Lower Abdominal Firmness

The other night my wife fell asleep in a living room chair. She is in her late 30s and is obese.  My concern is the following day her lower abdomen was almost hard like.  Like the area got compacted. Some small spots in this "hard area" produced some slight pain when some pressure was applied.  She said that this has happened before and its gone away. When I investigated the area closer I noticed that if you applied pressure with your fingers, its feels like a pimple that pops under the skin. This did not cause her any pain.  She did get her period the next day and her left ankle and lower left leg were also swollen.

She has a doctor's appointment coming up and I wanted to know what you think and what I should have the doctor check her for?  She doesn't seem to be too concerned about this, she thinks its due to water retention during her time of the month. But I am concerned.

Thank you.

[Forum-M.D.-DT]

Thank you for visiting the Family Practice Forum.
You describea "hard spot on the abdomen ... which feels like a pimple that pops under the skin". You also describe swelling of one leg and ankle.
My first impression is that the area of the skin you are describing may very well be a sebaceous cyst. A sebaceous (or epidermoid) cyst is a noncancerous swelling under the skin. It is lined by packed outer skin cells. The cyst itself is filled with oil or dead cells. Under certain conditions such as stress, increased activity, mechanical irritation, diabetes, or other concurrent illness these cysts may enlarge and become somewhat tender. On occasion, these cysts will be drained by the physician and antibiotics will be prescribed. Warm moist compresses will commonly help bring these cysts

[rd1031]

is it possible to be allergic to chicken?
when eating chicken I seem to get very nauseous, sometimes throw up.  I then begin to get the shakes, with fever and major sweating.  Is this an allergy or food sensitivity?  I know the chicken wasn't bad, because everyone else who ate it seemed fine.
Please let me know what it could be. (PS, if I seem to be able to eat a couple chicken nuggets and don't get this) It is always after eating KFC chicken I seem to feel this way.
Thanks