Worried again!

[minion]

Hi. My anxiety has reeled it’s ugly head again😞. For the past few years I get this pain on my upper right side. Really really painful. I had a scan 5 years ago and there were no gallstones.
My ribs on that side are always painful.
This morning whilst reading a newspaper, there was an article about this lady who has bile duct cancer and her symptom was right rib pain.
I am panicking really badly. I am now convinced I have this and can’t breathe. I must have had early stage 5 years ago as it says it is a slow growing cancer.
Only emergency gp appointments available. Don’t know what to do.
Thanks for listening guys

[minion]

Tried getting a gp appointment again but have had no luck 😞

[Thorey]

Hi! I can take you through how a doctor would reason about this (senior med student, with HA myself, which has gotten better).

In general, pain in upper right side screams musculoskeletal to me. Very, very common and not dangerous, can present as a dull ache or sudden, excruciating stabs. As you said, with intense right rib pain, gall stones is also a relatively common cause, although your case does sounds more like muscular pain/stiffness/costochondritis. With your history, no doctor would seriously consider bile duct cancer - normally, the first noticable symptom there would be obvious jaundice, serious discoloration of the urine, white poop... and if you have gone with it for 5 years, no way you wouldn't have those symptoms.

Also I'd say that if you had a bile duct tumour big enough to cause symptoms 5 years ago, CT would have picked that right up. You don't have bile duct cancer <3 but still, good idea to see a gp so that they can rule out gallstones or offer physiotherapy!

And damn those constant news stories with extremely rare "atypical cases" (most often extremely exaggerated or inaccurate case descriptions, too).

[Thorey]

Also, just wanted to add: in case you DO have jaundice/urine discoloration/white poop, the most common cause for that is gallstones too. Basically, those symptoms are caused by a blockage in the bile ducts, commonly by stones, very rarely by something else.

[minion]

Thank you for replying. I’m a wreck!

[minion]

Still no sign of being able to see a gp! The pain is at the bottom end of my right rib cage. If I press on it, it’s painful. I am going bananas!

[.Poppy.]

Still no sign of being able to see a gp! The pain is at the bottom end of my right rib cage. If I press on it, it’s painful. I am going bananas!

Not a doctor, but that's exactly what happens to me when my costochondritis flares up. My doctor told me that we have nerves that go around our ribs, so if there is inflammation at the sternum (where costo happens) it can radiate down and around pretty easily.

Does the pain lessen if you take any painkillers?

[minion]

Hi. Normally the pain persists even with painkillers.
I managed to get a gp appointment and he checked my abdomen and it was very painful. He has sent me for a scan and blood tests. Waiting for those appointments. He said he will check my amylase levels to rule out pancreatic ca. Now I am even more scared!!!