDEFINITELY), which GAVE me acid reflux for the first time in my life - and my diet starting consisting of just boiled chicken and green beans. He then said, clearly, it's my ovaries - and prescribed me the Nuva Ring (after me TELLING him that I have bad reactions to synthetic estrogen). I quit taking the acid reflux medication, used the Nuva Ring in case he was right - and he scheduled the H Pylori test as well as a pelvic and abdominal ultrasound.... but the hospital couldn't "fit me in" for TWO MONTHS to get the scans. In the mean time, I started getting leg cramps that made me wake up screaming in the middle of the night in pain. Quit using the nuva ring immediately (very large history of stroke in my family), no longer on the acid reflux medication, still on bland diet - and two months out from my ultrasounds.

Then the pain finally subsided (as it does go in long waves with me) just in time for my ultra sound. Which of course, showed nothing. Luckily the pain hasn't come back, yet. When it does hit though, it's always on my upper right side, right at the base of my rib cage - and then I get another pain on my lower left side, near where I assume my pancreas is. When the U/S technician was pushing on my belly for the scan, the part that hurt was marked as my spleen, though. I don't know. I do know that I now refuse to go back to that doctor, but that my insurance won't allow me to see anybody else. Next time my belly flares though - it's the ER for me. I'm done with this garbage.

*Also noteworthy - two of my five family members have had emergency gall bladder surgeries after becoming septic - and they were both only 15 or 16 at the time, not over weight, and not in the high-risk category. But again, my doctor pish-poshed the idea of having a predisposition toward broken gall bladders.

I hope you are looking for a new doctor- I spent years with doctors who didn't know anything more than "you have the flu" and all it did was make me worse- finally after changing doctors a few times I found one who actually had a freaking CLUE! It made life so much better for me. Don't be afraid to change doctors until you find one that WILL listen and not chastise you.

they are called "General" practitioners for a reason-general problems...yours is very specific-hence "Specialist". Been working for GPs as well as Specialists and the sign of a good Dr is when to know that its out of their hands and your problem sounds over his head right now...one thing I learned in nursing school-always always go with your gut( no pun intended..lol) if you feel like your not being helped continue to seek help...you know your body better than anyone...

Do a google search for colonic dysmotility symptoms - I bet you will find you can relate. Try taking Miralax - now available over the counter without a prescription. It is non-habit forming (meaning your body won't get dependent on it) and gentle on your system. It might be worth trying. I know people who it has worked well for.

Thanks MamaP. That does sound very similar to what I'm going through. I'll try some of the Miralax.

Have you had your ovaries scanned at all? I had a problem like this and was told it was just constipation pain, nothing to worry about. I ended up getting a pelvic scan through the fertility clinic and they found that my ovaries were very enlarged and cystic and that the right one is actually stuck to the bowel because when the cyst breaks your body tries to 'heal' you and if the bowel is touching at the time it will heal together. My situation was super-extreme, but my doctors were laughing at me right up until I ended up with an emergency admission for a 12-inch cyst on my ovary. That's not said to be scary, just to say that doctors can miss something that huge they can easily miss smaller cysts.

It's more likely it's another thing to rule out than this is the problem, but it's so easy to fix that it's silly for them not to do that test.