hard abdominal mass

Can anyone help me or advise me? I've seen my doctor because I have recently developed a hugely distended abdomen as a fairly healthy 47-year-old woman. (By huge I mean adding 6-8" to my girth). He felt that there was some 'mass' in there somewhere and could feel a pulse from the aorta (although I'm not thin, I'm of average quite muscular build). I have panicked and paid half a months salary that I can't afford to have an ultrasound scan but that hasn't shown anything conclusive either, I fear they looked in the wrong place as they were looking for ovarian cysts etc. (I have one but not big enough to cause this problem).

Basically it is as if I have a hard shield attached to the front of my body – feeling down under the ribcage there is an 'edge' half an inch below which starts a solid mass of tissue, feels thicker in the middle, the centre below the breastbone, and continues down tapering in the middle like a shield shape.

This swelling is hard, the doctor just said that I had strong stomach muscles but what he was feeling wasn't my muscles because I can tense and relax those and feel where they are but this hard area just stays the same. It has grown over the last couple of weeks and is making me feel pretty uncomfortable although it is not actually painful;. could it be a hiatus hernia or something?

I don't know what to do now because the doctor said that it 'didn't look right' but that he didn't know what it was, so to 'keep an eye on it' – but it is growing more and more so what should I do?

Thanks to anyone who can point me in the right direction.

H x

[smjmekg]

I have no clue what it would be, but I would get a second opinion, possibly a ct scan...it would show everything inside you (my dad is a radiographer and I've seen scans he's done) and it would show something abnormal. It's probably quite a bit more expensive, but if it (I hope not) happens to be a tumor then it's better to spend some money and find out what it is and get it fixed quickly rather than to wait.