I am a 40 year old woman. I have two children, one is 19 and the other is 12. I recently (about 4 days ago) developed some sort of pain in the upper "stomach?" area. The pain is made worse by pressing on the center of upper stomach (approximately 3-4 fingers below the sternum), it's also made worse by movement such as bending, sitting to standing or standing to sitting, laughing, or talking excitedly. It seems to be mostly centered but sometimes ever so slightly to the left of the center upper stomach area. about 3-4 inches below, The pain is NOT made worse or better by eating, smoking, or drinking (I do not drink alcoholic beverages and never have, I do smoke about 3-5 cigarettes a day). The pain is almost obsolete when sleeping, upon waking and moving around for about 5 minutes the pain comes back.
I have not been on any medications, have not received any recent injuries or trauma to the stomach, nor have I been ill recently. The only diagnosis I have received in the past was Hyperthyroidism (Grave's disease),
The pain feels almost as though I have laid on my stomach for too long (but not quite the same since that pain feels more like your ribs are retracting, it's just the best i can describe for you) I ONLY sleep on my side or stomach. It is not a burning pain, nor is it stabbing, it is more of an aching pain (much like the arthritic pain of joints) however, the pain is intensified when performing any actions as described above.
I went to the doctors last night, since I recently had a miscarriage (10/23/10) they ruled out that having any involvement, this morning I had some labs done (not sure what labs and what they are checking for but that's what has been done so far. The PA went on the assumption of it being a gastro' problem and prescribed me prilosec, which has done nothing to make the pain better.