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Right Upper Quadrant Pain Exacerbated Approximately 3 Hours After Late

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Posted on Mon, 21 Jan 2019
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Question : Right upper quadrant pain exacerbated approximately 3 hours after late lunch- 2 hard boiled eggs and fruit (cantaloupe). History of IBS, Gluten sensitivity. In the past abdominal pain was felt in entire abdomen, bloating and back pain. Recently, pain localized to RLQ. I also have a change in my bowel patterns- passing small amounts of small stool and feeling of incomplete emptying with constant bloating.
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Answered by Dr. Aaron Branch (1 hour later)
Brief Answer:
See below

Detailed Answer:
Hello, I'm Dr. Branch, thanks for using Ask a Doctor. While pain from gallstones would typically cause pain sooner after eating a meal, and usually would happen after a meal with more fat in it than the meal you describe, pain from gallstones does not always have an association with meals, and for any pain in the right upper quadrant I would want to evaluate you for gallstones or some other problem with the liver or biliary tract. This would include blood tests and especially an ultrasound to look for gallstones (if you haven't already). If you also had nausea or vomiting with the pain this would be consistent with gallstones.

If you do have gallstones, the most common complication would be acute cholecystitis, which would be when a gallstone gets stuck in the neck of the gallbladder, and the gallbladder gets infected. In this case you would have constant pain for more than 4 hours and may also have fever, nausea, or vomiting. If this happens I would go to the emergency room as quickly as possible.

I hope that helps, please let me know if you have any other questions about that and I would be happy to discuss it with you further.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D
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Dr. Aaron Branch

General & Family Physician

Practicing since :2011

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Right Upper Quadrant Pain Exacerbated Approximately 3 Hours After Late

Brief Answer: See below Detailed Answer: Hello, I'm Dr. Branch, thanks for using Ask a Doctor. While pain from gallstones would typically cause pain sooner after eating a meal, and usually would happen after a meal with more fat in it than the meal you describe, pain from gallstones does not always have an association with meals, and for any pain in the right upper quadrant I would want to evaluate you for gallstones or some other problem with the liver or biliary tract. This would include blood tests and especially an ultrasound to look for gallstones (if you haven't already). If you also had nausea or vomiting with the pain this would be consistent with gallstones. If you do have gallstones, the most common complication would be acute cholecystitis, which would be when a gallstone gets stuck in the neck of the gallbladder, and the gallbladder gets infected. In this case you would have constant pain for more than 4 hours and may also have fever, nausea, or vomiting. If this happens I would go to the emergency room as quickly as possible. I hope that helps, please let me know if you have any other questions about that and I would be happy to discuss it with you further.