Worried About Abdominal Pain

[ahirs]

I am a 29 year old male.  For a little over a month, I have had mostly right-sided abdominal pains right under the rib cage, a dull ache on the lower right side of my back, and periodic burning sensations in the lower abdominal area (left and right).  The pains are worsened when sitting or standing for a long period of time, and get a little better at night when I sleep.  I had a CT scan with contrast b/c I was afraid of appendicitis, and nothing unusual was found.  My doctor said irritable bowel syndrome, but I don't see why that would get worse from standing or walking.  Does anyone have any ideas what this could be?  Is there any reason to worry about cancer such as of the pancreas if I had a CT scan w/contrast and nothing was found?  Thank you.

[hawkeyemom]

After 2 years of chronic constant abdominal pain, numerous CTs, colonoscopies, endo--, wireless capsule endoscopies, ultrasounds, mesenteric angiograms, etc... they still havent been able to find out what my daughter has.  All I can say -and the MDs agree - it is not psychosomatic.  There are literally 100s of reasons for abdominal pain.  My brother died of pancreatic cancer over 7 years ago, only 7 weeks after being diagnosed - it is fast and nasty.  Having said this, we spent the last 4 or so years of his life comparing our abdominal pain issues because they were so similar, but somewhere along the line, his obviously took some turn or always was different because I'm still here and my pancreas is fine.  The 'standard' for identifying pancreatic cancer - or one of them is that tumors will show up on an ultrasound and CT - his did.  It often spreads to the liver fast - a biopsy of a liver tumor in my brother just hours after his ultrasound produced pancreatic cancer metasticised cells.  The test that prompted the ultrasound was a severely elevated pancreatic enzyme level - amylase and lipase and specifically acetyl[??-something axxx] phosphatase level were in the 10s of thousands. Pancreatic burning pain is higher-or at least it was with my brother. I know a few people with gallbladder issues and they said it feels like their rib cage is actually breaking open when they have a bad attack...

Meanwhile - your doctor is probably right - I was diagnosed with irritable bowel as well and the pain can be quite severe.  It woke me up, made my belly sweat occasionally, and can cause you to be either constipated or have to rush to the bathroom because you have to go NOW.  Be sure to keep immodium on hand :)

[ANGELS82]

im having the same syptoms and yes i had ct scans and ultra sounds mri so there saying they cant find anthing so if yo ufind out what it is let me know thanks

[CalGal]

When you say pain under the right side of the rib cage, the first thing that comes to mind is gallbladder issues, but that doesn't quite go along with the rest of what you're saying. Ahirs, is there any history of GI issues in your family? Either inflammatory bowel issues, or food intolerance issues?

Does the discomfort change with what you eat? Are you on any medications, prescription or otherwise? Any changes in bowel habits?