came back from the hospital with my mom

Yikes! I do hope she doesn’t have another bout of pain.

Last time I had that it turned out to be gall stones. But I kept ignoring it thinking it was just “gas” and it kept going away. Eventually, after a couple of years of occasional bouts of this temporarily debilitating pain, I ended up in intensive care with a massive liver infection and was told I was lucky my wife dragged me to the hospital when she did. It took them two days of IV antibiotics before they could even risk operating on me. I don’t remember much, other than that morphine is my friend.

Anyway, this is by way of saying to watch out in case the same pain recurs later (even months later). Lots of things can cause abdominal pains that are not serious, but from your description this wasn’t an ordinary complaint. For example, illness due to bacteria from well water would have resulted in serious time spent in the bathroom. Not something you are likely to fail to notice whilst spending hours at a hospital.

If it happens again, I’d make sure she stayed long enough at the hospital to be examined. An abdominal ultrasound would be the likely best start as that can check for all kinds of problems: gall stones, kidney stones, damage to various organs from various causes, and so on.

Of course, the first thing I do when I get any potential digestive upset is to chew down a handful of papaya tablets. If the problem is with my digestion, that’s usually the cure. Hopefully that was all that was wrong for your mom.

I’ve had a bout of extreme abdominal pain once which was due to air in the intestines. I was limping I was in so much pain. I did see the doctor, not much she could do. It went away on its own and I figured out it was some things I was eating. So if whatever you all ate was unusual, that may be it for your mom. Dave is right, bacteria usually results in diarrhea and/or vomiting.

Her appendix might also have been acting up, if she still has it. Either way, watch her closely in case it returns!

Hugs!

I’d have her follow up with her regular doctor, like Dave said, it could be her gall bladder causing issues.

Kyrin

Agreed with all of the above.

I remember years ago my mother having debilitating pain like you described, we (meaning everyone but me, I got to call the hospital to tell them we were coming) took her to the hospital, it turns out that she has… darn I can’t remember the name of it now, but basically what it was is that she can’t digest heavy starches (like pasta) properly and they cause those kinds of pain (we had spaghetti that night). It also causes the salivary glands to not produce salivary amylase so if she has a cracker sit in her mouth, it never gets sweet. Apparently for most people it goes sweet eventually as the starches are broken down to sugars (it never goes sweet for me either).

Good luck

I hope she is all right! Like everyone said, keep in contact with her!