#1 ·
Hey everyone—a friend of mine didn't want to deal with the hassle of setting up a whole new profile just for this, so he asked me to post on his behalf. Here’s the situation:
He’s noticing this circular—well, more like an oval bruise-like mark just below his navel. It’s sort of bluish, almost like a small fatty deposit. It seems to flare up specifically during periods of high anxiety or intense stress—he’s always dealt with a fair amount of psychosomatic issues, anyway. Along with the mark, he gets bloated and feels this subtle, barely perceptible pressure or discomfort in his lower abdomen. He’s also becoming quite gassy, and the odor is... honestly, it's pretty unpleasant and unnatural—sort of like, I don't even know... burnt rubber? Overall, there's this general sense of malaise throughout his body; nausea hits his stomach, he loses his appetite whenever the mark appears, and he feels dizzy and just "off" all day. Usually, though, the mark vanishes after about 7 or 8 hours. Occasionally, he’ll run a slight fever, maybe up to 99°F. His lymph nodes in his neck and groin also get quite swollen during these episodes.
He spent a year and a half bouncing between doctors, and frankly, nobody could give him a straight answer.
All his tests—blood work, stool samples, the usual—came back completely normal. They wouldn't even bother referring him for anything more invasive, like a colonoscopy, because 1) they figured nothing would show up since they suspected a blood clotting issue (though they couldn't confirm it), and 2) they basically brushed him off because he's just a 20-year-old guy—they assumed he was just stressing out over his college exams.
This used to happen frequently—at least once a month throughout 2016 and 2017—and then it stopped. Then maybe once in 2018, and now, here we are again today.
Does anyone have any idea what this could be? Has anyone dealt with something similar?
He’s noticing this circular—well, more like an oval bruise-like mark just below his navel. It’s sort of bluish, almost like a small fatty deposit. It seems to flare up specifically during periods of high anxiety or intense stress—he’s always dealt with a fair amount of psychosomatic issues, anyway. Along with the mark, he gets bloated and feels this subtle, barely perceptible pressure or discomfort in his lower abdomen. He’s also becoming quite gassy, and the odor is... honestly, it's pretty unpleasant and unnatural—sort of like, I don't even know... burnt rubber? Overall, there's this general sense of malaise throughout his body; nausea hits his stomach, he loses his appetite whenever the mark appears, and he feels dizzy and just "off" all day. Usually, though, the mark vanishes after about 7 or 8 hours. Occasionally, he’ll run a slight fever, maybe up to 99°F. His lymph nodes in his neck and groin also get quite swollen during these episodes.
He spent a year and a half bouncing between doctors, and frankly, nobody could give him a straight answer.
All his tests—blood work, stool samples, the usual—came back completely normal. They wouldn't even bother referring him for anything more invasive, like a colonoscopy, because 1) they figured nothing would show up since they suspected a blood clotting issue (though they couldn't confirm it), and 2) they basically brushed him off because he's just a 20-year-old guy—they assumed he was just stressing out over his college exams.
This used to happen frequently—at least once a month throughout 2016 and 2017—and then it stopped. Then maybe once in 2018, and now, here we are again today.
Does anyone have any idea what this could be? Has anyone dealt with something similar?