Pain under rib cage. Any ideas? - Endometriosis UK

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Pain under rib cage. Any ideas?

dabba76 profile image
19 Replies

Don't think it's endo related but I've had this pain under my rib cage on the right hand side for the last couple of weeks. It comes & goes, it's a really dull ache, very uncomfortable, painful when sitting & I have to move position.

Anyone got any ideas as to what it could be? X

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dabba76 profile image
dabba76
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19 Replies
givemeananswer profile image
givemeananswer

Same here, so I am also curious to see replies.

Mummyofone profile image
Mummyofone

Me also almost like an annoying stitch x

KatieTattie profile image
KatieTattie

Me too!! I almost hope it is something to do with endo cos I don't want another ailment to deal with! I've had ultra sounds and an endoscopy to see what this is! All negative. Does anyone know?! Would really put my mind at rest as it hurts so much sometimes I worry I've got lung cancer or something!

Impatient profile image
Impatient

Could be biliary colic - caused by gall stones blocking the exit pipe from the gall bladder pains tend to come on after a meal when you are resting and sedentary - usually after supper so you feel this more in the evenings than you would in the mornings when you tend to be more active.

If the gall bladder gets blocked the bile from the Liver which is supposed to leak out of the gal bladder and help digest fatty foods cannot get out but the liver is still pumping it on its way so the gal bladder swells up and hurts and gradually the bile does ease its way out in the hours ahead and allows the gall bladder to shrink back in size and the pain eases off.

You can have an ultrasoundor MRI to detect gall stones.

Keep a diary of when these pains occur and what you have eaten in the last meal.

The bile production is triggered by eating fatty foods so cutting them out completely should prove a help if this is biliary colic.

It the the number 1 reason for stomach surgery in men and in women in the UK.

Gall stones are a by-product of our rich diet in the west.

I had it 8 years before getting surgery to have the gall bladder removed and the attacks were happening every other day (or rather at night generally speaking). It would keep me up all night in a great deal of pain and discomfort.All that was completely resolved when the gall bladder was removed in a lap op.

The main clues are it comes on primarily in evenings when you are sedentary after a meal.

And the old saying goes fat fair fertile female and forties makes it more common too. but I was in my 20s when it started and had surgery at 32.

The pain can be felt on the right under the ribs, but I felt mine in the middle, under the breast bone more of a heart burn area....though for years it was presumed and treated as stomach ulcer, none was ever found.

I have had a peptic ulcer since then and the pain was quite different in the way it felt. Biliary colic was much more intensely painful.

So while it might be other things - that is the no.1 reason for sporadic pains felt under the right side of the ribs.

Keep a pain/food diary (much as you would with endo) and take that to your GP.

One thing for certain pain killers and ant-acids will NOT relieve biliary colic pains.

Moving about and going for a jog or walk after supper is a much better way to prevent this happening in the first place, and keeping the fats out of your meals in the evenings if you are going to be sat down after supper watching telly.

Armed with a pain/food diary - you could go to see your GP about it if it continues to happen despite you taking steps to prevent it.

It may still be gall bladder pain, but there are other things to be checked out too - like your Liver which sits in the same location on the right under the ribs.

Don't ignore it, pain is a signal something is wrong, it might not be a dire emergency issue,but it is a wake up call that something needs to change and something may need to be checked out

Have a google online for the NHS web pages on biliary colic and see if that fits with your own recollections of what is happening to you when the pains kick off.

KatieTattie profile image
KatieTattie

Thanks impatient! Would this apply to the left side? Mine is on the left x

FN75 profile image
FN75

Me as well! Oddly I had it last night and did wonder whether it was just me - it feels like someone very unqualified has tried the Heimlich manoeuver (unsuccessfully) about ten times!!

ashleigh-13 profile image
ashleigh-13

Me too I've had this pain for absolutely years and it just comes and goes! Sometimes I think it could be trapped wind but when I give it a in nothing happens and even though it is a dull ache - it's very intense too, I take my inhalers thinking it's connected to asthma but that has no effect either so I'm thinking it's this!!

dabba76 profile image
dabba76

Thanks girls! Really appreciate your replies. Impatient thanks so much, have had a look at the NHS and this seems very likely. I did have a hectic (food & drink wise) weekend. Back on the healthy eating now and will give it a week or so and if nothing improves will speak to the doc.

Kx

nsimpson profile image
nsimpson

I've had chest pain for years with my endo. I didn't know it was so common until joining this site. I would describe my pain as more like intense heartburn and it happens especially the last few days of my period. I drink lots of ginger tea which tends to ease the discomfort for a while.

givemeananswer profile image
givemeananswer

New clue, got my blood test results and have high triglycerides. I don't understand it, I eat a well balanced diet lots of veggies, fruit always home cooked, never do fast food take out ect. I don't drink,one glass of wine and I'm poisened. My excercise has decreased as of July when I found out about my hip bursitis via mri. and then my SI joint dysfunction, then I found out about some bulging lumbar discs one is pushing a nerve root. Normally I was very active. I've gotten three corticosteroid injections but the GP said that wouldn't cause the spike. My physiotherapist says nothing explains my pain mostly in the right lower back. I don't know what else I can do but I wonder with this new pain and bulge in the abdomen and the suspicion of mine that the back pain is more likely the endometriosis. Are we just lacking good liver function and that is what caused our endometriosis? What can I try to cleanse my liver? Also have to have my urine re-tested due to bacteria. Don't know what that means.

kidneyissuesmama profile image
kidneyissuesmama in reply to givemeananswer

Have you had your kidney function tested. I get this pain rhs under ribs. Back rhs also and its due to the fact i have one kidney and it dosnt filter the toxins from mency as it should. May not be your case but seems very similar

regina79 profile image
regina79

Hi Dabba76,

I have exactly the same since 5 days and it's absolutely painful!! :(

I didn't know what to do with myself and nothing helped! I took peppermint tea and capsules, ginger, lemon, bicarbonate of soda... Rennies, Windeaze.. But really nothing helped. The pains kept coming back.

I find it very odd and a big coincidence that nearly all women of this network and who have endometriosis... have suffered the same exact pains..! :o

Hobbits profile image
Hobbits

I have exact same thing. My ‘stitch’ is always on the left side. Also left ovary pain. My doc said it’s endometriosis.

GML87 profile image
GML87

did you ever resolve this? I have had a similar experience foe years now. I have been hospitalised, xrayed, intrasound, scanned, blood tested, radiation injected and they cannot work it out. sometimes the pain is so bad I feel like my lung has a hole in it and i struggle to breath. some times it's a little lower. any answers because it's affecting my life

Kelly3322 profile image
Kelly3322

U have suffered right hand under rib pain right shoulder blade and shoulder tip pain and centre chest pain. More recently the pain has been gravitating left shoulder also. I have endo on my diaphragm and this is symptoms of it. X

GML87 profile image
GML87 in reply to Kelly3322

that is exactly what I feel. I can actually also at times feel little balls or bubbles around the area. how was it detected?

Kelly3322 profile image
Kelly3322 in reply to GML87

I asked them to look higher up last year when I had another laparoscopy to remove endo. X

GML87 profile image
GML87 in reply to Kelly3322

thanks for your advice. I went to the doc with all the info I read here. he said it was a high possibility and wasn't sure why noone had though of it. I've had some rests and have more to go but he started me on the pill and two days later my pain disappeared so it's definelty hormonal. x

scouterpuff profile image
scouterpuff

I am joining in on this conversation, as I have recently been suffering from pain under my left rib cage , and it is getting progressively worse.

I had abdominal lap surgery back in 2012 for severe bleeding and pain. They removed four large pendunculated fibroids and my left ovary, which had a suspicious ovarian cyst. I also had a hysterectomy, as my uterus was riddled with fibroids within the walls. And—surprise—they found and removed extensive endometriosis.

In recent years, pain has come back in my left abdomen. And it has recently advanced into my lower left chest area. As some of the others have reported, breathing issues have also become a problem.

I’ve been doing pelvic floor physical therapy, dry needling, and yoga for a while now. I just started acupuncture as well. My doctor, in recently years, has been treated me hormonally to try to control the pain. I take opioids for management of my chronic pain, which I have really tried to avoid until the pain just became too great.

The pain under my left ribcage now wakes me up in the middle of the night, every single night.

Will be reading all of the posts here. This hellish journey continues...

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