Hello, Thank you for asking at HCM. I carefully read your question and understand your concern. Upper abdominal pain can be caused by several causes. if it is worse soon after a meal than a gall bladder stones might be the cause. Typically pain from gall bladder stone is worse soon after a meal and especially if it is a fatty meal but might happen even in cases of low fat meal as meals activate the production of gall bladder fluids and their drainage in the bowel and trigger the pain. Stomach ulcer or gastritis might be worse with food so it is something to consider also. Muscular pain is a possible cause in you case as you have been coughing a lot recently and while you have a strong cough you might hurt the abdominal muscles which we use a lot during a cough episode. What I would recommend you is: 1. take some paracetamol and ibuprofen for the pain and have frequent small amount of food during the day. 2. Ibuprofen might hurt the stomach so take it after food and if pain is worse you will need to stop it 3. Omeprazole 20-40 mg a day is a help for upper abdominal pain caused by the stomach 4. You might need to have an abdominal ultrasound to rule out a gall bladder stone or problems 5. If the ultrasound is normal than endoscopic examination might reveal stomach or duodenal ulcer or gastritis- this is very recommended especially in patients 50 years old and above. 6. if you smoke or use alcohol this is a good time to quit as they both hurt the stomach due to acid increase or mucosal irritation 7. if no improvement with paracetamol, ibuprofen and omeprazole you will need to see a doctor for better evaluation. I hope this is helpful to you. Kind regards Dr Antoneta Zotaj