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upper right stomach sharp pain

Hi. I am a 32 year old mother of 2 who has chrone's disease brought on by giving birth. Never had any symtons until the birth of my daughter 5 years ago.. I have been without insurance now for the last 2.5 years and haven't been to the GI doctor since.  My crohne's was never that bad, controled by med's like asocal, and endocort.. Since the birth of my second child in 2005, the med's stopped working.. Without insurance, I was under no medical care and no med's.. For the last 6 months, my symton's have gotten worse.. It used to be certain things like salad, certain vegetables would upset my stomach, but now it is literally every time I eat I get a stomach ache which is very painful and I litterally have to use the toilet 10-15 min. after eating.. I have "water" diherea with bits and pieces of whatever I had eaten previously in the day.  I have also been awoken in the middle of night 2 times in the past month from a seveve sharp pain under my right breast, almost under my rib cage.  I'm wondering if this could be crone's related, or would it be something else like gallstones or a problem with my liver? Usually my crones pain is in the lower part of my belly and this is all the way up in the top right hand side under my ribs.  both times I have had back pain as well.  Any suggestions on what I should do? Remember, I do not have insurance!
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Avatar universal
I have been on prednisone for about 3 weeks.. started at the 60mg, worked down to 40mg but its not working as well anymore, so I started back up to 60mg.. I've been having terrible side effects though.. I have migranes and really really bad joint pain exactly 4 hours to the minute that I took my prednisone. The GI doctor gave me a script for darvasets and they seem to take the edge off the pain.. I go back to the GI doctor on Friday so we will see what he says from there.

He set me up with paperwork to get free remiciade infusions since I dont have insurance and am waiting till Friday to see what happens.  I can qualify for free remicide through the manufacturer but I will still have to pay for the hospital to infuse the medicine.. Not sure on the cost of that, but the medicine alone cost $3000.. so its a big help.. especially when the GI doctor wants me to do the remicide infusions 3 times initially then once every 6-8 weeks.. will see..

I am waiting to hear about my insurance. I applied through my local state of Indiana.. Its called the Healthy Indiana Plan.. Its for adults who do not have access to insurance.  Its not quite welfare, b/c you do have to pay for it, but you pay 2-5% of your monthly income.. so its still a great option for people who dont have access through work.. I suggest checking into your local state.. You might have something similiar..

Good luck and I will update next week!!
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Avatar universal
i was in the same boat, the upper right pain under you breast definatly sound s like your gallbladder i have crohns and had my gall bladder removed also i hav 3 kids that my crohns got worse with each one. i also dont have insurance and am using the prednisone as a temp solution, but heads up.... prednisone is really bad for you.  and that is a reallly high dosage i only take 30 mg daily and it works ok, to get me thru the day anyway. its good to get the inflammation down but not an answer. good luck if you find any answers as far as insurance goes let me know. take care
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Avatar universal
Thanks! I hope so too.. My mom has crohn's also and got put on the remicaide infusions and had a bad allergic reaction to it as well, and cant do it anymore.. So I'm hoping that I am ok with it.. We shall see.. I'm only on day 3 of the prednasone and its making a huge difference.. My bm have went from 6-12 a day down to 1 or 2 a day! I cant remember the last time that's happened!! :)
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Avatar universal
I know what you are going through.  Most of the symptoms you described for yourself sound identical to what happened with me around the time I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease.  It got so bad that I had to have my colon re-sectioned.  I have been on Asocol, prednisone, endocort, remicade and now pentasa.  The remicade unfortunately didn't work for me as I had a severe allergic reaction during the infusion.  I've heard that it works wonders on the patients that don't have bad reactions.  Lucky for me I have been in remission since my surgery in 2001.  I am now starting to have the same pains/symptoms as you again.  My GI prescribed Pentasa as a long term medication to see if we can keep it at bay.  
Good Luck!! I hope the remicade works for you.
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Avatar universal
So I went to the GI doctor yesterday and since I dont have insurance, there is only a few things he can do without the expense of a colonospy, blood work, and x-rays.. He put me on Prednasone which I'm taking 60mg a day..which is a large dosage! I'm  not trilled about it, but I had to do something and its cheap and hopefully will work.. Also, the doctors office filed paperwork to get remicade infusions for free from the manufacturer.  They called back today (which is awesome) and told me that I need to fill out some paperwork and get some signatures and then fax it in, and then I will get all my medicine (remicade infusions)  for free but will have to pay for someone to give it to me... dont know how much that will cost.. but I'm pretty happy to be getting some help and hope to be feeling better soon!!
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Avatar universal
crohns cause all sort of prob you need to be seen asap or you could have your intest. removed right side pain most likely is from crohns.  yhere are clinics who might be able to help call your health department.  Also call a local church and ask for help, drs attend church and they, the church, might be able to help w drug cost.  Also the er cant turn u away dep on ur income you might have to pay verry little.  med bills really dont effect ur credit in a huge way so get help goodluck
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Avatar universal
Thank you for your comment mRae85... I will be checking into that tomorrow!!! I didnt know that sort of thing existed.. I will also put a call into my GI doctor.. Maybe he could help me as well.. My symptoms have been getting worse and worse so I know I need to be on some meds soon!! I have been on prednisone in the past, and actually have a full bottle of them at home, so I have been considering taking them on my own, but am a little afraid of taking them without a doctors help.. at the time he said to take 60mg a day, not sure how much I would take on my own.. he ended up taking me off of then shortly after and switching me to another med. b/c he didnt want me to gain a lot of weight as I am allready severely over weight.. well, anyhow, thanks again for your comment.. I will check it out and post my outcome!!
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Avatar universal
I understand not having insurance and at age 24... lets say my credit report can show it all! You cant ignore that tho, check with the ER in your area and see if they have a program for people who dont have insurance or goverment funding. Alot of them do. The one I had all my testing done at and my G.I. Dr is at has what they call "chairty care" so that I can get it taken care of. When i go to see my G.I. Dr tho it is like $10 for the visit but the rest is handled. Also I was on endocort and asocal for a long time, now however I am taking prednisone, the endocort is VERY expencive and there is no program under the sun for it, asocal however a person can apply to get it for nothing through the company.
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Avatar universal
Hi Chris,

Had problems trying to respond to your question, so trying here.

When I was at ER, the doctor told me that many people have just one attack & never another one the rest of their life.  However, if a person has a second attack it needs to be checked.

I have been having attacks 3-4 times per year for the past 5 1/2 to 6 years, only I didn't know they were gallbladder attacks. My doctor said I was having Esophageal Spasms.  I figured he was the expert, so whenever I had one, I just waited until it passed.  When the doctor in ER asked my health history & I described the episodes, he told me that in all probability those episodes were actually gallbladder attacks & said that I was lucky that it went this long without serious consequences.  

When I had my previous attacks I could still function.  Even when I had the most recent one that sent me to ER, I could function.  It happened in the middle of the night and also woke me from a sound sleep.  I thought that it was just another Esophageal Spasm and would pass just as all the previous ones did, but after about 20 minutes, I realized that it didn't seem quite the same and that I might have to go to ER.  I showered & got dressed, just in case, because I didn't want to go to the hospital in my fuzzy bathrobe.  By the time I was dressed & it was getting worse, I woke my hubby up to take me.  We got 1/2 mile from home & I told him I thought I needed the rescue squad.  Fortunately for us, the rescue squad is only 1 mile from our house.  Since we were already halfway there, he called 911 & we met them at the squad building.  I was able to get into the squad under my own power.  (The nearest hospital is 40 miles - 1 hour - from our home.)

If a gallstone gets stuck in a duct, it can be life-threatening.  Since, by your admission, gallstones may run in the family, it's a very good possibility that you are there now.  In doing my research on gallbladder, it said that people with Crohn's & ulcerative colitis have more of a tendency to have gallbladder problems.  Because my son has ulcerative colitis I wanted to know more.  That is how I came across this site and your post.

I know how hard it is to make that decision when you don't have insurance, but the life you save may be your own.  Your kids would be devastated if something happened to you.  Please, PLEASE, don't ignore your symptoms!

Hope this was helpful.

Cheryl

P.S.  I'm close in age to your mom.  I'll be 63 in October.
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Avatar universal
I sure do identify with you.  I also do not have health insurance, but just had my gallbladder removed a week ago.  Your symptoms sound just like mine - pain on right side under the ribs and in the back.  Since it can be serious, even life threatening, I would suggest that you not ignore it, regardless of your financial situation.

Do some research on gall bladder problems.  After my trip to the ER & being told that I had a very large gallstone & lots of smaller ones, I did research hoping to find an alternative to surgery.  After reading a lot of info, I realized that I needed to have the surgery.

Check to see if there is a community care program in your area, that reduces the amount an uninsured person has to pay.  (A friend's husband recently had to have surgery.  The bill was over $20,000.  With community care they only ended up having to pay about $3000).  We have applied for ours, but won't know results for another week or two as they only meet to review applications once per month.  As luck would have it, the last meeting was the day after my visit to ER!

Finally, ask yourself what your precious children would do without a mom.  That's too serious to dismiss!

You're in my prayers!
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Avatar universal
WOW, I really feel for you!!! That said, I understand about the insurance. I have a suggestion but I don't know of all the programs that they have for people that don't have insurance and have Crohn's. I found out a website www.clinicaltrials.gov they have various articles and have clinical trials. Good Luck !!!!!!
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Avatar universal
    I went back and I should have mentioned my doctor had me on asocal and endocourt for a year, After that time he dropped me off endocort , which has cortisol in it, to allow me to lose some weight and told me I will be on asocal for the rest of my life, 2 pills 3 times a day. I,m not anticapating  being placed back on endocort. So I hope I made the point well enough, you don't need to vomit or have diarrhea to become dehydrated to have those symtoms, just a thought,    Good Luck      Kelly77745
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