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Upper Right Quadrant Pain
Hello,
I hope this post finds you in good health! I don’t know where else to go. For the last 4-5 years I’ve been experiencing an off and on pain localized to this one specific area of my abdomen area. To be precise it’s in the upper ride quadrant (specifically right below/behind the 8th & 9th rib.)
The feeling is as if something is being clenching or aching for about 15-30 seconds and then off for maybe a couple minutes. Sometimes I know I’m about to get it because I feel a quick stabbing pain, it’ll subside and then the ache will start. It’ll do that throughout the day. Frequency of episodes really are intermittent. But I’ve had pain last from 1 day to 2 almost 3 weeks and might go away for weeks or months.
The time it lasted 3 weeks was when I had to take acetaminophen for a surgery I had. The pain got so unbearable I went to the ER, they gave me morphine and the pain felt worse, then they gave me a GI cocktail and for some reason that kind of helped.
I feel like the pain is induced when I take pain medicine or drink alcohol but I almost rarely drink so it may be coincidence. I’ve also had a few episodes where I didn’t drink or take pain medicine and it just happens. It sucks.
Testing: I’ve had 2 upper endoscopies, I believe a duodenoscopy, 2 HIDA scans, 2 ultra sounds, Barum Swallow Test, PH test overnight, CT scans & X-rays, and blood tests (including liver function test during a very mild episode which I believe may not have have the most accurate reading). I’ve had blood work done by a rheumatologist and they found nothing remarkable apparently.
No one has an answer, except coming to the conclusion of it being IBS. Which I have my doubts about. So what can I do? I honestly feel alone with this pain. My SO understands and is supportive when I have episodes. That helps but I want to find out what is going on and why.
I am thinking it’s SOD or maybe something with my liver but I have no clue, I don’t know. My doctors have found nothing. I feel like I can’t come to terms with it being IBS because it’s ALWAYS in one spot.
Is there anyone else out there who has had this issue?
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This sounds like the episodes my nephew would have. Eventually, they figured it out. He did have high levels of something. I can’t recall….he had to wait for it to come down for surgery. It was a success. No pain since.
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1 ReactionI agree with keeping a food diary and see if there is a correlation. My question would be does it occur after fatty meals.
My experience is that I had sludge in my gallbladder so it was removed. I did fine for approximately 5years but then had terrible bouts of diarrhea and had unintended weight loss. Was told the liver was likely sending out bile at unnecessary times so put on a med for that. But I too have that upper right quadrant pain almost consistently. It definitely increase when I eat higher fat content items. I also get nauseous.
Hoping you can get some answers to minimize your pain.
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2 ReactionsHi all! I hope this message finds you in good health and the holidays are treating you well!
I wanted to provide an update. So I haven’t found an answer. I had a hepatic function test recently during an episode and it came back normal. I was in the ER today because the pain was bad since last Wednesday. I was beginning to think it wasn’t my stomach and was something like slipping rib syndrome. My reason was that I was drinking peppermint tea, trying the ibgard with no real relief. It felt like cyclical pain as usual. Got another ultrasound done. The lady who did it really took her time and was going over the spots I was having the pain in while telling her, which felt like someone was really listening to me. They didn’t find anything.
Labs came back normal as well. The most interesting thing is that they gave me a GI cocktail and I felt fine after.
My GI doctor told me today that with consideration of my blood work from the hepatic function test and the other tests that an MRCP or ERCP is not warranted and most likely not SOD. I am going to most likely see a different GI doctor at the UofM who said I could possibly have Functional GI/Dyspepsia issue. All I want at this point is the pain to go away. I can barely do my job even wfh when I have the flare ups. Thank goodness for intermittent FMLA because the last thing I want to do is be in pain and try to help someone else when I feel like I can’t help myself .
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