Sppoked after ultrasound - anyone like to offer a diagnosis?

[Flocci]

I have had a pain in my left side for about ayear now - used to be now and again is now almost permanent. not agony, just like someone pressing a bruise. Sometimes worse like being pinched. Can hurt over a large area but basically right at the bottom of my ribs at the side and coming forward to the middle of my tummy and also sometimes going towards my back ribs and up a bit too.

For ages the doctor insisted it was my intercostal muscles due to 2 kids, 1 with SN who needs lifting, but after all this time has agreed to do tests just in case. All blood tests totally clear. Lung X-ray fine. So today I had an ultrasound of my abdomen ........

monosyllabic bitch said nothing whilst looking at kidneys, pancreas, spleen and gall bladder but she definitely paused a couple of times to focus and measure something. At the end said go and get results from your GP and when I said can you tell me anything she just said wait and talk to GP.

So, i am shitting myself - any thoughts what it cculd be?

PS apart from the niggling pain I have no other sypmtoms at all and seem perfectly ok.

Flocci - if it was anything that needed immediate treatment she would have asked you to wait and see a doctor since it could take over a week for results to filter through to GP.

I had a hernia in my side for two years. Had exactly the same responses at the U/S but I had a bit of a strop and said: It's my body, tell me what you found, and she did but said 'I'm not really qualified to say but it looks to me like a hernia'.

Twas in that area too! It mysteriously vanished a few months later as well, now that was spooky! But not unwelcome!

Ohh - spooky definately - I had the same thing in my left side

I had so many tests I must have cost the NHS thousands, the ultrasounds revealed nothing in the end. The GP diagnosed (well guessed!) it could be a kind of migraine of the intestines which can radiate pain

I do know it is nothing terminal so I am waiting agin now - for what I don't know - flipping annoying when the radiographer won't talk to you even when all seems ok!

I doubt that her measuring something is an indication of a problem, she will have to have measured certain organs etc to make sure they are not inflammed. By your description I bet everything is fine. HOWEVER, one thing it could be is an ovarian cyst. I had a similar pain 10 years ago and an ultrasound showed it was a large ovarian cyst. Not cancerous or anything, just painful, was treated with hormones and had those failed then I would have needed a simple operation. Ovarian cysts are quite common.

Callmeovercautious - hopefully yours will just vanish as well. I tell you what - mine if I bent forwards and stuck my finger in my side was palpable and it bloody hurt. But it did just vanish as I said!

I would have thought they would refer you to hospital consultant if anything wrong. they would not tell GP who would then have to refer you back.

As others have said measuring is part of the process so do not worry about that. Fibroids are harmless and can cause that sort of pain.

Thanks so much - rushed off to the kids yesterday evemning, spent most of New Year in tears and couldn't sleep. I am totally obsessed with the thought that if I have been in pain this long then it must be serious.

But you have reassured me, ladies, thanks.

Seeing GP next Wednesday and am just trying to push it out of my mind until then ( trying very hard ). Joke is that if this scan goes back clear I won't even be happy then because I will just be waiting for more different tests to finally tell me what it is. I just want to know what is causing it and then get on with doing something about it. it's the fear of something sinister going unchecked for all this time that terrifies me.

How did it go, Flocci?

Jalopy, thanks so much for remembering this thread!

Um not so great really. The scan picked up something measuring 5cm on my left kidney. Initial report suggested it was possibly just a swelling of a bit of the kidney which isn't necessarily a problem but could be, or it could actually be something else like a growth on the kidney. GP was very relaxed about it and said not to worry but let's face it - I have a major persistent pain and now the scan has picked something up. Frankly I am in bits. Have spent the evening Googling kidney cancer and can't stop thinking about what will happen to the little ones if I die.

I now have to wait a couple of weeks for an appt with a consultant and be referred by him for a CT scan to get a better picture of whatever it is. So likely to be quite a few weeks before we even know what we are dealing with. I just feel sick and the constant pain is a constant reminder that there couldbe something very bad in there.