pain on right side under ribcage?
Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at
10:01 am
I am having pain on my right side under ribcage for quit a while now,I went to see a doctor twice already and they did an ultrasound,lab work and everything was normal he even gave me a treatment for ulcer and that did not help.They want me to go see a doctor again tomorrow what else can I do?Is there any other testing that can be done?I don’t have acid reflux the pain is more to the side than to the middle.HELP!!
Filed under: Acid Reflux
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Have they suggested endoscopy? It’s a procedure where you are sedated and they drop a camera down your esophagus into your stomach to see if they can find any abnormalities in the upper portion of your GI tract.
How long has it been going on? What is the quality of this pain? Could it possibly be a pinched nerve in your back that is radiating? Have they ruled out gallstones? Have they done liver function tests? These are things I would consider when going into the doctor tomorrow.
I had gallstones and it was a burning pain that was middle of my torso to the right and it burned like crazy- radiated to my back and got bad enough to make me nauseated sometimes. It was gallstones- and that only happened when a stone got lodged in the bile ducts. However, I’ve had my gallbladder removed and I’ve had 4 "attacks" AFTER that- so it’s possible they’re there just not "hanging around" to be visible on ultrasound.
I’d like to know what they end up saying tomorrow.
Take care.
It sounds to me like gallbladder pain, and that must be what they suspected as well initially, since they did the ultrasound and lab work (the ultrasound would show gallstones; their are certain labs that will be abnormal in the presence of gallbladder dysfunction). If they determine the gallbladder to be fine, they will usually treat for reflux (I had symptoms that my docs were SURE was my gallbladder, but turned out to be severe acid problems that I needed surgery to correct).
There are a couple of other tests that they can do to look at your gallbladder function, the most specific would be a nuclear medicine test called a HIDA scan (there is another name for it that escapes me at the moment, but it’s the same thing). It tests how your gallbladder empties. That may be the next step they are looking at doing. You could ask about it.
I didn’t think I had acid reflux either; they ended up scoping my esophagus and stomach when all of my gallbladder tests were normal and found severe irritation and erosion due to acid and I was completely clueless. In fact, I had always said before that that I had a stomach of steel and could eat anything, because I NEVER had heartburn, so boy was I surprised! Don’t rule that out as a possibility, either. They may be wanting to do a similar scope to take a look at your stomach and esophagus to see if there’s any acid irritation or an ulcer present.
Good luck, hope this helps.
Pain in the area you specified is usually involving your Gallbladder. Typical tests would be blood (to test for elevated Bilirubin and Liver enzymes), ultrasound (to check for a blockage or inflammation of your ducts or gallbladder). Sometimes, there can be pain without stones often known as acalculous cholecystitis. Try researching that…