Posted on 12/28/2013 12:27:09 AM PST by MacMattico
Hi all, Last night I spent 8 hours in the ER and am still in pain. I'm also mad about the whole thing. Obviously, though, I'm healthy enough to type on my iPad! Any insight is appreciated.
For the last 3 weeks or so I have had a dull pain right below the bottom of my ribcage on the left side. At times it would become sharp, like a stabbing pain and I would not be be able to take a deep breath during that time. I would cringe in pain during these times. After a while it would go back to a dull ache. This went on, like I said, on and off for the past three weeks. I tried to ignore it (stupidly) because I was so busy and wanted to get past Christmas. Last night about 9 pm the stabbing pain came back and it was unbearable. I had thought I was coming down with something because I was so tired I had left a family Christmas day get together early, came home, and slept 9 hours straight. When I woke up I didn't feel sick so I thought I had just been really tired from the Christmas eve get together we had hosted the night before. That is until 9pm last night.
Amazingly I got into an ER room without any wait. They told me things were really slow. I described my symptoms. I had no fever or trouble using the bathroom. They took blood and urine samples and did a series of x-rays. Within about an hour the pain was back to a dull throb with no pain killers. I try to avoid them because they make me sick.
Hours went by and 3 different doctors came in. They were pressing on my stomach area and it only hurt worse when they pressed directly under my ribs to the far left. I don't have a gall bladder so that definitely wasn't it. My blood pressure has never been high but was high, and they said this was probably nerves although I didn't really feel nervous. The third doctor that came in was convinced it was a stomach issue. I told him it didn't feel like anything to do with my stomach. From then on out all that was mentioned was my stomach.
One doctor mentioned doing a CAT scan. I said go right ahead. Get this-- the doctor says CAT scans are expensive! I said if you've checked my health insurance, you will find out they are covered 100%. I don't know if he really checked my insurance but a nurse came in to tell me I was going to have a CAT scan and be admitted. At this point the hospital was getting busy and I heard a gun shot victim was coming in.
So I laid there for who knows how long, my husband with me, and then a nurse walks in and says I need to take your IV out and you're being released! I said what? The nurse said your X-rays, urine sample and blood tests are all normal. I said the last person in here was a doctor that said I was being admitted! The nurse went and checked with that doctor who told them that I was to "follow up with a doctor specializing in stomach issues". I said I don't even think it's my stomach!
So this morning I had a couple more shooting pains and the dull pain persists. I called the doctor I was referred to and their office said they don't know when they can get me in! I said I was told to follow up today! They said they had no appointments until the end of January and would not see me until then. I hung up I was so mad. I called the hospital and after getting transferred three times was told to come in if the pain got worse, but "they wouldn't have released me if everything didn't look good". I was so mad. I took a high dose motrin and tried to sleep, now I'm up all night with a dull side ache.
Demand the CAT scan and an MRI.
Make it stick, make them do it.
Go for the best technology can do.
Dull pain with intermittent shooting pain?
Something is up!
Make them find it.
.
Have you lifted anything or slept in a position that might have caused strain on the cartilage between your ribs? I’ve done this a few times and taking a deep breath felt like I was getting stabbed. After a couple of days of not reinjuring it and it was gone. The first time was along the left side of my sternum and my initial thought was a heart attack.
Maybe a blood clot in the lower lung area. Ask about blood thickness, personally my blood is prone to clotting more that most out there so I am subject to a lifetime of blood thinners.
I agree. It could be gall bladder????
I got my gall bladder out 12 years ago in my 20’s !
Do you have a regular primary care physician who will advocate for you? Demand the tests necessary to diagnose your pain. That is what they have the CT and MRI for.
I am afraid that sometimes women are dismissed as hypochondriacs.
It sounds like you might have a duodenal ulcer. It is terribly painful and the symptoms get progressively worse if left untreated. You need to see a gastroenterologist.
Mrs. greedo had it many years ago, they gave her something for it, and it got better.
google it and see if the symptoms match yours.
yours very truly,
Dr. greedo
I will only ask this...is the pain right below the left side on the rib cage....kinda like you took a tennis ball and squeezed the heck out of it?
If yes? Then, it’s the same thing I’ve had for fifteen years. And early on, with no diagnosis (and still none)...I learned to raise my arms above my head and twist to the left with the whole body. The shooting pain disappears within ten seconds, and doesn’t come back for at least a day or two. Lately, with a different nutritional diet...I haven’t had the pain in six months (less fat, more salad oil, more fruit).
Oh jeez... My dad died from a blood clot to the heart/lungs.
Gall Bladder is located on the right side (I had mine removed).
OP said his pain is on the left side, below the rib cage.
So it is not the gall bladder.
It is right below the rib cage on the left side. It is mostly dull like what I had with my gall bladder, but will then seemingly out of the blue feel like I’m being stabbed over and over. Then go back to dull.
That was my thought...
A blood clot will show up on blood work, any good ER doctor will order a d-dimer test to rule out a pulmonary embolism whenever chest symptoms are present.
Look up Tietze Syndrome and Costochondritis.
I don’t seem to have those symptoms. I’m not nauseous. If I look at a picture of the human anatomy I would say it has something to do with my pancreas. I mentioned this last night in the ER. I guess they don’t think so.
I don’t think so.
Very good call, greedo. Certainly way painful, but they usually wouldn't hospitalize you for it. A quick WebMD descrip: "Pleurisy, also called pleuritis, is an inflammation of the pleura, which is the moist, double-layered membrane that surrounds the lungs and lines the rib cage. The condition can make breathing extremely painful. Sometimes it is associated with another condition called pleural effusion, in which excess fluid fills the area between the membrane's layers."
I've had it a few times. VERY painful.
I was kind of shocked to read about this since I've had my gall bladder removed 20 years ago.
Besides the point, they should have never sent you home without doing further test to determine the problem.
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