occasional dull pain in left ribs under breast

Hello, I am a 28 year old male, overweight (5' 10'' and 210 lbs.) , have high blood pressure (not on meds for the bp at the moment), non smoker, very rarely drink alcohol. I was a huge caffeine addict, but I quit that cold turkey just days before all this started.

Over the last month I have had a strange list of incidents I have never experienced. It started out with gagging in the morning before I ate. That went away.

Then I had a cough, which also went away. Then I got acid reflux, which I would have in the morning, and always got a worse case of while at work (I am a machinist, so therefore do a lot of lifting, bending, stooping, etc.). It would make me have to clear my throat a lot.

After a good week and a half of reflux every day, I went to the doctor and he didn't seem very concerned about it. He said because I recently gave up caffeine, my reflux could be related to that. He also suggested I do the 14 day treatment of Prilosec OTC and see how I fare after that.

My throat cleared up on the medication, but a few days into the treatment I started to feel a dull ache in my ribs just under my left breast. It is a very tolerable feeling. It comes and goes, never lasts very long, and sometimes radiate to my right side in the same location. It is also exacerbated at work. Occasionally, I also get an itching sensation in the same area.

I finished the 14 day treatment, and have yet to have reflux, but the pain in my ribs still shows up occasionally. I also belch a lot during meals but never really after or in between. I get gas pains in my lower abdomen, but that is nothing new to me since I believe myself to have IBS.

I have no loss of appetite, no bloody/tarry stools, no nausea/vomiting. No change in bowel habits either. If I have eaten a large amount of food, I am more liable to feel the ache. I have had some weight loss, but I chalked that up to a recent change in diet (less fast foods, more vegetable and fruit, lower sodium intake, more grains, less soda).

My stomach also makes loud gurgling noises, usually at night when I am either in bed or relaxing on the couch. This is very depressing to me, as I wonder if there is something seriously wrong with me. Does this sound like something to be concerned about?

[loveSXM]

    I to have had these symptoms for about 15 years! I have had numerus test,i.e. endoscopy,sonograms,bloodwork etc.  i did get a mild case of E-coli while in the Carribean about four years ago. It was the worst for about 2 years.  I have been diagnosed with GERD evey time I undergo testing. i am resigned to just trying to figure out on my own what I can and cannot eat. They never seem to know what the pain in the upper left is. They just reassure me that it IS NOT my gallbladder because it is not the right side.  You definetly should go for whatever tests that you MD orders to eliminate anything serious