Woried

[Teresa88]

Hi, I had my gall bladder removed two and a half years ago, I've also had a duodenal ulcer in the past which antibiotics took care of.  I'm a 44 year-old female, overweight, don't drink, quit smoking 5 years ago.  8 days ago I carried something heavy, next day I woke up with painful upper back and breast pain.  Stopped worrying about breast pain when my menstrual cycle came around one week later, altho I have never had pain like that before in my breasts.  Upper back pain caused my left arm to go completely numb once, but has stopped now.  The muscles have pretty much eased up now.  What I'm getting at is I have anterior upper abdominal pain in my colon area near the ribs on both sides.  I've had this pain since I had my gall bladder removed.  The pain on the right is about the same and goes away with massage.  The pain on the left is stronger.  It is point tenderness and very painful when I press on this area. It seems to be right over my colon.  It hurts sometimes when I'm not pressing on it, but eases when I change positions or stretch.  Could this be muscular pain or something else?  I'm very worried about colon cancer.  Sometimes I feel like my body is inflamed from the collarbone to waist.  I do have hemmrroids and occasionaly have blood in my stool.  I do not have a fever altho I sometimes feel feverish and achy.  In fact my body temperature has dropped this week.  It is usually 98.6, but the past week its been 97.9, 97.5, and 97.4.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you for your time.

[Kevin Pho, MD]

Muscle pain is certainly possible, with the pain worsening when you press on the area.  

With a cholecystectomy, you may want to consider Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction, which can cause gallbladder-like pain after the surgery.  An ERCP with manometry can be considered if this is suspected.

There are a variety of upper GI problems which can lead to your symptoms, including an ulcer, inflammation of the upper digestive tract, or GERD.  An upper endoscopy or upper GI series can be considered for further evaluation.  

Regarding colon cancer - the best test for this would be a colonoscopy.  Although the blood in the stool is most likely from a benign cause like hemorrhoids (in your age group), any blood needs to be further evaluated.  

You may want to discuss these options with your personal physician.

Followup with your personal physician is essential.

This answer is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice - the information presented is for patient education only. Please see your personal physician for further evaluation of your individual case.

Kevin, M.D.
Medical Weblog:
kevinmd_b