I have been ill for months with left sided upper abdominal pain radiating to my back. I feel sick most of the time but I have ballooned in size even though I am feel unable to eat very much. I have had a sigmoidoscophy from which it was determined that I have diverticulitis 7 months ago. I have since had an abdominal ultrasound which came back fine. Every time I have a water sample taken is shows positive for blood but no infection is ever detected so it is dismissed. I am on a cocktail of drugs for depressive illness and another cocktail to treat their side effects. I have been desperate to get to the bottom of what is wrong with me as I am a single parent and need to be able to function but the pain is so bad I just want to curl up and die. I have been on tramadol for years for a back problem and have stopped taking it for the past two weeks to see if it was causing my symptoms but nothing has happened - the pain isn't even all that much worse without it which isn't surprising really considering the length of time I have been on it. I am also on Simvastatin and, on reading your article, I am putting more pieces of the jigsaw together. I just really want to say Thank-you x and I will let you know what happens at appointment 321 later this week