Question: Is it possible to have an serious but undiagnosed GI issue when all blood work is within normal parameters and there have been no unusual bowel issues, vomiting, or fever? I am still having daily thoracic back pain issues that pain medicine does not relieve and I've had lumbar/thoracic MRI's with no problems found. Is there a musculoskeletal disease that can cause this which would have gone undetected so far with all the tests that I've had performed?

Thanks for your promt response Dr Kaltari. In answer to your question, the H-Pylori was diagnosed via blood test in late Dec 2013. I started the triple drug therapy XXXXXXX 2nd and finished XXXXXXX 14th. I had been feeling badly as far back as June/July 2013 with 4-5 Dr visits before the several abdominal swelling & back pain started in December. I am now down to 210 lbs from 246 lbs when this all started. I had an endoscopy several weeks ago with no issues noted. Had lipase serum test for possible pancreatic issues in Feb with normal values. Had creatine kinase blood test for possible muscle wasting associated with negative reaction to simvastatin. Have had increasingly blurry vision over past 2 years but not sure if that's part of aging or associated. Have had all of the typical joint/muscle pain & frequent urination associated with simvastatin side effects, but negative on creatine kinase. Last blood test 3 weeks ago showed low vitamin-D and high glucose serum. I was seriously overweight about 7 years ago (295lbs) but dropped to 245 between 2007-2010 and had been hiking on average 20-30 miles a week/1000-1500 miles per year with good muscle tone. I'm not in disagreement with your assessment of BMI & associated strain on mucles/ligaments, but I've gone from being able to bench press 250-260 lbs easily 2 years ago to hardly being able to bench press 150 lbs now. Wouldn't that fall into the category of rapid muscle loss/deterioration rather than gradual aging process? I sometimes have pain in the area where mesh was surgically inserted to repair an umbilical hernia in 2003. Any chance that scar tissue formation could have attached itself to something that is exacerbating this situation?

Dr Kaltari, thanks for your detailed response. In answer to your questions: 1) Have not had a fever in~18 months. That was a 2-3 day stomach flu. 2) Have not taken any steroids since I used liquid drops of predisone for an eye infection about 12-14 months ago. 3) I've had loss of apetite, but not sure if it's genuine apathy towards food or avoidance of the bloated feeling accompanying meals. Have not had a "large" meal in probably 3-4 months. Typically have a banana and yogurt for breakfast, then a light meal for supper. Usually skip lunch. Used to drink about 10-12 cups of coffee per day for many years. Since I got sick I only have 1-3 cups per day. Have not had ANY salt other than what's already in the food I eat. Used to have very spicy meals frequently, but have not had anything spicy since December. I have been wearing an abdominal support brace every day since all of this started because if I don't, it feels like my guts are falling out. Even with being down to 210 lbs and going from a 40 to a 38 waist size, my belly still feels bloated. The radiologist who performed my ultrasound said I had an enlarged liver and spleen, but the GI Dr who ordered the CT-Scan and abdominal MRI said they were normal size. (About 3-4 weeks between procedures in Jan-Feb) Physical palpation of the entire abdomen does not reveal any pain except in area where mesh was inserted for umbilical hernia. (This is consistent for every Dr appt last 4 months) If I lay flat on my back, all pain reduces immediatley by about 60-80%. Have what feels like a hernia running up the middle of my abdomen but am told it's just stretched out from when I was grossly overweight. 4) I have been taking L-Thyroxine for about 2-1/5 years now. I didn't feel bad, but the Dr said since my TSH levels were high, she wanted me to start the medicine. I take one 75 uG dose daily in the morning. My TSH levels have been measured as follows:5.95 in May-2012, .540 in Sep-2012, 3.16 in March 2013, 4.34 in July 2013, and 1.12 in Mar-2014. I'm not sure if it has any bearing whatsoever on all of this, but up until July-2013, I had been a frequent user of Advil liquid gel tabs. I started using them in 1984-1990 for knee pain when I was in the Navy and running 30-40 miles a week, and used them up until I had an episode of using 10-12 in a 24 hour period for severe knee pain in July-2013 and woke up with a stomach ache and feeling hungover the next day. Was worried that I damaged my liver. Have not taken any since then. Scared to use tylenol or other OTC NSAIDs now for same reason. Was put on a daily dose of Celebrex 200mg starting last Thursday 4/10, along with Robaxin 750mg once every 4 hours for back pain. This is in addition to Norco 10-325 for back pain. Doc wants me to start using Amytripilene 10mg once daily also, but have been nervous about taking so many different types of drugs. All of my AST/ALT/Bilirubin/Albumin values have been normal on all hepatic blood panels for past several years. No jaundice or other issues. Doc found 2 small benign hemangiomas on my liver during CT-Scan. I would be happy to provide you with images of my MRI/CT-Scan/Ultrasound. The files are fairly large in size though. How would I get them to you?

Thank you Dr Kaltari, I attempted to upload the files, but even compressed as PKZIP, the CT-Scan folders are 300MB in size. Are there any specific image files that I can pull out of the many folders and send to you?