Cramps & sleeping upright

The past few days, I've been feeling a bit under the weather, especially in the general stomach area. I've been getting a cramp or stitch-like pain that comes and goes, but is worse after eating, and my stomach is bloated and tender.

This all started two nights ago. We were watching a film and, at about 7pm, I had a banana. Two or three hours later, I was starting to feel peckish again and was getting strong urges for something salty, so I had a few crisps. About ten or fifteen minutes later, I started to get a cramping sensation just below my ribcage. I've had this once before and was not enthusiastic about the prospect of reliving my previous experience...

Previously, I had tried to simply ignore the pain and go to sleep, but the pain gradually got worse. It came and went, a bit like contractions, and no position seemed to ease them (staying perfectly still, regardless of position, seemed to be the most helpful). I thought that it must be something like indigestion, so got up and walked around for a bit. Then I was violently sick, repeatedly. I spent the following seven hours in a vicious, painful cycle: stay still, be sick, move, worsen pain, desperately try to stay still again...

Yes, so I was a little wary when I started to feel the twinges of pain at the top of my abdomen. I slept sitting up in a chair in the living room, since lying down made it worse before, but, fortunately, it didn't get much worse and I wasn't sick. Unlike last time, though, the cramping has continued for two days now. I'm going to call my GP tomorrow and see what she says.

I can't deny that a part of me is worried that this might be something more sinister than indigestion. Namely, Crohn's Disease. What if something has started up in my small intestine? What if it worsens and they need to operate on that, too? What if they have to remove some of it? How much could they remove? Surely you can't survive without any intestines?!

Argh. I'm being ridiculous, I know. I'm not noticing any major changes in output, so no diarrhea. If anything has started, it's not as bad as it was before, so they would try different medications first. Of course, it could just be something that I've eaten or some kind of reaction to my previous surgery. It could be a bug or something. I really have no idea, so I'm officially going to stop worrying (before I get an ulcer!).

In good news, my sleep is - generally - back to normal now, which is something that I've forgotten to mention previously. I sleep on my side most of the time now, which is perfectly comfortable, and I don't greatly miss sleeping on my stomach. If I eat at the right times before I go to bed, I don't even have to get up for up to six hours to empty my bag, something that I couldn't even imagine as a possibility a few months ago.