Right sided rib pain at front.

[flatterycat]

Hello
I’ve been managing my HA quite well recently but am spiraling again and need some help. Three weeks ago I had a really sharp pain right by my right rib, towards stomach end. This pain lasts a few seconds then goes but it’s been like this since it started. I’ve noticed that bending seems to make it worse. I panicked and had a telephone consultation with my doc who said it didn’t sound like liver c as that was my fear at that time. She agreed to do blood tests though and they came back all clear. I have a face to face appointment with her in just over a weeks time.
I’m so scared that I have either panc c or some other cancer around there and am really struggling to maintain any rational thought. The pain is really sharp when it comes and is very specific to the one area - kind of where the ribs curve at the front nearest the middle of my body. I’ve started checking for any signs of weight loss and my eyes to see if they look yellow. My appetite is normal and so is going to loo. Has anyone else experienced this and it be ok? Im so scared and would welcome some help.
X

[flatterycat]

I know I’m replying to my own post and that probably seems odd but I have to get my fears out. I can’t stop crying thinking the worse with this pain. I’ve noticed it’s worse when leaning over or in certain sitting positions. It comes in what feels like spasms and I just can’t tell if it’s the bottom of my ribs or the organs under. My mind is a mess of what ifs and again because of my age (54) all I can think is that this time it’ll be bad. I’ve read back through my old posts to try and help and I’ve kept busy. I’ve had a fear of pc in several of my older posts and so I feel like it’ll just be put down to more of the same.
I know I could insist on a scan but that frightens me too. The fact that the pains started when I wasn’t anxious doesn’t help.
Sorry for going on but it it helps a tiny but just getting it down.

[glassgirlw]

Have you noticed a pattern when the pain starts? Like after eating, etc? There are so many other things this could be other than liver cancer. Not to mention that by the time you were feeling pain from that, you would have already been experiencing a whole host of other more severe symptoms.

[flatterycat]

Thanks for your reply glassgirlw.
The pain seems to come on when bending or if I’m sat curled but not always. It last a few seconds then goes. I had a load of blood tests done a couple of weeks ago and the results were all fine but I’m still panicking that it’s pan c
Thanks for your reply again.

[nomorepanic]

Sounds muscular to me

[Flapj]

I’m going through something similar at the moment. Right sided pain below (not underneath) rib cage. I also worried about liver cancer, but without cirrhosis or hepatitis C, and under age 65, liver cancer is very rare. I then realized this pain only really happened while I was sitting and that it radiates to (or actually comes from) by back. Kind of strange. Like you, my recent blood labs were all normal and I have no other symptoms. Not sure what to do at this point.

[flatterycat]

Thanks to you all for helping me. I couldn’t sleep last night with the fear washing over me and my appetite is gone with the worry.
I wish I could rationalize but I’m too scared that I will miss something.

[flatterycat]

Had a couple of days without much of the pains now but still feeling very on edge waiting for them to return. Still bouncing from fear of pc to lc and trying to rationalize. I wish I could get over the constant thoughts that my age (54) means I am such a high risk for c and that I’ve got away with it so much in the past.

[BlueIris]

With respect, you're talking about cancer. Don't give it more power in your mind by refusing to name it.

[flatterycat]

BlueIris. Yes I know you are right and understand the message I am reinforcing to myself. It's like it's almost become a phobia as I've got older. When I am this worried though, I struggle to be rational on any level.

[NoraB]

She agreed to do blood tests though and they came back all clear. I have a face to face appointment with her in just over a weeks time.
I’m so scared that I have either panc c or some other cancer around there

It's highly unlikely that you'd have normal bloods with PC...


I’ve started checking for any signs of weight loss and my eyes to see if they look yellow.

Anxiety can cause you to lose weight, for sure, and this feeds into the fear of whichever cancer people think they have. (However, jaundice is fairly obvious, and to anybody looking at you)

That said, HA is good, and many a HAer has looked in the mirror and seen something that's not really there...


My appetite is normal and so is going to loo.

So, you have no red flag symptoms at all....


Has anyone else experienced this and it be ok?

Yes, and it was muscular...

[flatterycat]

Thanks Nora
I always like to read your posts and really admire your ability to see things in a logical way and most of all the fact that you were able to come to terms with death and uncertainty. I often read your posts where you describe how you got to that point and wish that I too could (genuinely) do the same. Without that fear I know life would feel so much freer. X



It's highly unlikely that you'd have normal bloods with PC...



Anxiety can cause you to lose weight, for sure, and this feeds into the fear of whichever cancer people think they have. (However, jaundice is fairly obvious, and to anybody looking at you)

That said, HA is good, and many a HAer has looked in the mirror and seen something that's not really there...



So, you have no red flag symptoms at all....



Yes, and it was muscular...

[LuSmith]

If it helps you I've also had right sided rib pain for a long time, and to this day no idea what it is... it comes and goes and seems worse some times than others. I can't really gauge a pattern to it either, sometimes I feel more bloated or it niggles more times than others but there are days when I literally forget it happens until it flares up again. I do have IBS though, and I have gallbladder polyps (though I've been told it's not that bc they're usually asymptomatic). At this point I just try and realize that if it were something bad with my liver or whatever I'd probably notice.. but I do feel like you sometimes where there's that huge question over my head of what it could be and whether I'm leaving it to chance.. For the record I also had blood tests that came back normal (mostly, I have anemia and tend to get infections a lot but it's unrelated lol).

[NoraB]

Thanks Nora
I always like to read your posts and really admire your ability to see things in a logical way and most of all the fact that you were able to come to terms with death and uncertainty. I often read your posts where you describe how you got to that point and wish that I too could (genuinely) do the same. Without that fear I know life would feel so much freer. X

Hasn't always been the case, FC...

I had a mental breakdown due to health anxiety, so I understand - completely - the fear and irrationality that comes with it. HA haunted me for the best part of 47 years, but I was determined to change the situation after the breakdown, and I haven't gone back down that hole since 2017. (Despite having numerous medical issues to deal with...)

If I get a pain in my abdominal area now, I think back to what I've been doing. Generally there's obvious cause and effect, as in the right-sided abdo pain I had for months turned out to be a torn muscle because I'd been doing oblique exercises (using a thingy you lie under), but also, I get some abdo pain from the C-section I had almost 14 years ago - something that I failed to mention on numerous occasions when doctors asked me if I'd ever had abdominal surgery. :whistles: (I had internal stitches, as well as external - so scarring could be a cause of pain).

There are many reasons for abdominal pain, including good old wind. But the important thing to remember, FC, is that cancer is the least likely cause....

[pulisa]

Your pain is provoked and only lasts for a few seconds, FC. Your bloods are all normal and you have no red flag symptoms at all. You are seeing any type of pain/ache as a red flag symptom and also your age.Are you still having therapy and have you ever managed to tolerate and challenge any body discomfort/pain without making a GP appointment?

[flatterycat]

Thanks Lu

It does help to hear others' experience the same. The feeling that we are missing something and have to remain is always there isn't it. I also struggle with the fact that I have 'got away with it' so many times before - this makes me feel that more vulnerable.
x

[flatterycat]

Hi Pulisa


Yeah it does seem to come on with bending. My therapy finished and to be honest it didn't help much. It wasn't very centred on my HA and I found it hard to find someone who is experienced in HA particularly and who knows how to deal with it.

"have you managed to tolerate and challenge any body discomfort/pain without making a GP appointment?"
I have done, but not consistently.

[flatterycat]

[QUOTE=NoraB;2071347]Hasn't always been the case, FC...

I had a mental breakdown due to health anxiety, so I understand - completely - the fear and irrationality that comes with it. HA haunted me for the best part of 47 years, but I was determined to change the situation after the breakdown, and I haven't gone back down that hole since 2017. (Despite having numerous medical issues to deal with...)

Hi Nora - it helps to hear success stories from people who have had HA for most of their lives, rather than a year or two. I can vividly remember the first time I worried about my health (I was about 6 years old) and it has been their to varying degrees ever since, however it has got much worse since I had my daughter (she's 13) and as I have got older. Did you have much therapy over the years? I have had so much and yet still I can't break the cycle.

x

[NoraB]

Did you have much therapy over the years? I have had so much and yet still I can't break the cycle.


I had no therapy for HA until after I had a breakdown...

[pulisa]

You say that you feel vulnerable because you have "got away with it" so many times.So next time you may not be so "lucky"?

Actually you haven't got away with anything. You didn't have the feared disease in the first place. You just thought you did. You haven't ridden your luck. You had your HA confirmed but no illness. There was no luck involved at all in terms of successful treatment for a sinister issue.

As for your age...It would be an awful shame if you considered everyone over 50 a sitting target for cancer..and wrong.I'm older than you and a carer for my adult children. I'm able to successfully manage my HA and I haven't had any formal therapy. The last thing I want is a whole battery of unnecessary tests so I stick to red flags and clinical need only. I couldn't inflict my HA on my daughter and I don't.I have to be really strict with myself though. I have had 2 spells in an NHS psych hospital and have been pretty ill so I do "get" HA.

[Lahlouba]

Have you looked into the possibility that it’s Costochondritis? It sounds quite a lot like this and it’s a totally benign (but uncomfortable) thing if that helps at all xx

[flatterycat]

Have you looked into the possibility that it’s Costochondritis? It sounds quite a lot like this and it’s a totally benign (but uncomfortable) thing if that helps at all xx

Hello

Yeah I did think that but from what I’ve read it effects higher up in the ribs near chest area. Mine is lower and doesn’t effect my chest or hurt when taking deep breaths. X

[flatterycat]

Thanks Pulisa
I never realized you were ever that ill with it all and can’t imagine what you went through.

It helps to read your rational responses.

[pulisa]

That's all in my past now, FC but I have learned from those experiences and won't be returning to that mindset..ever. No matter how old I am. I don't see age as a red flag anyway. Facts not fears. A fear isn't a professional diagnosis.

[NinnieRitchie]

Have you maybe pulled an intercostal muscle? I've done this myself doing yoga.

[Cusper]

Hi Flatterycat! I have had this for several months at a time. So much so that I made the doctor do a scan even though my bloods came back fine. Nothing was found and I ignored the pain and it eventually went away. There is something called slipped rib syndrome and or Chostochondritis (which I saw mentioned above) I know that they say with chosto that it is just the sternum but I think it really comes down to where your ribs meet your spine. I used to see a chiropractor too and it did help. I also get it at times of anxiety as well. I was told that I had very high cholesterol and sometimes that has to do with the liver, well low and behold my right ribs started hurting until I was told yet again that my labs came back normal and the pain is now gone. I am telling you this pain did last for a few months. It has come and gone for probably 3 years at this point (Kind of since the pandemic started). I am 47, so not much further behind you in age and I get it. Mind you I have had health anxiety pretty much since I was 18. I can tell you this, amongst many things in my life have last a couple of months or more and everytime I thought "this is it, this is really happening now!!!" I think that is just the nature of having health anxiety and I would not wish this on anyone. I hope you feel better. Maybe try an chiropractor or see if there are any stretches you can be doing at home that can help.

[flatterycat]

Not sure. Although my doctor has said it could be muscular or nerve related.

[flatterycat]

You really have beaten it Pulisa - amazing strength.

[flatterycat]

Hi Flatterycat! I have had this for several months at a time. So much so that I made the doctor do a scan even though my bloods came back fine. Nothing was found and I ignored the pain and it eventually went away. There is something called slipped rib syndrome and or Chostochondritis (which I saw mentioned above) I know that they say with chosto that it is just the sternum but I think it really comes down to where your ribs meet your spine. I used to see a chiropractor too and it did help. I also get it at times of anxiety as well. I was told that I had very high cholesterol and sometimes that has to do with the liver, well low and behold my right ribs started hurting until I was told yet again that my labs came back normal and the pain is now gone. I am telling you this pain did last for a few months. It has come and gone for probably 3 years at this point (Kind of since the pandemic started). I am 47, so not much further behind you in age and I get it. Mind you I have had health anxiety pretty much since I was 18. I can tell you this, amongst many things in my life have last a couple of months or more and everytime I thought "this is it, this is really happening now!!!" I think that is just the nature of having health anxiety and I would not wish this on anyone. I hope you feel better. Maybe try an chiropractor or see if there are any stretches you can be doing at home that can help.

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, it really does help. Sorry to hear that you’ve found the same in terms of HA and that you too have experienced it for so many years. I saw my doctor this week and she felt my stomach to check liver, kidney, spleen etc and she said everything felt normal. The pain hasn’t really been there this week either and I was starting to relax but then it came on again yesterday and so I’m trying not to panic again. I couldn’t link it to anything I had just been doing either so that just adds to the fears.
Thanks again for your help

X

[Cusper]

Hi Flattercat, no problem. I completely understand health anxiety and when I see someone who is dealing with a similar symptom I want to write in. I hope you find something that helps. Go and see a chiropractor they might be able to help.

[pulisa]

Have you considered that this symptom has returned just when school finished for the Easter holidays? More time on your hands, more time to focus on your body/ruminate about missed diagnoses/worst case scenarios?

My advice would be to stay away from the doctor's surgery, acknowledge a healthy set of bloods and accept the fact that you have unresolved HA and you're going to fixate on this symptom until the next one comes along..which it will. Unless you challenge yourself and allow yourself to experience odd pains/sensations without panicking and rushing to seek a medical opinion which never helps you anyway.