Yay, medical questions in IMHO! Of course, if it keeps up I’ll go see my doctor, but I doubt it’s anything serious.
What organ is right under the end of your ribcage? As in, if you put a fist into the V of your ribs under your sternum you’d be right on top of it? And why would whatever it is keep waking you up early in the morning with rhythmic pains? Just in the morning, and every so often during the day.
That’s the explodrix. It’s a vestigial organ, closely related to the appendix, but it can become infected and EXPLODE!
Seriously though, it sounds like you might have a wonky diaphragm.
You might want to look up Costochondritis. It’s [del]the fear of shopping at Costco[/del] a chronic inflammation of the cartilage on the ribs. I’ve got it on the end of my sternum and it hurts like fuck if I bang it. Possibly not what you have as mine doesn’t throb, but it’s in a roughly similar place to what you describe.
I wouldn’t say “throb” - I think of throbbing as going in time with your pulse. This is more of an “every ten seconds” sort of thing, and feels like a constriction.
By the way, I ate some crackers and now it’s a bit better. Food didn’t help yesterday, though.
Sounds roughly similar to when I had pancreatitis, but that felt more like someone was stabbing me from the inside. If that’s what it is, you have my sincere condolences. You also have a few years of hell to look forward to.
This made me laugh so hard I had to get up and use the bathroom.
I should mention in that case that it has also caused unexplained/unpredictable chest pains - which have taken me to the doctor more than once with the thought that I was having Something Really Bad happen. But it was just the Costo thing, which was a relief.
That’s what I thought of too. A few years ago I had mono and my pancreas swelled up enough that I could feel it quite easily right there. It didn’t cause me any pain though; it was just swollen.
Could also be your gallbladder. Your symptoms sound a bit like mine when I have biliary colic (bile duct temporarily blocked by a little stone) – intense pain directly under the sternum that comes in waves.
Often the location of percieved pain and the organ/structure causing the pain are not the same. The phenomenon is called referred pain.
Could be GERD.
Okay, today at least it seems to reliably go away when I eat and resurface a few hours later.
I’m thinking if I wake up in the middle of the night again with it I’ll have to go see the doctor.
I have a history of IBS and reflux, possibly GERD though I never got a diagnosis of such (these days not really, unless I eat foods I know disagree with me) and I often got that type of pain in that location. I guess I just assumed it is my stomach. It feels like a very sharp muscular cramping, but it’s definitely not in the abdominal muscles.
I was thinking gall bladder but usually attacks hit pretty soon after eating.
My gallbladder attacks almost always came in the middle of the night. Mine was right of the sternum, just under the ribs. Having my gallbladder removed was a wonderful thing!
StG
I did have a gallbladder ultrasound for abdominal pain a few years ago. It was clear and the pain just eventually went away.
Yep. Mine was in the center vs. off to the side, which was why the doc and I dismissed it as “not gallbladder” the first time I went through a couple of attacks.
They seem to be more common in the evenings, for some reason, but can occur any time of the day.
It’s worth checking with the doc, especially if you are any of the Fs. Well, we know you’re Female, I don’t think you have kids (so no “Fertile / Fecund”), I have no idea whether you’re Fat or not, nor whether you’re Fortyish (though I know someone whose 18-year old daughter had an attack just after starting college). And, are you Fair (caucasian)?
I would get hold of your doctor and ask to be checked for this. In my case, the second “round” of attacks happened about 6 months after the first, were much more, well, “emphatic” (and occurred during a blizzard which was an extra special concern as in “how would an ambulance get here”), and diagnosed with an ultrasound and a blood test. It was textbook.
Ah - and reading through the thread, I see you had an ultrasound. It was years ago though and things might have changed; also I know people who’ve had noncommittal ultrasounds and still had issues (sludge etc.).
My gall bladder pains were not rythmic though, they were astraight-on searing pain that wouldn’t stop until suddenly BAM! and gone. If it makes you wish the Lord would just hurry up and take you, that’s gall bladder.
If it’s just really really painful, it’s most likely reflux. The rythmic bit points to that too as the acid sort of bubbles up. Next time try a double-shot of pepto bismal. Does that knock it right out? GERD.
IANAD. . .
In the middle of the night or 4am? Turned out to be an ulcer for me. Acids in the stomach hitting it at 4am, eating made it shut up. Stressful things agitated it. A short course of pills got rid of it.