Bloated Abdomen (Tympany, Meteorism)

Your abdomen is taut as an inflated balloon. Your waistband presses, your skin stretches, and if you tap it gently with your fingers it sounds hollow — almost like a drum. You feel heavy and empty at once. Full without having eaten. Bloated without being satisfied. A pressure sits where nothing should be pressing.

Medically the explanation is simple: too much gas in the intestine. Eating too quickly, eating the wrong things, imbalanced gut flora, an intolerance, a sluggish digestive tract. And all of that is correct. But it does not explain why now specifically. Why you specifically. Why so persistently, even though you have long since cut out everything that seemed suspect.