What Does Abdominal Pooling Feel Like?

[hippychic258]

How do you know if you have abdominal pooling? What are the symptoms and what makes it happen, eating, position, etc? Do you always have it or does it come and go? Do you feel faint with it?

Thanks

[HopeSprings]

I don't know for sure if this is pooling, but this is what I experience and I think it's from pooling. When I wake up in the morning, I feel a heaviness/a pressure in my lower abdominal area. When I get up, the pressure gets even worse and it feels like something is sort of dropping inside - and the urge is to squeeze tight around the lower belly area to stop this sensation. I must be a scary sight in the morning, walking around with a cup of coffee in one hand, the other hand squeezing my belly, as I'm hunched over trying to keep my heart from beating out of my chest. I get dizzy after I eat, which I assumed is from blood rushing to the stomach, but don't get that same heavy feeling in my belly like I do in the morning. As with everything else, laying down (especially on my side) seems to help. Do you think you pool?

[hippychic258]

I am not sure I just know that when I was able to sit it made me sick and i sat in a recliner yesterday and I got so sick rapid heart rate nausea shaking and someone said I may be pooling but I just wondered if anyone could explain what it feels like.

[McBlonde]

When I sit in a recliner vs sitting up in bed, I become symptomatic after about 30 minutes. First, I get a headache and then I start feeling nauseated. It is my thought that this is cerebral hypoperfusion & then pooling in the abdomen.

[brethor9]

for me pooling in the abdomen is exactly how Naomi described.....its just like a sense of loss of gravity.....heavy feeling like you just swallowed a water balloon or something....shortness of breath, tachy, bloating and if I stand long enough in this state my legs then start to go beat red/purple and feel like encased sausages...I hate that feeling....something I have found that has helped me a little is simethicone or bucospan...they are both used for gas but seem to help a little with the stomach pooling for some reason

[puppylove]

I get that heavy stomach feeling too. And nausea, especially after eating.

[Lemons2lemonade]

For me, it looks like a variation of 4 months to 6 months of pregnancy depending on the bloating. Nothing else swells on me. Additionally, if I push on it, it feels significantly more firm than fat almost like pushing on a water balloon. Think of menstrual bloating x 5

[roxie]

I have some of the same problems. Mine is more at night than in the morning. I'm going to my dr next week to talk about pelvic congestion syndrome (pcs)

There's some past post about it & you could google it too.

Basically, the ovarian & uterine veins are too large & the valves don't work correctly pushing the blood through causing reflux. It is autonomically controlled and can be taken care of by ablation

[Katybug]

Mine feels like someone is literally draining my blood from my upper torso into my abdomen through a funnel. I get lightheaded and bloated. I can even see my abdominal skin change color and mottling in the skin in my abdomen too. It happens to me both from standing for too long and from eating.

[comfortzone]

I'm just guessing = but when I first open my eyes in the morning - and make my very first roll over toward the edge of the bed to sit up - I get this huge gush or whoosh or rush in my upper abdomen/chest.... It happens every morning without fail - kind of a mix of looking over the Grand Canyon and pressure or you could add a bit of going in an elevator type feeling.... Only lately I also get this throughout the day when standing back upright after picking something up off the floor - and only recently too I get chest pain. The chest pain lasts only seconds - but today it happened in conjunction with the chest/rush type thing.

Thanks to those that described this - I'm guessing it's pooling - it may be due to the Clonidine I take - I've heard it can worsen pooling issues. I will check the skin on my belly and shape of it to see if there's changes that I just never paid attention to - and I really cannot tell bloating because I have med related constipation issue - and I always feel bloated...

[issie]

Hmmmm, nowwhat - interesting that you mention clonidine and it causing pooling. I took some today after having been off it for several weeks and tonight - I'm having such bad nausea and abdominal pooling. I got my neoprene abdominal binder out and I'm slowly starting to feel a little better. It also created a bit of a blue mood for me. It did help the blood pressure and tachy - but, the other things that it caused makes me wonder if it's worth it. Like lemons described sort of like a water balloon feeling - like you know there is too much fluid there. And yes, for me too, it can be kind of hard and extended. You sort of feel like you're smothering when it's really bad. I think part of mine is edema though - it's not all blood pooling.

Issie

[ceindeg]

I sometimes wake up with visible pooling around my abdomen - looks like the lividity in corpses from C.S.I.!! Gross.

[McBlonde]

Those are really great descriptions! So.... I guess whatever that is happening to me when I sit is not abdominal pooling because my symptoms are first headache, then nausea, then ... I've got to lay down or I'm going to be sick... Maybe mine is cerebral hypoperfusion?

[NMPotsie]

I guess mine isn't quite as bad, but I am incredibly dizzy after I eat and I constantly have to urinate, which my doctor attributes to abdominal pooling I also get mottled skin in my abdomen, but I don't seem to bloat like everyone else.

[lexcyn]

For me, it looks like a variation of 4 months to 6 months of pregnancy depending on the bloating. Nothing else swells on me. Additionally, if I push on it, it feels significantly more firm than fat almost like pushing on a water balloon. Think of menstrual bloating x 5

that is exactly how I feel most everyday from morning to night. I dont get the pooling in legs but my gut pays the price. It is worse after eating but by then digestion begins and I get extremly tired and it is nap time for me.