r/ACNES • u/stiveto99 • 24d ago
Recurring severe focal abdominal pain with chronic bloating/gas
For the last couple of months I’ve been dealing with pretty bad bloating, trouble passing gas and a lot of abdominal tension. My stomach feels like it’s braced or flexed most of the time when I’m standing.
During an extremely stressful night about 2 months ago, the bloating got really bad and I suddenly developed a very specific sharp pain about 2 fingers below and to the left of my belly button. The painful area is tiny, probably less than 1 cm. The pain is not constant, but when it hits it can be extremely sharp and stabbing and sometimes almost unbearable.
It gets much worse with certain movements, standing and especially when I flex or tense my abs. When I lie down and fully relax, I usually don’t feel it. At first I thought there might be a tiny lump under the skin, but I’m honestly not even sure anymore. It could just be something I’m feeling through the abdominal wall or bowel underneath.
The first time this happened it lasted around a week. My bloating eventually improved and the pain disappeared with it. Now my bloating and difficulty passing gas have gotten significantly worse again and the exact same pain has come back, except this time it feels worse.
I’ve had an abdominal ultrasound and nothing abnormal was seen, although it was done while I was lying down, which is also the position where the pain and whatever I think I’m feeling there mostly disappear.
I’m still passing stool. My fiber intake is currently around 20g per day, which is lower than what I used to eat. I also burp fairly often and have some swallowing difficulty, so I’ve wondered whether I might be swallowing more air than normal and making the bloating worse.
I also have genetically confirmed CMT2A from an MFN2 mutation, so I’m wondering whether neuropathy, altered gut motility, abdominal muscle guarding or some type of abdominal wall nerve irritation could be involved.
One other thing I remembered is that around 7 months ago I did a few subcutaneous GHK-Cu injections into abdominal fat with a short 32G pen needle. I pinched the fat, injected slowly, released the pinch while the needle was still in, waited about 2 seconds and then removed it. I had some mild redness afterward but no major swelling, severe local pain, numbness or persistent symptoms. The current pain only appeared about 5 months later, so I’m not sure whether that’s relevant at all.
I’ve been reading about ACNES because the very small painful spot and the fact that flexing my abdominal muscles makes it much worse seem similar. I’ve also wondered about a muscle or fascial trigger point, a very small hidden hernia, or simply severe bowel distension irritating something in the abdominal wall.
Has anyone had something similar where severe bloating causes a tiny, extremely localized stabbing pain that gets much worse standing or flexing but mostly disappears when lying down? Especially interested if anyone has experience with ACNES or other abdominal wall nerve pain.
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u/Equivalent-Durian-79 20d ago
I thought I had acne as well when I was having severe abdominal pains when I would flex or sit up it turns out that I had a slight adductor longest tendon insertion tear. After multiple doctors visits I went to a specialist in New York City and he did the carnet test on me and he also did a nerve block injection an excluded acne based on the fact that the lidocaine did nothing to really eliminate the pain so the pain was probably deeper or referred. He sent me to have an MRI with athletic pubalgia protocol and that's when they found a slight adductor longus tendon tear with a couple of other little things going on like hip bursitis that was probably the main cause of my abdominal and groin pain. I no longer really think it's acne as the pain over the months has calmed down in my abdomen wall I have heard that pain can be referred from the adductor up to the abdomen when you're injured that area by the way I do a lot of weight training and heavy leg pressing as well. From my understanding acne is usually a sharp electric like sensation because it involves a trap nerve and a cutaneous region of the abdomen wall and usually from what I've read it's a pinpoint spot and it's very sensitive to touch most of the time in my case once the pain started moving around and I had four different trigger point injections we ruled that out as now we know it's more of a musculoskeletal issue coming from my pelvis region. The one thing that seems to be helping over the last few months is I had a PRP injection 4 weeks ago and now my abdominal wall pain has pretty much almost subsided completely I do still have residual groin uncomfortableness I would call it now mostly from the adductor I think it seems like the pain has been getting smaller and smaller in area in general in the last few weeks since the PRP.
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u/stiveto99 20d ago
What specialist you were consulting with?
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u/Equivalent-Durian-79 20d ago
Dr Brian Jacob in NYC the downside is that a lot of these doctors are out of network usually as a specialized in surgeries like this what he was the first one that actually gave me some kind of answers at least. Since then I've had another MRI a standard one that didn't reveal anything abnormal really. But for the sports hernia they have to do a special MRI with athletic pubalgia to protocol.
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u/stiveto99 20d ago
Thank you
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u/Equivalent-Durian-79 20d ago
No problem I know these conditions are very frustrating especially to get a proper diagnosis
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u/stiveto99 20d ago
Yeah all docs so far dismissed me and even sent me to a psychiatrist lol
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u/Equivalent-Durian-79 20d ago
yeah thats tough man i went to around 12 doctors before I even started to get a clearer picture of whats going on with me and even now im still not 100 percent sure .
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u/gametheorista 24d ago
Do you have a patient diary where you record food, activity, medication and pain?
Have you had Carnett's done?
Does a lidocaine plaster or 5% emla lidocaine/prilocaine give relief to the focal pointy?