Right Side Of The Abdomen
Upper right:
The upper right side of your abdomen contains the gallbladder, liver, and first part of the small intestine.
The gallbladder is a small sac that stores bile made by the liver. The duodenum, known as the first portion of the small intestine, is where food empties from the stomach into the small intestine.
Center right:
The center right side of the abdomen contains the ascending colon and the transverse colon. Food then passes from the ascending colon to the transverse colon.
Lower right:
The cecum of the large intestine with the appendix and the small intestine are in the lower right side of the abdomen. The cecum is the first part of the large intestine that the end of the small intestine connects to.
Some experts believe the appendix plays a role in the immune system. Others think it has no purpose.
If your doctor performs a physical exam and then suspects a medical condition is causing your abdominal bloating or pain, theyll run various medical tests.
The types of tests they order will depend on your medical history and physical exam results.
Some common tests for abdominal problems include the following:
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et al/Nature Reviews Microbiology 2014
Its complicated
During shingles, the virus can also infect arteries. The immune systems attempt to clear the infection from the vessels sparks inflammation, damaging artery walls. When this post-shingles complication, called varicella zoster virus vasculopathy, hits arteries in the brain, stroke risk goes up.
Numerous studies have shown the heightened stroke risk, to varying degrees and length of time. The first major look was a study of Taiwanese medical records published in 2009, which found a 31 percent increase in stroke risk for a year after shingles when shingles had occurred in the eye, stroke risk rose further, roughly four times above normal. More recent studies out of the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States have found similar trends.
Antiviral drugs can reduce pain and itchiness and hasten the rashs departure. The U.K. study, published in 2014 in Clinical Infectious Diseases, suggested that those same drugs reduced the risk of a post-shingles stroke. Yet, in cases of shingles that feature pain but no rash, the diagnosis may be missed and the infection left untreated.
et al/Neurology
A potential sleeping pill
The transcript, which Breuers group dubbed the varicella zoster virus latency-associated transcript, or VLT, is a message that appears to stop a gene in the virus from turning on and launching an active infection.
Gas Bloating And Burping
Gas, bloating, and burping are usually harmless and go away without any treatment. If gas, bloating, or burping is making you uncomfortable, take the following steps to help manage your symptoms:
- Increase the amount of fluid you drink, especially water. Avoid carbonated drinks and alcoholic beverages.
- Take a medicine that you can buy without a prescription. Be sure to follow the instructions on the label.
- Activated charcoal tablets, such as vegetable charcoal capsules, may decrease odour from gas. Charcoal is usually taken after meals or at the first sign of gas discomfort.
- Simethicone, such as Gas-X, allows gas to be belched away more easily. But these medicines often have no effect on gas that is already in the intestines. Be careful when you take over-the-counter antacid medicines. Many of these medicines have aspirin in them. Read the label to make sure that you are not taking more than the recommended dose. Too much aspirin can be harmful.
- Food enzymes, such as Beano, which help break down the sugars found in vegetables and grains, can be added to foods that cause you to have gas.
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How Will My Provider Determine The Cause Of Flank Pain
Your provider will examine you and gently feel the sensitive area. They will ask you where you feel pain and if it gets better or worse with certain activities. Tell them about any symptoms youre having in addition to flank pain.
Your provider may order several tests to look for signs of kidney stones, infection, injuries or disease. These tests include:
- Basic metabolic panel to be sure your kidney function remains normal and that there is no obstruction from a kidney stone.
- Complete blood test and urine tests, to see how your organs are working, check for infection and detect signs of cancer and other disease.
- CT scan or ultrasound, to look for kidney stones and check their size and shape.
- Cystoscopy, to diagnose problems in the lower urinary tract.
- Spine X-ray or MRI, to see detailed images of injuries or abnormalities in your spine.
Kidney Stones And Infections
Problems with the kidney tend to give you pain more around the right-hand side of the right upper quadrant, or in your back , but the pain may spread and involve the front of the tummy area. Kidney stones can cause a severe pain which occurs in spasms lasting from a few minutes to several hours. There may also be blood in your wee. A kidney infection can cause pain anywhere along your urinary tract. So this could be anywhere from the loin in your back, around to the front, the RUQ, or down to the lower part of your tummy. It may be associated with a fever, pain when you wee, or going to the loo more frequently.
See the separate leaflets called Kidney Infection and Kidney Stones for more information.
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Week One: Stroke And Heart Attack Risk
While the risk of a post-shingles stroke is highest amongst those whose shingles outbreak impacted their eyes, overall, people with shingles have a 2.4-fold increased risk of stroke and 1.7-fold increased chance of heart attack during the first week after getting diagnosed, found a report featured in the journal PLOS Medicine. While ones risk gradually lessened after that, it takes about 27 weeks to completely roll the risk back to baseline. Its thought that shingles-induced inflammation may lead to blood clots that could then, in turn, cause a stroke or heart attack. Adding to the risk: A spike in blood pressure due to pain and stress associated with shingles.
Why Is My Stomach Bloated
The most common cause of stomach pain and bloating is excess intestinal gas. If you get a bloated stomach after eating, it may be a digestive issue. It might be as simple as eating too much too fast, or you could have a food intolerance or other condition that causes gas and digestive contents to build up. Your menstrual cycle is another common cause of temporary bloating. Sometimes a bloated stomach can indicate a more serious medical condition.
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Diagnosing Abdominal Swelling And Bloating
Often, abdominal bloating is non-specific in location, and pain can radiate from its source to another area. Because abdominal swelling and bloating have many causes, the diagnosis often has to be speedy. This can help you get prompt treatment for certain serious causessuch as bowel obstruction or appendicitis.
The first thing your healthcare providers will do in assessing your abdominal bloating and swelling is take your medical history and perform a physical examination. You will be asked about the duration, pattern, and location of your pain, as well as any associated symptoms you are experiencing and whether anything makes it better or worse.
Your physical examination includes an assessment of whether you are in distress, your temperature, pulse, blood pressure, and breathing rate.
Your provider will examine you to determine whether you have a specific location of pain or swelling. For example, a sense of bloating in the upper abdominal area could be associated with a peptic ulcer, while swelling in the lower abdomen on one side is more likely to be associated with an ovarian cyst.
Diagnostic tests can include:
Additional tests may include minimally invasive tests. During an endoscopy, a tube is placed into the throat, and during a colonoscopy, a tube is placed in the colon so your doctor can view areas of potential disease.
How Is Shingles Diagnosed
As with most other diseases, doctors will typically review your symptoms first. Be sure to take note of how long youve experienced symptoms, what your exact symptoms are, and their severity. Doctors may suspect internal shingles if your symptoms involve more than your skin. They will often suspect eye or nervous system involvement based on the location of the shingles rash. However, if you have a painful rash along with a cough, severe headache, or abdominal pain, you may have a more serious complication of shingles.
Doctors may perform the following tests to confirm your diagnosis of shingles:
- direct fluorescence antibody stain
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What Causes Internal Shingles
The varicella zoster virus causes shingles. Its the same virus that causes chickenpox. After a bout of chickenpox, the virus becomes dormant in the body and settles in certain nerves and tissue of the nervous system. Later in life, the virus can reactivate and present itself as shingles. Shingles typically appears on the skin along the nerve path where it had been previously dormant. If the reactivation of the virus becomes severe, it can affect not only the skin but other organs too. This is what is called systemic or internal shingles.
Higher Intensity Of Pain With Internal Shingles
While both regular shingles and internal shingles can cause preherpetic neuralgia, this condition has been found to be more severe in the latter case.
One study found that at the onset of symptoms, after one month, and after three months, internal shingles patients had consistently more severe and persistent pain. Overall, however, preherpetic neuralgia occurs much more frequently in regular herpes zoster patients.
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Should I See A Doctor For Upper Right Abdominal Pain
Yes, if you have a pain which doesn’t settle, you will probably need to see a health professional to help work out the cause. See a doctor urgently if:
- Your skin has turned yellow .
- Your wee has gone darker and your poo lighter .
- Your pain is very severe.
- You have recently lost weight without trying.
- You are bringing up blood, or have blood in your poo .
- You have a high temperature with shaking .
- You feel out of breath.
How Will They Find The Cause Of The Pain
The doctor will be able to get a reasonable idea of the reason for the pain by asking you some questions and examining you. They may want to test a sample of your urine. You may then have to have further tests, depending on their suspicions at this stage. These may be done urgently or in due course, again depending on their suspicions and how much pain you are in. Possible tests might include blood tests, an ultrasound scan, a look into your stomach and upper bowel with a camera and other scans and ‘scopes’.
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Feel Bloated It May Be Chicken Pox ‘hidden’ In Your Tum Since Childhood
22:06 EDT, 13 August 2012 | Updated:
Chicken pox hidden in our guts since childhood could be behind the thousands of cases of unexplained stomach pain and bloating in adulthood.
New research suggests this intestinal chicken pox could even trigger stomach ulcers.
Scientists have known for some time that following exposure during childhood , the chicken pox virus is locked away in nerve cells near the brain and spinal cord.
New research suggests this ‘intestinal’ chicken pox could even trigger stomach ulcers
In most people the virus lies dormant without causing any problems, but sometimes it can break free, travelling via nerve cells to the skin, causing the painful condition shingles.
How and why the virus is unleashed is not clear, but one theory is that a period of illness or a weakened immune system allows it to escape.
But now a study from Columbia University in the U.S. suggests the virus known as varicella zoster is also locked away in the nerve cells of the gut.
What Are The Most Common Causes Of Right Upper Quadrant Pain In Pregnancy
Any of the above conditions can cause pain in the right upper quadrant whether you are pregnant or not, so you should always be checked out. However, in pregnancy a common cause of discomfort is the pressure of the womb pressing on other organs, and pressing them into the diaphragm. Also, problems with indigestion tend to be common in pregnancy, again at least partly due to the pressure on the stomach. Urinary tract infections are also more common in pregnancy.
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Left Side Of The Abdomen
Upper left:
This part of the abdomen contains a portion of the body of your stomach, the tail of the pancreas, and your spleen.
The spleen is an organ that filters blood and supports the immune system.
Center left and center middle:
The transverse colon and the small intestine make up the center left and center middle of the abdomen. The small intestine is where most food digestion occurs.
The transverse colon is the upper part of the large intestine, where unabsorbed food is carried after going through the ascending colon. The small intestine is the organ that takes up most of the abdomen.
Lower left:
The descending and sigmoid colon portions are the part of the digestive system that stores unabsorbed food remains and waste before they leave your body.
Week Four: Healing Scabs
Most people with shingles do not develop a blister-related infection. Instead, scabs appear once the blisters dry up and crust over. That typically occurs seven to 10 days post-blistery outbreak, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its important to remember that until scabs appear, your blisters contain the virus, which can cause others to catch the chickenpox. Its also important to continue to wash the area with a fragrance-free cleanser daily until the rash, blisters and scabs are completely clear. Within a month, your skins appearance will most likely return to normal, though some people are left with darker or lighter spots where the shingles rash occurred.
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What Other Tests Might Be Needed
This depends on what has been discovered so far through the tests above. More specific tests may be needed depending on where it is thought the pain is coming from. If your pain is thought to be coming from your guts, you are likely to have some type of endoscopy, which is an examination of the inside of your guts with a camera. A more specific type called endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography can examine the tubes around your gallbladder and pancreas. In some cases special radio-isotope scans may be used. These show up certain organs and tissues by using a small dose of a radioactive chemical.
If you might have a kidney problem, you might have a specialised form of computerised tomography scan, with a dye injected to highlight your urinary tract.
A chest X-ray might be needed to rule out a problem in your lungs, such as infection. If the pain is thought to come from the nerves around your spine, a magnetic resonance imaging scan may be helpful. An MRI of the affected area of your tummy may also be useful in some cases.
It is very unlikely that you would need ALL these tests. You are likely to need a few tests only. For example, if gallstones are found on the ultrasound scan, you would need no other tests.
Month Three To Multiple Years: Long
Most peoples pain decreases within two to three months, but for some the pain lingers longer. That persistent pain, called postherpetic neuralgia, is the most common complication of shingles, impacting up to 18% of folks with the infection. PHN develops when nerve fibers are damaged at the site of the shingles rash. The pain may be constant or intermittent, moderate, severe or even incapacitatingand it may last for months or even years. Its experienced as burning, itching, a stabbing pain or an altered sensation, says Dr. Rosen. While anyone can suffer with post herpetic neuralgia, your risk increases with age and with a history of chronic illness, such as asthma or diabetes.
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Month Two To Three: Lingering Itch
The lasting itch one can experience once the shingles rash clears is called postherpetic itch and it most commonly develops on the face and on skin thats already suffered sensory loss. Translations: Your skin is likely already feeling numb there. And since individuals are more likely to scratch numb skin too long and too vigorously, its important to turn to your healthcare provider for advice. He or she will likely suggest topical local anesthetics to help quell the urge to itch.
Can Shingles Affect The Gastro Intestinal Tract
Can shingles affect the gastro intestinal tract? Since a bout of shingles in Dec. 2017, I have experienced lack of hunger, queasy stomach and sometimes stomach pain when ingesting food. When food has been taken, bowels become erratic and sometimes with spontaneous movements. Movements sometimes occur two or three times a day tho little food is eaten. Sometimes bowels appear to contain micous. Movements occur with little or no normal indicators such as stomach growling or gas passing. Occurences sometimes by just standin from a sitting position with no prior need to excrete felt before standing.
Age: 58
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