Stomach pain in left side for past 12 hrs.. Pancreatic cancer? Help!

[jenn81]

This morning out of nowhere when I was at my sons baseball practice I got a pain in the left side of my stomach under my ribcage close to my belly button. I've been getting a dull pain in this spot for awhile now and since I had a colonoscopy and endoscope done in 08 my dr said it was probably just IBS.

Well the pain is bad and it won't go away. I went to the bathroom 3 times at the baseball field and it was so much and made the pain worse. I'm sorry for the gross info here but it wasn't direaha but really long stools and alot of them, more then I've ever gone before. I have been feeling pretty constipated latley and have not been eating great at all either. But Im worried cause Ive never had a pain last this long, I also feel nauseaus. It feels like I got punched really hard in that spot and is tender to touch. I'm worried it's my pancrease since I've lost alot of weight recently and even now that I've been eating like crap I'm still not gaining any of the weight back (which is rare for me)
what if I have pancreatic cancer! I'm 29 so I know I'm young, I also don't drink any alcohol  ever so I don't understand what could be causing this. I'm scared!

Can IBS cause a pain to last this long that is worse after bowel movements? Please talk me down here I'm really worried. I just don't know what to think since I've never had this before.  Again so sorry for the gross details....

[panicky]

I think you should calm down.  You are way young to have panc. cancer, but this was the reason I panicked about when I first came to this site, so I had to open your post.  You probably do have IBS, which is why you got the pain worse, why you have been constipated, and why you have been going all day.  No wonder why the pain was so bad!!! I also have IBS, and I know that you can have soooo many symptoms from this.  People with this are known to have diareah (sp), constipation, and everything in between, very bad gas!!!!

You should definitely calm down, and see how things go in the next day or so.  You may even have a stomach virus. Try drinking more water too, that helps a lot!!!

Let us know how things go, I hope you feel better soon!!!

[jenn81]

Thanks for your reply panicky. I know I sound crazy thinking that it could be pancreatic cancer at my age but I have had IBS nearly my whole life and have never had pain that doesn't go away with bowel movements. Is it possible for IBS symptoms to suddenly change? And isn't it weird that the bowel movements seem to make the pain worse?

I'm really trying to remain calm here and the Zoloft I'm on really has been helping me but this just seems different and there really are not any other organs there other then the pancrease and colon.
Hopefully this pain will go away by tommorrow!

Have you ever had this with your IBS?

[panicky]

I have had some pretty bad pains with my IBS, sometimes they last a while.  Have yours subsided any? I did recently get a pain in a place that I never had one before and right around the same time someone posted the symptoms of that on a tv news show.  My anxiety went into overload, I had a couple of panic attacks, and I went to the dr.  He said that he thinks it's a gas pain.  And he prescribed xanax.  This was only a few weeks ago.  I guess the pains can shift and become new.  Especially if we start to eat different.  And if you were very constipated, sounds like it can be right.  But I know how you feel. 

I don't know if you've seen posts by a guy marc on here, but he gives some good comments and what I told you before about being so young is what he told me.  I'm not sure, but I think you can search posts on here.  Maybe you can do that and you will get some reassurance.  Many people are afraid of the same things on here.

Hope you feel better, and let us know how you are.

[hypo]

I've been worrying about this lately too, I've never been diagnosed with IBS but I've certainly fit the description for the last decade-lower abdominal cramping first thing in the morning followed by diarrhea then fine the rest of the day--however in the last few months I started having pain in the left upper abdomen that comes and goes without relationship to bms also stabbing pains a little lower and to the left of my belly button.  I of course freaked out and have been worried ever since-especially since the pain sometimes wraps around to my back making it seem even more like my pancreas-but I'm trying to be reasonable.  I'm only 30, no smoking or alcohol abuse history and no family history.  Hang in there-hopefully we will both get better :)

[tigerpaw]

Very bad virus going around and these are symptoms of it!

[thejessicalynn]

I just went through something like this myself. I would have terrible pains in my sides, and terrible pains going to the bathroom. I assumed the worst too. But! I started drinking a lot more fluids, ate yogurt, and kept away from heavy foods like meats and cheese for a while and it regulated itself. I would recommend giving that a try before throwing yourself into worry hun :] Plus you are way too young to have something like that. Try not to worry about it. Change your diet for a bit then go from there. Worked for me.

[jenn81]

I'm really wondering if it is my Zoloft that is causing this?? I woke up this morning and the pain was finally gone but today Ive been getting these horrible deep sharp stabbing pains in the side of my head and I still feel queezy and just weird. I upped my dosage by 12.5 mg on Friday but before that I had really no side effects ( I was at 25mg)

Does anyone take Zoloft? Have you experienced anything like this? It's crazy cause I really have no  major anxiety right now thanks to this medicine but the never ending physical symptoms still remain.... It's so annoying!

[KatB]

I was just going to post the same question when I saw yours . I am actually having the same fear, my left side just under my ribcage feels funny and I am worrying about pancreatic cancer or liver cancer. To make matters worse, yesterday while looking at my stomach i I saw a small indentation that I never saw before. THAT freaked me out , I am thinking it is cancer or a tumor.
Why does everything have to happen all at once, first the little dent then the dull pain....it is driving me nuts. I can't seem to get my head out of this one today and I am panicking and getting paranoid

I goggled a little and of course that always makes things worse.

Kat