Severe lower right quadrant pain.

[Isaac_A]

Ok I'm completely confused about what just happened to me. 2 days ago I went to school perfectly fine, evening came around and felt normal. The following morning at about 6 AM I woke up with quite a bit of pain in my lower right abdominal area. I had no injuries the prior day. I had a bowel movement before leaving my house but the pain did not go away.

I had an exam that day to get my Forklift certification and the pain got so bad I could not focus. I spent most of the exam trying to find a way to dull the pain or avoid moving around.  

At first I figured it might have been something I ate the night before but the pain continued to get worse. During the day I attempted to vomit because I did feel slightly sick. I vomited a little bit of some green liquid that I can't identify as something I had eaten (guessed it was mucous.)

I got a ride home after class by another student. After calling my mother to tell her how bad I was feeling, I went and tried to take a nap in hopes that I could just sleep through it. I woke up less than 20 minutes later with even worse pain that was completely unbearable.

I could not lie down or stand up straight and moving hurt too much as well. I kept finding myself hunched forward against objects with my arms extended to at least slightly reduce the pain. The pain was constant and sitting down made it a lot worse. Took 2 Pepcid tablets as I hoped it was just gas or something minor but it had no effect even 4 hours later.

For some reason by about 10 pm some of the pain subsided, allowing me to get a little bit of rest. I woke up this morning with only a little bit of pain in my lower right quadrant. I don't feel sore unless I move around now and all I can do is scratch my head as to what happened yesterday.

Is this unusual? Does it sound like something I should be concerned about?

I think I can rule out the possibility of appendicitis because I had no fever (temperature of no higher than 99.5°) I had no blood in my stool or urine, I did not feel dizzy, I also did not vomit constantly, and the majority of the pain has went away so far.

I haven't had a doctors checkup because my family can't afford it and I'm out of work so for now I am stuck guessing. Any suggestions? I tried finding information on rebound tenderness tests but I'm not certain if I even did the test correctly. I may not be putting pressure in the right spot but I had not received any severe pain during the rebound, only minor discomfort.

Are there any diagrams that show roughly where to apply pressure for the test?

Thank you in advance.
-Isaac A

[Isaac_A]

Thanks for the comments ggreg. I'm feeling a lot better today thankfully. I've had similar pain in the past but never at that magnitude. Past experiences it never lasted more than an hour and it was usually less painful so fridays episode scared me a little. I've been drinking more water now too so hopefully I won't feel bad again.

I spoke with a doctor over the phone this morning since he wanted me to do a couple self exam type tests. Jumping up and down did not cause much discomfort and putting pressure on my lower right quadrant was mild like yesterday.

If the pain returns I'll post an update to let you know what the doctors results end up being.

-Isaac

[ggreg]

Isaac, if you wake up this morning (Sunday) and it hurts all over again, get thee to the ER.  They will take you even if you do not have insurance and you can figure out how to pay for it later.  The reason I am being urgent is because it DOES sound like you have an appendicitis, and if that thing gets out of control, you can indeed die from it.  They will have to take it out forthwith and treat you with antibiotics to keep the infection from spreading.  This is why paying for it is NOT top priority in a situation like this.

Of course, if you do not feel pain this morning, you were probably experiencing gas from perhaps constipation, gas can hurt real bad and double you over, so no need to panic and go to the hospital, so sorry if I jumped all over it.  Drink some alka seltzer to calm down the gas, and to ease any possible constipation, eat some whole wheat bread and drink plenty of water today, along with your regular meals.  GG