Cancer or IBS?

[suzebod]

I have had recurrent and ongoing discomfort on the upper right side of my abdomen for about 10 months, sometimes with sharp pain that does not last. The pain seems to move from just under my rib to a bit lower down just above and to the right of my navel. It is often felt in my back as soreness or discomfort around the ribs and there is a very sore spot there.I have mild nausea frequently, especially in the mornings when I cannot face eating.
Blood tests have been mostly normal, except some inflammation shown, and elevated T4 which I am re-testing for. Cancer markers show  normal. Ultrasound normal except a cyst on right ovary. I had a colonoscopy 6 weeks ago, which couldn't be completed as I was in too much pain. The physician doing it reckoned he had got as far as the first bend at the top of the ascending colon. He took a biopsy of a polyps which was non-cancerous. No sign of anything in that part of the bowel. I am going for a barium enema next week. My GP gave me Zantac to see if it helped with feeling more like eating - often I don't, but then said I could come off it and doesn't seem to think I have an ulcer.
I feel generally quite unwell, in the mornings very dehydrated with dry mouth. Stools veer from light brown and soft to mucousy, to being like pellets. Often a lot of cramping on having a bowel movement, and I am sometimes constipated for three days.
None of the physicians I see seem to be particularly worried about cancer, but as I had a maternal aunt who died of secondary liver cancer after getting bowel cancer, aged 55, I am! Even if it is not cancer, I feel lost in a sea of tests and doctors who seem to be as perplexed as me about what I have! Everyone's immediate reaction is that it is gallbladder, but ultrasound shows nothing there! When I express concern I am told that I am over-anxious and that that is contributing to the symptoms. Can anxiety cause all this?

[Boogie8481]

Hello, I don't know if I can help you, but I also think it could be the gallbladder because you can get an infected gallbladder without having gallstones.  One of the girls I work with had that problem.  Only, she didn't get any warning pains, she was just in severe labor-like pains and they told her that her gallbladder was sick with an infection, and she needed emergency surgery.  So maybe the doctors aren't seeing it because its getting inflamed, then by the time you go get it checked, its fine.  Maybe you should go to the ER while you are having the problem and see what they say.  If you have done this, then I would get in touch with a gastro doctor and see what he thinks.  Have they done an ERCP on you yet?  Maybe that would be another procedure you should do.

[Sal4848]

I had a colonoscopy about a month ago cause my father had colon cancer-glad I went because they found a predcancerous polyp-they only want me to come back in three years.. But since then I have had diarrhea (yellow-ick) and have been online looking for advice--I also have pain in my mid-abdomen on the right side--I was worried it was my liver because my liver tests came back high a few times but last month they came back ok, but I still have the pain-it seems to be lower than the liver area, but if I had a colonscopy-and they found nothing bad, why would it still hurt?  I am at a loss too wondering why it is hurting...I am going back, to ask more,,,write and let me know how you are.

[Niffer991]

I do see a few similarities to IBS like pain in the abdomen but it all does not sound overly familiar to me to my experience with IBS. I would be inclined to think it is either something else or a combination of IBS and something else.

Jen

[bethb4]

I have had the same symptoms for about a month or so. Pain in my right side below the ribs which I don't feel all the time but can zing me when I turn a certain way, pain in my right mid-back rib area which I would attribute to a pulled muscle if I didn't have the front pain also......sometimes the pain wraps around my waist and hits around the hip bone.  I had a CT scan last year when I had some pain on the left side to check for diverticulitis( I was diagnosed with diverticulosis at a colonoscopy 3 years ago), and took antibiotics for that. I am going for an ultrasound tomorrow to check for the same and check my gall bladder.  Family doc thinks it is IBS.  I sometimes go for a couple of days without a bowel movement, but often go every day.   Like you, I am becoming anxious about all of this, and I had been under a lot of stress for the past couple of years, so I know none of that helps.  I am 54 and female.