Pain under right rib

[Bailey1]

I'm a 51 yr. old female, who has had pain under the right rib, very low under the rib, for about two months.  The pain feels like a fist stuck under my rib, or like a balloon about to explode.  I had a CT scan which showed a small liver lesion, but my liver profile tests were normal.  The pain is constant and getting worse.  I've also had an ultrasound, which confirmed the liver lesion, but showed no gallstones.

I am weak, exhausted, and very pale.  I do have GERD with a small hyatal hernia, but have been on Aciphex for months, and a scope showed the area to be mildly inflamed, but not severe. The pain I get from GERD is usually more in the esophogeal area and between the breast bone (about an inch lower). The doctor has suggested I see someone else, because he cannot figure out what this is, yet he gave me no direction.

I am very miserable and can't even function daily.  Two days ago, I went to Urgent Care, and they gave me a "GI Cocktail," which helped tremendously, within 45 min., but two days later & the pain is back in force.  

I plan to continue to solve this, but would like to know -- can liver cause this pain;  can the gall bladder cause pain like this without gallstones; and can GERD cause this type of pain?
Also what other tests or blood tests might help to diagnose this.

Thank you for your help.

[meppat]

I also had my GB out in October of 2002.  Nothing showed up on my ultrasound.  They did the scan that outlines your GB and after 1 1/2 hours it faintly showed an outline.  They said my GB had completely stopped working.  A few years prior I was having intestinal problems and had this same scan done.  I wasn't working good back then.  I would have your GB out.  

Does anyoe know how your GB can just stop working?  I am not a heavy drinker and I don't smoke.  I still have problems with my upper right side being sore, nausea, diherea, vomiting, bilely stool.  Let me know what you think.

[arbor]

I'm a 34 yr old male. About 5 months ago, I started having constant pain in the upper right quadrant of the abdomen. An ultrasound and a CT scan showed nothing abnormal, in other words no gall stones. But the radioactive HIDA scan showed that the gall bladder wasn't functioning properly. The ejection fraction was only 9%. After consulting with my doctors and reading a lot about gall bladder function, I decided to have the gall bladder removed. The post-surgery pathology showed that my gall bladder was clogged with a viscous sludge and many tiny stones. Overall, the results seem good so far. I was quite sore for about a month, but that has mostly subsided. And the constant  abdominal pain is gone. I know that there are possible complications to gall bladder removal, and those should be taken seriously. But there really isn't a clinically proven and successful alternative.

[Bailey1]

Thanks for the comments on this.  I had a Pi Pida (sp?) scan yesterday, which showed my gall bladder is not functioning normally, yet I don't have stones.  Does anyone know if this is an indication that the gall bladder should be removed?

[GI.PA]

I see a very important corelation...You pain was tremendously relieved by a GI cocktail..(a concoction of malox stuff) that almost always signals an acid-peptic(GERD, ulcer, erosions, ect) cause.  Perhaps they need to adjust the dose of the aciphex or add in a med to help (we use Reglan-promotility agent, or even something like low dose amitriptyline).  If you current GI says they have nothing more to offer, get a second opinion.  It never hurts to have someone else look at the case.

GI-PA

[charb149]

I had this same problem for about 6 months. After a bunch of test that did not point to the gall bladder, one final test did show it was my gall bladder. The only pain I had was a constent pain in my rib cage, never really had attacts.The constant pain was caused from colestural all aroung the gall bladder. They started blaming everything from GERD, to my smoking.