huge discomfort blow left rib

Like you I have the same pain and discomfort under the left ribs - likewise a close friend suffers the same. I am 63 years of age and have not suffered a stroke so I don't think this is related in any way to your stroke. I am 63 years of age and like yourself have had all the tests which have come back negative.

Doctor just tends to roll her eyes now and is more or less saying I am imagining it - as I say to these doctors if you had to walk in my shoes for a week you would also be searching for an answer.

Good luck James and I hope you find the answer.

Molly

My discomfort is just like someone shoving their fist, hard, into the spot just below my left rib. My stroke affected my left side so I thought it was related...perhaps. Whatever it is the discomfort is really affecting my daily life and I am quite low with it. It's my daily main focus which is bad.

Are you being treated at the moment for anything? Is your abdomen ok? Have you had nerve-damage tests?How did yours start? Is it constant? Apologies for all the questions but if we have the same problem I would like to fight for a solution with you. Share notes.

Thanks for your response Molly

James

In answer to your question 2 things I am being treated for are high blood pressure and an underactive thyroid. I haven't had any nerve damage tests but as I said I have had all the Xrays, colonoscopy, endoscopy, ultrasound etc which all came back negative. My discomfort started a few years ago out of the blue. Cannot explain the feeling but sometimes when I am walking I feel as if there is something catching or rubbing on my ribs - it is always there so like yourself I always focus on it (gp said distract your mind with something else).

My friend who has the same problem has had much the same tests with no result - her gp said she should be glad to find there is 'nothing' wrong with her. At her last appointment the gp arranged for her to have a test for helicobacter and she is now awaiting results from this but I'm sure if you have been to gut consultants they will already have tested for this.

James I don't know who else we can turn to. It is certainly not easy dealing with the situation especially after being told more or less it is all in the imagination.

There must be 100's of people who have posted this complaint on the internet. I have read many of them. All have the same symptoms as you and me and the bad news is that nobody has foud a solution to the problem.

There have been Drs grasping at straws but none of them know anything at all about this thing. As long as they can add the word Syndrome to the end of anything they can think of they feel this lets them off the hook because a Syndrome can be a number of things brought together. for which there is little understanding and therefore no posssibility of help.

Some Drs think that we are imagining the pain. These Drs just have no idea and live in cloud cuckoo land but they are happy continue to be arrogant in this regard. No Dr wants to learn more about this condition which I find unbelievable. Yes they still get their salary whether they add to their learning or not. They choose, or not. Patient care is a foreign expression to many of them.

I am going to see a Consultant this week. I will ask him if he has heard of anyone with our complaint. My guess is that he will shake his head and look at me very strangely and self-righteously!

All we can do at the moment Mollie is, Splash around in the Water. I will continue to do my best to uncover something. My huge discomfort is driving me forward.

J

If I discover any solution I will contact you and hopefully you will do the same for me. I am hoping that you get some satisfaction when you visit the consultant this week. Please let me know how this goes - will be thinking about you.

Mollie

Not good news for us is it? I will see what he reports to my dr.

James

I had been thinking about you and hoping you would get some good news from the consultant. It's the most awful blow when you know that something like this is permanent. I don't know about you but for me it affects all aspects of my life because I cannot be bothered with family and company when I am in pain. Unless someone knows what you are going through they cannot understand and my gp hasn't helped my situation by more or less saying it is in the mind.

I have an appointment with a lady doctor in my surgery and I am going to raise the issue with her though I daresay there are notes on my file saying 'all in the mind'. I have been offered antidepressants but as I have said it is the pain issue which is making me depressed.

I will certainly keep you updated James and look forward to hearing what is sent to your doctor in the report.

I have booked an appointment for acupuncture next week...will report back with what she says and the report to my Dr

The Consultant says that modern medicine does not know the answer to many medical symptoms and mine is one of them.

He appreciates that I have this discomfort but he does not know what causes it and therefore can do nothing for me. I have tried all the tablets that MIGHT work. They didnt.

Just go away and let me sweep this thing under my carpet! (He didnt say this!!)

I am having acupuncture...dont think this will help but it may help me feel better????!

I am to write to the Dr who writes in the Daily Mail each Tuesday. I wonder if my letter will be published?

Please keep me updated Mollie

J

I was literally thinking about emailing you this morning as I got much the same news yesterday. Apparently, in my case, due to the removal of ovaries consultant said other internal organs can shift about to 'fill the space'. I don't know if this is correct or not but he said much the same - its the only thing he can think of to explain pain and discomfort which they cannot attribute to anything else. I had tried acupuncture for a few months but it didn't make any difference with me. I don't know if it is coincidence that my pain started shortly after my operation but the thought of it being there from now on is awful.

I would go ahead and write to the Dr in the Daily Mail and you never know he may come up with some sort of explanation - at this stage there is nothing to lose.

My friend also got the all clear with the helicobacter test so much the same she has been written off like us.

Please keep me updated on how you are coping James - I think of you often.

Mollie

I am 18 Years old and the symptoms that you describe are exactly what I suffer, I went to my GP and they could not suggest anything other than what you have said "It is permanent", I got sent for X-Rays and they could not see anything.

I cannot see it being related to a stroke as I have never had one, so I can't see that as the cause, I am a smoker, have been for a few years, however I don't see how that could cause it either.

My pain feels like it is on the underside of my left ribcage and it feels like someone is putting a knife straight through me, giving serious breathing difficulties, leading to loss of conciousness on several occasions. It is extremely concerning as they seem to be getting worse, and nobody seems to know the cause. Doctors and healthcare professionals seem reluctant to actually seek the cause of this issue. It seems we're on our own.