Have Chronic Constipation And Back Pain. Tested Negative For Pancreatic Cancer. What Is The Problem?

Posted on Mon, 25 Mar 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 Answered on

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : Have chronic constipation, pale stools at times back pain in am. Cannot eat steak or pork my stomach will not digest it. Go from being constipated 2 or 3 days to diarrhea My father had same problems no one could figure it out. Also if i eat a piece of fat i will burp it up undigested sometimes hours later. Have had a blood test & ultrasound to rule out pancreatic cancer both neg. Have always had intigeston problems XXXXXXX t take anything. My father also had low blood sugar. It seams to me that it is hereditary .

Answered by Dr. Dr. Ivan Romich (1 hour later)

Hi and welcome to XXXXXXX
Whether it is hereditary or not you should find the right diagnosis and treat it on the right way. Cancer isnt the first you should think of. There are 2 possibilities, functional digestion disorder with no specific organic pathology( such as iBD,food allergies or enzymes deficiency)or there i ssome pathology( crohn, ulcerative colitis, tumors). IFirst one is treated by finding food which isnt provoking your problems.
Any kind of gastritis,biliary diseases or liver,pancreatic disorder can cause digestion disturbance.
LAb tests and US are limited and can detect only huge intraabdominal masses or fluid. You should do detailed gastroenterology work up including gastroscopy, colonoscopy and CT scan. After that you can be sure that there is no specific pathology and you can plan further treatment.
Hope I have answered your query. If you have any further questions I will be happy to help"

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar