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Re: CINDY - PAIN UNDER RIGHT RIB
From: Penny (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Tue Nov 23 20:11:28 2004
Dear Cindy, Ruthie and Jennifer: I am so glad I found your chat page. I
have been trying to figure out what is wrong with me for months. May
2004 I started having pain under my right rib. Dr. sent me to the
emergency room, thinking it was gallstones. I had a catscan and
ultrasound. I have a kidney stone, but they don't believe that is
causing the pain. They simply can't figure it out. The pain comes and
goes but intermittently gets really bad. I also have endometriosis.
NEVER would have linked the two together. Another thing that is strange
is that 2 years ago I started having migraine headaches and dizziness. I
had never had a migraine in my life. I had MRIs and all kinds of
testing and they could never find any thing wrong. Maybe it is all
hormonal. I am 38 years old. Was never able to conceive due to the
location of the endometriosis and lack of ovulation. If you have any
advice on how I should proceed please let me know. Right now I am
taking Motrin and Hydrocodone for pain. They keep telling me they
believe it is inflammation in the muscle under my rib (I'm not buying
it)and to be patient. One doctor even wanted me to take a pain
management class. I think they believe I am nuts! I now have two
illnesses they can't cure! Penny
At Mon, 3 Sep 2001, Jennifer wrote:
>
>Dear Cindy and Ruthie- I have the same pain under my right rib- had all the
>same tests- exactly the same tests! I can't believe there are others with
>the same problem??!! But I am so excited (kinda sick huh) somebody else had
>or has what I had. My pain is now intermittant- never shows up on any
>diagnostic tests. Dr Redwine thought I might have had endo on my diaghram-
>he did a chart review for me. I had a Hyst on Oct 18, 2000. The pain came
>back about one month after surgery and the Dr said it was all in my head!
>Yippeee, it's not in my head. There are others, sorry about your pain
>though, but it is nice to know that I am not the only one. I think it is
>definately endo. Hope you feel better, I have never found anything to help
>that pain either. I'm with you on this, if I hear or find anything to help I
>will write ou back.
>Wow- validation Thank you both for being here
>Jenn
>
>>>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Ruthie" <anonymous@obgyn.net>
>To: "Multiple recipients of list ENDO" <anonymous@obgyn.net>
>Sent: Monday, September 03, 2001 3:21 PM
>Subject: Re: CINDY - PAIN UNDER RIGHT RIB
>
>> Dear Cindy,
>>
>> I was scanning through all the messages posted on this chat site, and
>> when I saw your message about pain under the right rib I was surprised
>> because that is exactly what I have been having too! I also have a
>> diagnosis of Endometriosis, my mother and sisters have it too. I am 44
>> now and after enduring the most wretched periods since I was 11 years
>> old, I had a laparoscopic assisted vaginal hysterectomy. This was just
>> two weeks ago. My doctor left the ovaries intact because he found no
>> endo lesions on them and because he felt that 99% of my pain was coming
>> from the endo invaded uterus. When endometriosis invades into the
>> muscular walls of the uterus, it is called "Adenomyosis" and it causes
>> you to have the most excruciating cramps and your periods are heavy and
>> liver like tissue and sometimes red sand like grains of blood and tissue
>> come out too. It's really gross and totally interferes with your life!
>> Up to a week or more out of every month is a waste unless you take some
>> very powerful painkillers. My pain and the horrible backache would be
>> so severe that I would be rocking in the fetal position before I
>> discovered the prescription painkiller called Ultram. This stuff worked
>> better than anything I had ever taken before to control the pain.
>> Getting back to the right rib pain, I first had that happen suddenly on
>> the first day of my period March 31rst of this year. It came on and
>> felt like a knife was lodged directly under my bottom right rib, and it
>> was severe and burning. So bad that I couldn't take any deep breaths or
>> barely move. The only position I could try to sleep in was flat on my
>> back. I even took Ultram and that dampened it a bit, tried heating
>> pads, massage made it worse. I went into my regular doctor and she
>> thought it was a gallbladder stone or inflammation at first, so I went
>> in to the hospital for a barium swallow and CAT scan. They didn't find
>> anything, regular x-rays don't show gall stones if they don't have
>> calcium in them. The majority of gallstones are made out of
>> cholesterol. My pain subsided gradually after about 6 days of agony. I
>> was walking around hunched over like I was 90 years old! After the
>> ultrasound and CAT SCAN revealed nothing, I just was glad that the pain
>> finally went away. They didn't know what was causing this. Then my
>> doctor said to me that she saw a case just like mine once before in med
>> school, the lady had also had a history of endometriosis! She was
>> suspicious that it had to do with this. She said for me to keep track
>> of when this pain happened, and to see if it coincided with my periods!
>> Remember the first attack came exactly on my period. Well, I had the
>> hysterectomy which was an easy, fast and not painful operation which
>> only took 1 hour for my OBGYN to do. He knew about my right side pain
>> and he said that he was going to look for lesions in that area. After
>> the surgery he said that he couldn't find anything there and that it
>> might have just been what's called "Referred pain" from the uterus. We
>> both thought that it was going to be over after the uterus was removed.
>> I was enjoying feeling better than ever for two weeks, and then suddenly
>> two days ago, WHAMMMO! It happened again!!!! I was in shock, and then I
>> looked on my calendar and counted the days since my last and final
>> period. Exactly to the day, my period was to have started! So if this
>> sounds like something that you are having as well, it has got to be
>> linked to our hormones. You didn't have a hysterectomy yet, correct? So
>> if you are still producing hormones and you see a consistent pattern
>> like this it could very well be a hidden endo lesion tucked under the
>> liver or near the gall bladder or embedded into the wall of the
>> diaphragm. Each month when the level of hormone (I can't remember which
>> one is highest at this time, I think it's estrogen) kicks in on day one
>> of the period, this hidden blob of endo gets activated and produces pain
>> by making prostaglandins or whatever mechanism the pain from endo is
>> caused. I'm curios to see what you think, whether you have this pattern
>> and post to others to see what we can dig up! You can email me anytime!
>>
>> Good luck!
>>
>> --
>> Ruthie
>>
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