intense upper abdominal pain

Hello again :) May I have some insight please?

In brief, I have a large mass in my lower right area. Chronic diarrhea, and the mass has been quite painful the last few days. I woke up in pain from the lower right side a couple times the other night. The runs all morning. Then in the late afternoon I had a brief time with constipation. I passed dry stool. Then a fairly normal stool and then back to diarrhea before bed. Afterwards the mass was much bigger and very sore.

Something happened after that has never happened before. I started having intense waves of pain a little bit higher then my belly button. It felt very much like early labour contractions. There was a stabbing pain above my belly button and I could feel it radiate throughout my entire belly. It came in waves over about 20 minutes and then left.

I know I need more tests run but I'm stuck waiting for my doctor to call me back. The pain above my belly button is gone but I'm wondering if I should be heading to the hospital and pushing for tests as opposed to waiting for my doctor to call me back. I've been waiting since Thursday. I called again this morning and the receptionist said the doc has a sticky note to call me. They aren't booking me an appointment. Just making me wait for a phone call......

From what I understand, wave-like contractions in the bowel can indicate a blockage. I am not sure what you mean by "mass." Is it a large lump?

Now I'm no expert here but the pain only lasted for 20 minutes and was gone, that doesn't seem likely to be from an obstruction or blockage, eh? Or could it be a blockage which isn't fully blocked?

Thank you both, Scifigal and Jeff :)

My doc is aware of this mass/lump whatever I should call it. She is not aware that it's larger - she would be if she would call be back.

With this upper pain I had last night tho, bc it didn't last long, I don't think the ER would really care. If I get it again and it doesn't go away I will of course head to the hospital. Should I be on a low residue diet? Probably hey.

I have also lost approx 20 pounds since late December, I'm pretty darn skinny now.

My doc felt it during our initial consult in December. The only thing she really said was that it is the terminal ileum area and then booked me for the colonoscopy and only the colonoscopy. She said she wanted to use a CT only if absolutely needed to spare me the radiation. I did have an ultrasound in October while I was waiting for my appointment with the specialist. Nothing abnormal with the ultrasound.

I think she was just so sure she would see something in my colon. Wasted 6 months. I don't think it's anything life threatening bc I'm fairly certain the ultrasound would have seen something but it's definitely chronic and wearing me down at this point.

You are right that if you had a tumor in there, it seems like the ultrasound may have shown it, but I don't think ultrasounds are good for detecting Crohn's inflammation. I'm also wondering if you have something chronic going on with your appendix. At this point I think it is worth the radiation exposure to get a CT scan to see what's going on. If it is going to take another 6 months to get it through your doctor's office, then going to the ER next time you are in severe pain might make sense... it is just really annoying that you would need to go that route. I hope you hear from your doctor soon.

Internal hernia maybe? That can be serious as it can interfere with blood supply to the affected portion of intestine. Either way it sounds really weird and should be checked out.

Hi, I dont put my two cents in here much, just like to read. But.... I have the exact same thing happen to me, in my opinion you are having partial bowl blockages, I get the same thing sometimes, I will get cramps like pains similar to contractions, if I lay flat on my back I will see a lump in my abdomen, I can usually feeling cramping too, then as the cramp goes away so does the lump, you must have strictures? I have a strictured area in my sm bowel, my doc. Explained it like this.. Imagine the fluid/air pushing, contracting ,trying to get thru that stricture, sometimes depending on what you ate or inflammation you have going on, it just can't get thru fast enough so it's backed up, some is going thru and that's the gurgling,squeeling you hear as it squeezes thru! So that backed up area is that lump you could be feeling.? Does that make sense? Sound like you must be just having it mildly cause it's not causing that much pain and not lasting long. I sometimes require pain Meds till it passes completely thru, I could be completely wrong but sound so similar to what happens to me, especially when you say you push on it and it gurgles. I will be interested to hear what you find out!

My doctor didn't call me but the office was instructed to book me an appointment with her for when she's back from vacation......I don't know why they had to tell me that. Any ways, she instructed them to tell me to head to the ER if I have any pain (I've been having pain for years and that's why I am under her care so I guess she means to go if I'm having new and extreme pain?). She told me after the scope she'd call me herself with the results. So now my mind is acting up.........