Right side, lower abdominal pain, groin pain

[vnenov]

’m a 35 y/o male, 178cm and 155 lbs. I’ve been experiencing right sided abdominal pain for about 6 months now. The pain is under my right ribs. The pain radiates to my right side back as well. I’ve practiced weight lifting, swimming and karate for years. I'm completely unsure what caused it. It started as very minor pain, more like pressure. I’m fairly athletic and exercise 3-4 days per week, or used to… I haven’t been able to since I’ve had this side pain. The odd thing about the pain is that over few weeks it has gotten a lot worse, rather than getting better and since then stayed almost at the same pain level. This pain has stayed with me every single day for the last 7 months. It gets worse when I sit down. It’s not a sharp stabbing pain, it’s more of a severe ache. It feels like a warm/burning/almost tingly sensation on my right side. The pain goes over to the right side of my back, above my hip bone just below my ribs. It’s like my whole right torso is affected! Sometimes I feel the pain in my right testicle, which feels swollen and painful at the bottom of the right sac. I have a hard time sitting at my desk for work. Also, driving long distances is very uncomfortable and painful now. It feels like someone is poking me right below my right ribcage and I feel a lot of pressure and a pulling sensation on the right side of my back at times. My right oblique muscles are felt very tight on examination. When sneezing I feel a strong tingling in my right side. Sleeping on my right side doesn’t bother it at all, and when I wake up in the morning, the pain is pretty much gone! But of course within the first 10-15 minutes I start walking around a little bit and sitting down to eat my breakfast, it starts. It progresses throughout the day. (I have a desk job, and of course sitting makes it worse….) I can no longer exercise, all I can do is walk, and even that aggravates it sometimes. Food doesn’t seem to make any difference. What I eat doesn’t bother it. Nobody can figure out what I have. I’ve had many different types of blood tests, I’ve had a CT scan of my right side abdomen, a colonoscopy, an ultrasound of my right side, MRIs on my abdomen and thoracic spine and everything has shown up normal. I’ve been checked for kidney stones, gall stones, kidney problems, liver problems, gallbladder problems, hernia but so far, everything is normal! I did go to physical therapy for a couple of weeks, but it did not help, it only caused me more pain. Same thing with a chiropractor. I have also tried acupuncture and injury massage therapy with no luck. I think it is an abdominal muscle tear - sports hernia (athletic pubalgia), inguinal hernia or something urological (epididymitis, varicocele, prostatis, etc). It looks like some of the nerves are affected, because of the tingling sensation, but the spinal MRI did not reveal anything. Do you have any idea what this can be and how can be treated? What other diagnostic tests should I have?

Please, help if you can.

Vlad

[omara74]

Hi,

I wish this was an email telling you what I've found out about my condition. You have accomplished one thing, and that is I'm starting to believe it is not depression. It's not only you and your condition, but the help has come from those that respond to your column as well. December 8th I received the results of my CT Scan. I have a 1mm stone in my bladder, but it should not be the cause of my pain. It's too small to cause this kind of discomfort. Remedy to my problem; drink a lot of water, and call me later. I have yet to find out if a 1mm stone has ever caused severe pain. After all, I received this information through a desk clerk, who received it from the Doctor's Nurse. I want it to be this stone so bad. Let it be the stone, please. Anyone out there ever have a 1mm painful stone. I'm not sure what my next step is gonna be. I guess I can check out the "Depression" theory, and maybe my mind will be free of the pain causing depression. Later.

                                          Mike O

  

[gf700]

6 months with same condition described in the original post.  Feels fine getting out of bed, but always there a few hours later.  Lots of sitting at work.  Some days a little better than others.  Next step abdominal ultrasound.  NSAID's have had no impact.  Original pain onset following excessive abdominal crunches and cable crunches in May.  Pain just on right side just beneath lowest rib, but often radiates to the side and back along the rib.  I was very athletic until this happened, now totally inactive.  Very frustrating.

Greg

[DeanWest]

I just came across your posts and am so happy I have.
I'm 39 year old male, that has had the EXACT symptoms for almost 7 months now. I have had test after test after test and still nothing has come up. I will be going for a colonoscopy in the New Year and am very nervous about it. It is one of the only tests left, and get very stressed at the prospect of colon cancer.
I will take all of your information with me to see my Doctor and hopefully the colonoscopy results will be as negative as the rest of the tests.
Once again, I thank you for your posts. It truly has helped.

Dean

[brian13]

39 y.o.male with similar symptoms. CT scans negative, although there is a stable 1.5cm liver hemangioma. No testicular pain, but some other tear-like symptoms in the right abdomen (I'm an active overage soccer player).

In addition to the right pain below rib cage, pain also bounces about hitting on kidneys, below sternum, and also higher on the rib cage. 90% of the discomfort is centered below right rib cage, though.

Recently I've developed belching/burping that might be related and point towards a GI cause. Any thoughts anyone?

[chris410]

im 22 y/o male who has the same exact syptoms. (right abdomen and right testiclular pressure. Its not pain, they just feel sensitive. I haven't had this problem until I started working a desk job in June, so I think theres a general consesus that staying in one place for too long causes this. I will start exercising and keep you posted.

[daveofderby]

I’m male, 38 and have very similar same symptoms and it's been going on for 7 months.  The doctors don't seem to know and I found it hard to find a reason as test were normal and I couldn't link it to what I was eating or doing.

I have now finally worked out that the pain gets bad when sitting too long in the same position (e.g. at a computer or driving) but it didn't always happen until I finish my journey (ie. move from sitting position) which is why I couldn't link it.

It reduced greatly over the summer and came back in Sept. I didn't drive much over the summer and wasn't at work.

I have found that if I stretch my torso by leaning back my abdomen muscles are pulled and it is painful, but after a few stretches much less overall pain for the rest of the day.
I am trying now to research the reason for this. It’s as if compressing my muscles for too long a period is perhaps building up something in the muscle to cause pain? A chemical imbalance of some sort?