My Belly is Mysteriously Swelling, Please Help
October 30, 2011 1:13 PM Subscribe
Sunday afternoon medical question. Mysterious abdominal pressure, not improving, worrying me a bit. [YANMD, but if you are a medical professional, I'd appreciate some general advice about what kinds of questions to ask / symptoms to look for / organs to look at.]
I'll be taking the day off and going to the doctor on Monday, earliest possible appointment, but I'm getting uncomfortable and anxious. Please help ease my mind.
Description:
- I'm 5'11", 193 pounds
- Feeling of pressure / swelling at the front center and just under my bottom ribs, more on the left than on the right (maybe 70/30 split)
- There is a teeny bit of visible swelling.
- It's physically uncomfortable, but not painful.
- Started ~3 days ago, is getting slowly more uncomfortable.
- No fever
- Not painful or tender, even when I press on it pretty hard.
- No loss of appetite.
- Normal bowel movements
- No increase in intestinal gas
What on earth? :( Thanks in advance.
I'll be taking the day off and going to the doctor on Monday, earliest possible appointment, but I'm getting uncomfortable and anxious. Please help ease my mind.
Description:
- I'm 5'11", 193 pounds
- Feeling of pressure / swelling at the front center and just under my bottom ribs, more on the left than on the right (maybe 70/30 split)
- There is a teeny bit of visible swelling.
- It's physically uncomfortable, but not painful.
- Started ~3 days ago, is getting slowly more uncomfortable.
- No fever
- Not painful or tender, even when I press on it pretty hard.
- No loss of appetite.
- Normal bowel movements
- No increase in intestinal gas
What on earth? :( Thanks in advance.
Does your insurance have a nurse line? You might try calling that. They might be able to run down a list of additional questions that would determine the urgency of this.
posted by cobaltnine at 1:35 PM on October 30, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by cobaltnine at 1:35 PM on October 30, 2011 [3 favorites]
When I had something similar last week, it turned out to be appendicitis. I had 3 days of increasing abdominal pressure, but no pain in a specific area. Then the 4th day it turned to sharper pains (between the right hip & belly button), vomiting, & loss of appetite.
posted by belladonna at 1:39 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by belladonna at 1:39 PM on October 30, 2011
My friend had some sort of pain in his stomach and complained about it during dinner. Everyone just assumed he was being whiny. Later that night, he could barely move and had to be taken to the hospital, had appendix removed, was told it was about to rupture and he could have died. Or something crazy like that.
I'm not even sure where in your stomach your appendix is or what kind of pain/discomfort my friend had - but I'd second belladonna's comment and suggest you google appendicitis and see if it sounds similar. Or just page your doctor now and get his advice about waiting until tomorrow; it's what they are for!
Hope you're okay!
posted by User7 at 2:13 PM on October 30, 2011
I'm not even sure where in your stomach your appendix is or what kind of pain/discomfort my friend had - but I'd second belladonna's comment and suggest you google appendicitis and see if it sounds similar. Or just page your doctor now and get his advice about waiting until tomorrow; it's what they are for!
Hope you're okay!
posted by User7 at 2:13 PM on October 30, 2011
A friend had similar symptoms - there was discomfort, but no pain or tenderness until about six hours before she had to have her appendix out. I vote for ER/urgent care ASAP. (Though, I guess, call your insurance first so you don't have to hassle too much with paperwork afterwards.)
posted by rtha at 2:25 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by rtha at 2:25 PM on October 30, 2011
These were my symptoms with appendicitis. It did not hurt more when pressed, and I did not have the anticipated reaction to abdominal tapping. My appendix ruptured while the urgent care clinic doctor was trying to figure out what was wrong with me.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:01 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by DarlingBri at 3:01 PM on October 30, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks for the input, all. I've got a message in to my on-call doctor, we'll see what they say. Meanwhile, I've been Googling for info using "abdominal swelling epigastric region" which just about perfectly describes the affected area. I'll be sure to update this thread with news as it's available.
posted by ZakDaddy at 3:59 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by ZakDaddy at 3:59 PM on October 30, 2011
possible scenario: doctor doesn't call you back shortly, you miss call, then you possibly get septic and bad stuff happens. Just saying.
posted by sully75 at 5:51 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by sully75 at 5:51 PM on October 30, 2011
I went from feeling somewhat uncomfortable, but still running errands & grocery shopping to "OMG drive me to the ER now, something is wrong" within less than 2 hours. If you haven't heard back from the on-call doctor yet, please don't just decide to wait it out until tomorrow. (I was planning to wait until Urgent Care opened at 1pm to go talk to a doctor, but ended up in the ER at noon.)
posted by belladonna at 6:31 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by belladonna at 6:31 PM on October 30, 2011
I'm a person who never, and I mean NEVER, goes to the doctor, but if I were you, based on what everyone is saying about appendicitis, I'd get my butt to the ER now.
posted by MexicanYenta at 8:10 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by MexicanYenta at 8:10 PM on October 30, 2011
Uh, I don't think you need to worry much about your appendix, it's usually located in the right lower part of your abdomen. Appendicitis can present in many weird ways, but epigastric discomfort is not one that I have ever seen before. IANYD.
Are you sure the teeny bit of visible swelling is not your xiphoid process? A lot of times people don't notice a certain part of their body until they have some reason to pay close attention to it. The only common reason for epigastric swelling is a ventral hernia, but if you haven't had a surgery to your abdominal wall that seems very unlikely. Anyway my suspicion from your story is that the swelling is a red herring and you're just having some sort of underlying issue with your esophagus/stomach/pancreas, but you'll have to see your doctor to get any sort of reasonable opinion on this.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 8:58 PM on October 30, 2011 [1 favorite]
Are you sure the teeny bit of visible swelling is not your xiphoid process? A lot of times people don't notice a certain part of their body until they have some reason to pay close attention to it. The only common reason for epigastric swelling is a ventral hernia, but if you haven't had a surgery to your abdominal wall that seems very unlikely. Anyway my suspicion from your story is that the swelling is a red herring and you're just having some sort of underlying issue with your esophagus/stomach/pancreas, but you'll have to see your doctor to get any sort of reasonable opinion on this.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 8:58 PM on October 30, 2011 [1 favorite]
p.s. the older you are and the more medical problems you have (which aren't listed here), the more concern I would have about epigastric pressure.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 9:00 PM on October 30, 2011
posted by treehorn+bunny at 9:00 PM on October 30, 2011
Response by poster: Update:
Saw doctor, she's unwilling to diagnose yet but sent me for a CT scan. Got that taken care of this afternoon, looking for results in the morning. Despite being uncertain about the cause of my discomfort, she didn't say anything about hospitalization or other drastic action. Absence of nausea / vomiting / fever / pain / etc. is helpful for peace of mind if not for diagnosis.
treehorn+bunny - No abdominal surgery, correct. I'll ask / research xiphoid process, you make a good point.
More tomorrow, thanks everyone.
posted by ZakDaddy at 10:29 PM on October 31, 2011
Saw doctor, she's unwilling to diagnose yet but sent me for a CT scan. Got that taken care of this afternoon, looking for results in the morning. Despite being uncertain about the cause of my discomfort, she didn't say anything about hospitalization or other drastic action. Absence of nausea / vomiting / fever / pain / etc. is helpful for peace of mind if not for diagnosis.
treehorn+bunny - No abdominal surgery, correct. I'll ask / research xiphoid process, you make a good point.
More tomorrow, thanks everyone.
posted by ZakDaddy at 10:29 PM on October 31, 2011
Response by poster: Sorry for the late return. Maddeningly, the CT scan revealed nothing abnormal, the symptoms (such as they are) have subsided to tolerable levels, and I can't afford a specialist copay right now. So, since both my PCP and the CT techs don't see anything emergent, I can relax a little bit, and just be marginally uncomfortable from time to time until I get a new symptom.
Argh.
So, thanks again everyone for your care. I hope you each have a great weekend. :)
posted by ZakDaddy at 2:49 PM on November 4, 2011
Argh.
So, thanks again everyone for your care. I hope you each have a great weekend. :)
posted by ZakDaddy at 2:49 PM on November 4, 2011
Thank you for updating! I was thinking about you earlier today. I'm glad your appendix hasn't popped and probably isn't going to, but the netherworld of "Well, we're not sure, let's do more tests" may make appendicitis look like fun by comparison. Good luck with it all.
posted by rtha at 2:58 PM on November 4, 2011
posted by rtha at 2:58 PM on November 4, 2011
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I'd go to the ER. Could be any number of things, some of which are very serious, most of which are not. Could be nothing, but you won't find the nothing part out here.
The serious things don't get better, they get worse. If you can find out if it's serious or not, you could save yourself a lot of trouble down the line.
posted by sully75 at 1:31 PM on October 30, 2011