Re: lower right abdominal pain??

Posted By Mary on March 05, 1999 at 18:29:26:

In Reply to: Re: lower right abdominal pain?? posted by HFHSM.D.-rf on March 04, 1999 at 11:36:13:






Hi,
Pardon me for the long post...
I'd like to describe the pain/symptoms and tests that my doctor has run:
symptoms: lower right abdominal pain, some weight loss, blood in stool (has appeared 2-3 times in past 6 months).
Pain:  Started out about 2 years ago as sharp pain directly on my right side - as if you're putting your hands on your hips except higher where the ribcage ends.  This eventually (after a few months) became pain in my lower right abdomen (more or less where the appendix is located).  When I am experiencing the pain (usually every day) and I touch the area, it seems as if I'm squishing air bubbles that move around greatly..
(I also had severe nighttime heartburn with bad reflux)
Tests run within the last 2 years:  upper g.i., blood test, urine test, blood fecal test (run before I had blood in stool), gastroscopy, colonoscopy, lower g.i.  Everything came back normal except for "inflammation of the duodenal bulb" in which I was found to have small ulcers (no H. Pylori) and that my stomach produces too much acid.  Was put on Prilosec on and off (which totally removed the heartburn)and just recently came off of it..  
The doctors say that the tests are okay and that I should avoid stress, but nothing was found.  They talked to me about Crohns, but that was ruled out as well as any other major disease..
One more thing:
Just the other night I took zantac before dinner and the next day I found a small amount of blood in my stool the next morning(both on paper and mixed with stool).. related?  I dont know..
Can you help?  It's getting so tiring having to deal with this pain day in and out...
Thanks...
Andres





Dear Andres,
Thank you for your posting.  There are many possible causes for your symptoms. If the tests have been done completely and carefully, the serious conditions should have been excluded.  One always worries about missing pathology or having a disease that is subclinical at the time of testing but that later manifests itself at subsequent tests.  It would be appropriate to ask your doctor if it is worthwhile to repat some of the tests.
The presence of blood after taking the Zantac is coincidence.  If you are certain that the blood was mixed with the stool, then there might be an indication for repeat colonoscopy depending on when the previous study was done, how complete it was etc.
This information is presented for educational purposes.  ASk specific questions to your personal physician.
HFHSM.D.-rf
*keywords: abdominal pain, bleeding
0.2




I think it would be foolish to cancel out Crohns or another IBD.
I lived with the same pain you described for a couple of years.
Doctors ran every test known to man on me and nothing showed up.
It turned out I had Crohns Disease after several upper G.I's were
performed over a 4 month period.