What Is The Cause Of Chest Pain, Abdominal Pain And Shoulder Pain?

Posted on Mon, 24 Dec 2012

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

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 Answered on

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : My son had a spontaneous onset of left side lower chest/upper abd pain along with left shoulder pain that was made worse when taking a XXXXXXX breath. This occurred after a long plane ride.This was three days ago. He went to the ER. The Dr said he did a blood test for embolism and it was negative. He punched his kidneys and did passive ROM of his shoulder without eliciting pain. They did a UA that we did not get the results of. They did a chest x-ray that was negative. My son is a 30 y/o 175lb male that has never been a complainer. He was given motrin 600mg with instructions to take p.o. every 6hrs. He was also given miralax with instructions. He has since had an adequate BM and the pain has returned albeit with less intensity. He is about to return to his Army base from WA to GA and I am concerned. Do you have any suggestions? This pain is still acute when XXXXXXX breathing.

Answered by Dr. Ganesh Sanap (3 hours later)

Hi,
Thanks for writing in.
There are few diseases causing upper abdominal pain radiating to shoulder. Pulmonary thromboembolism, dissection of aorta and pancreatitis. Even renal stone are associated with colicky pain which may be increased on inspiration.
Your Physician has ruled out first two possibilities. I would like to suggest please get abdominal sonography and serum lipase investigation done to rule other two possibilities. .
Since we have already ruled out the XXXXXXX possibilities, I would like to reassure you that everything is fine .
Let me know if you have any more questions.
Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Aparna Kohli