I Have A Doctor Appt Next Week For Right Upper

Posted on Sat, 14 Mar 2020

Question: I have a doctor appt next week for right upper abdomen and back pain. Sometimes it feels like ribs (yesterday my bra was awful). But I had my boyfriend kind of massage my back slowly to see if I could pinpoint where the pain was actually coming from. I couldn’t but today I feel much better. I’ve been avoiding taking anything and no alcohol in 6 or 7 weeks. I worry it’s my liver because I have been on and off heavy drinker. But I’m curious: Could liver pain be improved by massage? I’ll still be seeing my doctor and won’t be putting alcohol or otc pain killers until I know for sure what’s going on.

Answered by Dr. Ramesh Kumar (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Tests should be done.

Detailed Answer:
Hello and thanks for choosing "Ask a Doctor" service for your query,
Have seen your details,
Right sided upper abdominal pain has two classical differential diagnosis-
1)Gastritis-As pain radiates to back and is felt along ribs could be possibly gastritis.
2)Gall bladder pathology like gall stones etc

Suggestion-
An endoscopy should be done to rule out gastritis or ulcers.
An upper abdominal ultrasound should be done to rule out gallbladder pathology.
No liver pain/pathology could not be relieved by massaging etc.
Secondly if there is liver pathology then pain killers are contraindicated and should not be used.
Please go for the above mentioned tests and follow up with results.
Hope I was helpful.
Thanks!

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T