Lower right quadrant discomfort

[Wayne]

I am a 55-year-old male, 5' 11" and 200 lb. Symptoms started about 5 years ago. The main symptoms are burning and a dull ache in the lower right quadrant of my abdomen. The tests done include a CT scan, upper GI, Brarium enema - all negative. Blood tests are normal. The symptoms are becoming worse and now include some nausea. Sitting and lying down increase the discomfort, while standing decreases them. Food seems to worsen the symptoms, but no particular food makes them worse than anoter. At night, lying on the left side relieves the symptoms as does massage. There is no blood in stools. What could the be? Could appendicitis cause these symptoms for such a long time? Cound it be a hernia? What about cancer?

[ShadowLin]

I am having an annoying pain or ache on my lower right side from under ribs down  accross from belly button. The ache feels like a heaviness that wakes me up at night. I am constantly aware of it all of the time. I have a hard time turning over and have awakened sweating and uncomfortable. My left side feels heavy and knotted up at night. The pain is tolerable but nagging. I had my gall bladder removed 2 1/2 years ago.  I had some tests last week. Anyone having this same sensation constantly?.. One other thing... after some tests I burp all evening...but I can eat what I want and feel no nausea.
THanks Linda

[Kelly B]

This is truly disconcerting that there are so many of you who are undiagnosed and recieving no relief!  My husband has had these same symptoms as well as diarhhea and vomiting and has been through all of the tests, CT, sonogram, Hep, Liver panel, Colonoscopy and he even had his gall bladder removed!!  My friend told me about a person she knew who had Celiac Sprue.  I had never heard of it but it also produces these symptoms.  It is basically a gluten intolerance that causes your small intestine to shut down and not be able to absorb any nutrients.  It causes malnutrition, severe vitamin deficiencies, osteoperosis and can cause damage to your gastro intestinal tract.  Some of the symptoms include abdominal pain, diarhhea, vomiting, floating stools (due to the inability to absorb fat), weight loss (or gain) bloating or abdominal distension and joint pain.  It is often misdiagnosed as Crohn's, IBS or not diagnosed at all!
Ask your GI doctor to do a celiac test.  Be aware that many of the blood tests for this come back negative so you really need a biopsy of the small intestine. Check it out on www.celiac.com.  If you are diagnosed with this, you will need to avoid eating gluten and it could take 2-6 months on this diet to get relief.  I hope all of you get relief sometime soon!

[normie]

I have been reading, with great interest, all the comments by the sufferers of quadrant pain, IBS, etc., I had my gallbladder removed 1 year ago, and since that time, have been suffering with chronic diarrhea, as well as, abdominal pain across the top of my abdomen under the rib cages. I am also experiencing a great amount of stomach "rumbling", accompanied by pain which is not very severe, but annoying and uncomfortable. I sometimes vomit bile. I have contractions under the right rib cage before each "rumble" and all the doctors' I have consulted say it is not unusual to have chronic diarrhea after gallbladder surgery. That, of course, is no comfort to me. I have had many tests taken and was told that it is nothing serious, but to me, serious or not, I would rather not have the discomfort. I have read numerous comments from you people, but wonder why none of you have mentioned the 'rumbling' in your stomach...just curious. Am I the only person that has this?? If any of you readers of this site, can relate, please do so, so I can feel as if I am not alone.  Oh, by the way, I am 70 years old and this all started after the gallbladder surgery. Prior to that, I was in excellent health.  Thanks for listening..

[jje]

This is truely amazing. My story is more lengthy, but as seeing this board has at least let me know I am not the only one. 13 years ago I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. As time and many surgeries went by I am here. I had Nissen Fundoplication performed 1996 (wrap of the stomach around the esophagus) to eliminate constant refulx. 3 months later, my gallbladder decided to stop functioning. Removed. I continued to have problems, discovered that I have a slow emptying stomach, okay, I can avoid problems by avoiding certain foods. Approximately 2 years ago, started having pain in my right side. It started as a sharp pain which occaisionally came like a severe gripping and would go away. It was not frequent so I figured just another problem. It became more frequent so I went in a year ago. Had every test known to man performed, found nothing. Since I peripherial joint involvement as well as other things, it was norrowed to 3 choices. SLE (Lupus) RA or Crohns, I can live with that, however the reason for the three is that I fit some areas of each but all of none. My pain again kept cramping more and more frequent. Went in, again every test, now the result, surgery to see if it is scar tissue or hernia. Do I feel releived? No. and why? probably because I know that whatever is found, will be fixed and 6 months later I am back to square 1, fixing the result of what I have not the cause........................as I told the Dr. out of frustration either tell me what it is or name it after me.

I appreciate the time to let me vent, I will update the outcome and good luck to all.

[phil]

wow an eye opening experience drs. seem to not believe me when I tell them about the pain I have in the same areas,Have had all test due to the fact i do have hep c.,but dr. tells me you should not get pain from a liver.He just recently told me I also have ibs,and granuloma in my liver,Which I do not understand,And he does not know much about it, this is why I found this site today.
     I have fluid in my abdomen.bloating in my stomach,pain just below my right back rib cage,problems sleeping,pain gets worse when I sit,get pains in both feet on the bottom outside makes it hard to walk,constantly hungary,abdomen and stomach fill up and reside quite often,I am a recovering alcoholic and trying to find some answers, I do know that this is not in my head like some doctors seem to make me feeland will continue to find a reason why theses problems exist,and will let everyone know about any information I find.
    God bless you all and hope we can find a solution to this situation together.

[SBI]

For the past 4 years I have had similar symptoms of you all. What follows is only the result of much reading that I did, like most of you.
Pain in the right lower quadrant (RLQ) is also one of the symptoms of IBS (irritated bowel sindrome), specially when all your exams show up nothing wrong. The RLQ is where the cecum (usualy) is, wich in some cases also gets severely affected by the IBS. VERY RECENTLY (december 2000) a medical research article has pointed out for the first time the conection betwen IBS and bacterial infestation of the small intestine in near 80% of the IBS cases. The discovery was made using a lactulose breath test. Then, a treatment with several antibiotcs is discussed in that article. Those who, after the antibiotic, managed to erradicated the bacteria had their symptoms eliminated or reduced, and those who failed to eliminated the infestation of bacteria of the small intestine did not have their condition improved, says the article. The problem seems to be in the difficulty to diagnose such a bacteria infestation in the small intestine since it is not easy to reach the small intestine directly. The lactulose breath test itself is not very precise (16-60% precision). But, above all, the present difficulty that some of the bacterial infestation in the intestine brings is the huge amount of bacteria species that makes the intestinal flora: about 500 different species of bacteria. Some of them (like some of the 7 species of Clostridium) can not live in the presence of oxygen and therefore never show up in cultures (that can expose Salmonela for instance). Some of these bacteria may be unknown or even be a perfectly normal bacteria that may have been modified by incorrect use of antibiotics, long ago, and became agressive. The flora of a person is unique and very dynamical. It gets modified by particular feeding habits and even by stress. It seems to me that for all of us to be free from these symptoms in the short term, medical science will have to invest much more resources (financial and mental) in understanding them. The article below seems to be an excellent beginning (I did a combined treatment with 2 of the 4 antibiotics mentioned and my symptoms have reduced). The site for the article mentioned above is (American Journal of Gastroenterology - issue of December 2000):

www-east.elsevier.com/ajg/frames/thismnth.htm

The title of the article is:
"Eradication of Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth Reduces Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome"

I sincerely hope that together, sharing also the good news, one shall be able to get out of this mess. All of us.