What's going on in my stomach?

April 20, 2009 7:48 AM

YANMD, but I have a strange pain in my gut. It's been hanging around for years and years, coming and going, and I'm curious if anyone has any idea.

I guess the reason I've never really been to a doctor about it is that it's a relatively infrequent thing. It's been going on for years and years and years - I don't remember exactly when it started, but I would guess I was maybe 15? It happens to me maybe once every 5 or 6 months, and lasts for maybe a half a day or so, and then I kind of forget about it until it happens again.

Well, it happened last night, so I thought perhaps I would query the collective.

So, I'm sitting on the couch watching TV and I go to stand up and I get the distinct impression that someone has put a fish hook through my belly button and tied it with a very tight string to somewhere on my lower spine. It is an intense, searing pain. It causes me to walk somewhat stooped forward, as that makes it feel like there is some "slack" in that string. If I attempt to stand up straight, the pain in and around my belly button - where I envision the fish hook - is absolutely incredible.

It also, and I believe this may be key, plays a role when I urinate. When I feel I have this "condition", I have learned that I simply can't try to take a leak while standing up. The pain in my abdomen around my belly button becomes very intense when I pee, and as is the urge to try to bend forward and try to minimize it. If I pee sitting down, the pain is still there, but I can more easily lean "into it" and minimize it a bit.

I woke up this morning and I was fine. It's gone. And it will stay gone until like 6 months from now, when I'll get off the choice and it will mysteriously have returned.

Any ideas?

posted by kbanas to health & fitness (7 comments total)

I am female and I have this too. Exactly as you described (minus the peeing standing up bit) so you are not alone! I will be following this thread to see what answers come up.
posted by Nickel at 8:30 AM on April 20

A little Google-fu turned this up:

Huh.

Apparently we are not alone, Nickel. But what the hell?
posted by kbanas at 9:01 AM on April 20

(Complete lack of medical terms, ahoy!)

My sister had something similar - it turned out to be a 'kink' in her urinary tract. (Well, whatever the name of the tube is that comes out of the kidney and goes towards her bladder.)

It would be six months of nothing, then yowling pain, then nothing. Hers was a bit more involved though - it would really lay her out for several hours and then just pass.

She had it operated on and the kink removed. Everything's just fine ten years and running.
posted by unixrat at 9:13 AM on April 20

Yeah, your post inspired me to finally do some research and it seems like a lot of people are describing the same thing.
posted by Nickel at 9:36 AM on April 20

IANAD, but I would imagine that it might be the beginings of a UTI that clears up on its own?
posted by Simon Barclay at 10:03 AM on April 20

I go to stand up and I get the distinct impression that someone has put a fish hook through my belly button and tied it with a very tight string to somewhere on my lower spine. It is an intense, searing pain. It causes me to walk somewhat stooped forward, as that makes it feel like there is some "slack" in that string. If I attempt to stand up straight, the pain in and around my belly button - where I envision the fish hook - is absolutely incredible.

I think it's almost exactly what it feels like.

The umbilical cord is a very substantial structure well past birth, and your account of your experiences is what I might expect if the internal extension of your umbilical cord had not been completely absorbed, and was instead hanging around in your abdomen somehow getting caught on something every once in a great while-- perhaps a swelling on the remnant could be getting pinched between the neck of your bladder and something else, and when you stand up you are literally pulling on a string between your belly button and your urinary tract.

I wonder if this has something to do with the difference between innies and outies.
posted by jamjam at 10:39 AM on April 20

I'll second what jamjam says. Your description of the pain reminds me of what people describe when they've adhesions formed internally after abdominal surgery.
posted by reflecked at 11:05 AM on April 20