Right side pain, under the ribs

[vnenov]

I’m a 35 y/o male, 178cm and 155 lbs. I’ve been experiencing right sided pain for about 6 months now. The pain is just under my right ribs. The pain radiates to my 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 6 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! 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 and everything has shown up normal. I’ve been checked for kidney stones, gall stones, kidney problems, liver problems, gallbladder problems, 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 have booked an appointment for a neurologist, but the earliest one was for April, so I am just waiting and wondering what I should do meanwhile? Do you think I may have Thoracic Radiculopathy or something else related to nerve entrapment? What other diagnostic tests should I have? What medications should I take for the pain/treatment?

Thanks,

Vlad

[dlbttnr5]

Go to a physical therapist

[majdi1975]

I found it.

Before 4 years I made a comment here as below:
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I'm 37yrs, 170cm and 83kg. I have exactly the same pain describe here for almost a year, but it radiates between left to right and build up with sitting or while driving.
I did bodybuilding in the past, before this problem I maintained a sport habit with a high protein input. I do office work for the last 5 years and suffered some pressures in life last 2 years..  

I did CT for the liver, lungs. Ultrasound for the abdomen, Endoscopy for the stomach, heart diagnosis .. . I was diagnosed with colon ulcer, after taking the treatment the symptoms still exist. The symptoms terribly intensity when getting emotionally angry and it feels like a belt tight around my lower ribs. There are more stomach gases since this problem started.

Recently I received injections for gallbladder inflammation/stones, but nothing changed.

I discovered that drinking more water and taking 1-2 Aspiring tablets per day reduce the tension by 60-90%.

Much thanks for vnenov for sharing this information, hope vnenov  
can come back to tell us the what happened next.

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Today: It has been six years since this whole thing started. I had to take Omeperazole daily otherwise the acidity in my stomach is very intense that I could faint of pain. Until last month the pain continued and it got even wrose, before 3 years I had a chronic sore throat that couldn't be alleviated and before few months I developed serious numbness in the head, started form the right part of the scalp growing to cover the full scalp. I doubted it was tumor but diagnosis showed nothing. I also developed chronic nausea, pain in joints, pain in body muscles, inability to focus, and I could hardly perform at work.

Life was becoming quite miserable until last month I saw someone commenting about a disease called "Celiac", allergy to wheat products. As my last hope I started a gluten-free diet and suddenly and continued taking the Omperazole but started to feel no traces of acidity at all, I stopped the omeprazole and I got no acidity back. other symptoms started to reduce, got the body energy back, gases disappeared, no pain in joints anymore, numbness is going off, the pain under the chest is far less intense and a lot of fat around my hip got suddenly disappeared. It has been almost 6 weeks since I started the gluten-free diet and I feel like being born again.

Hope this can give answer to some of you and mind you that the gluten-free diet is a bit hard to achieve at the beginning, because most food on shelves or restaurants contain very tiny traces of gluten which could trigger a reaction in your body, however once your diet is stabilized you'll feel quite relaxed and hopefully an end to this traumatic problem.

[Fitnesspm]

You need to rest your obliques for at least a week. Sitting down is the cause of so many back/trunk issues. Office work causes so many back issues so you might want to avoid office work and just lay down for a week. STRAP your obliques with Kino. Tape which will help turn off the muscle so it can heal. You want to avoid having your trunk vertical for about a week so you can heal.  Avoid twisting at all cost and to speed up the recovery eat only organic food. You body won't heal if you eat toxic junk food.  

[Fitnesspm]

Comfery crean will help!

[Fitnesspm]

Also wear a sling (same position as if you broke your arm) will stop the muscle being used so it can rest! I use a sling when it's bad and when it gets better, I strap it.

[bkecskemeti]

It is hard not to get angry when reading such uninformed answers. Do you think people who have these symptoms haven't tried complete rest for weeks, just to get the same pain immediately after the gentlest resuming of activity? No amount of taping an organic food is going to fix it either.

[TLL22844]

It sounds like an intercostal nerve entrapment. I have injections in mine at a pain Clinic. Mine is from my gallbladder surgery. You may want to try and get in to see a doctor at a pain Clinic. I pray you get some relief soon.

[DaveRW]

simply amazing, because most of the comments could have be written by me. I'm 51yr male. Almost three years with pain under ribs on right side. I've tried acupunture, naturopathic, chiropractic, colonoscopy, several blood tests, special diets etc etc. Nothing seems to make any difference.
It's much worse when driving and for three years I've been driving with right hand inside trouser belt on ride side as that seems to reduce pain.
I'm just starting with some essential oils, but too soon to say.
Interestingly I too have been training in Karate for many years, but fortunately I'm still able to teach and train as pain is mostly when sitting and especially driving.
I've just started using essential oils, but too early to say.
I'm joining this community forum and will check in and provide updates if I found anything that helps.

[psusteven]

Crazy how we all have something similar.  I am a pediatrician, so this has been especially frustrating since I haven't figured it out.  Started a little over a year ago with pain in the right upper scrotal area and then it also hit the right lower abdominal area and then the right upper abdominal area radiating to under the right scapula.  At one point I had weakness with hip flexion but that has resolved.  I can sleep on my right side or back.  If I sleep on my left it often feels if something is "falling down" from my right side.   I have had scrotal ultrasounds, inguinal ultrasounds, CT abd/pelvis with contrast, MRI pelvis, MRI of thoracic and lumbar spine. PSA test, ANA, ESR, CRP, CBC, CMP.  Only real abnormality was some bulging discs in L2-3,  L3-L4, and L4-L5 but these do not correlate with the symptoms.  I have seen 2 general surgeons--both feel I do not have an inguinal hernia. Also saw a neurologist and a urologist. I then saw Dr.Meyers (sports hernia specialist) in Philadelphia.  I had a different MRI of the pelvis at his facility which uses a special protocol to isolate the muscles.  Had some degeneration in the muscles around the groin but no detachment.  Also had some labral tears of the hips (I do have pain in my hips but it is not the same pain in the groin or right upper abdomen/back).  I had steroid injections that day to the right hip and right groin (specifically in the distal rectus and some of the adductor muscles).  The groin pain is much better (although he assures me it will be back and need surgery).  The hip pain isn't that much better.  The right upper abdominal pain with radiation is no better either.  Since then I have found some trigger points on my abdomen which are rather sore often when I am having the pain.  These are located in the area where the rectus meets the obliques on the right side which is under the level of the umbilicus (belly button).  I am now thinking in that area possible nerve entrapment or Spigellian hernia.  Getting an ultrasound of the abdomen in a couple days to look for gallstones and have my kidneys checked again.  I also have found I have a slipping rib on the right side (I can pop one of the ribs in and out a bit) but this does not reproduce the pain.  In fact, when I bring it out a bit it actually decreases the pain.  Perhaps that means there is a mass underneath it is pressing on. I suppose the ultrasound will help determine that.  Perhaps it is pressing on the intercostal nerve of the rib above it. At this point my best guess is it is muscle related to the sports hernia---perhaps getting microtears up the division where the rectus meets the obliques causing an uneven pull on the ribs on that side.  I have a follow up appointment with Dr. Meyers in May and will show him my new findings to get his point of view.

I am confident if I do enough internet searches and explore my own body a bit more I will figure this out.  Just hoping it doesn't lead me to something incredibly serious.

It's hard to remember what it was like to not feel the pain and to have all the extra time in my life that I now unfortunately use to look for an answer on the internet.