Suggest Remedy For Severe Pain In Ribs In A Diabetic

Posted on Mon, 23 Nov 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 23 Nov 2015 Answered on

Mon, 14 Dec 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : About three weeks ago, I had a pain on my right side, kind of near the bottom of my rib cage. It ifigured muscle pull or strain as I raked wet leaves the night before. I took it easy and it got better. Yesterday, I crawled up the ladder on my RV to do some work. Didn't notice anything until this morning getting out of bed. Pain in the same place and is more painful when I take a deep breath and it radiates up to my right shoulder. I am 56, male, Type 2 diabetic, and always in pain from bàck surgery 4 years ago and have 8 titanium rods in my lower back. I had a pancreatitis attack early XXXXXXX but recovered nicely and no more issues. I feel I must have reinjured muscles in lower right ribs. No other symptoms with it.

Answered by Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (14 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Gallstones or spine issue.

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Thank you for the query.

There are two most probable possibilities of your pain. First one is spine issue in the thoracic area. Second are gallstones.
In both cases the pain can appear in the upper right abdomen and radiates to the right shoulder.
The difference is that gallstones pain usually appears after foods intake. Nausea and lack of appetite can be present.
Spine pain gets more intense after physical activity or lifting heavy objects. Moreover painkillers usually help with spine pain and do not help with gallstones.

I suggest you to have some diagnostic done. First of all abdominal ultrasound should be done. If no gallstones, spine MRI is the second test.

Hope this will help. Feel free to ask further questions.
Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar