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Pressure/Fullness on right side of ribcage w/ several lumps

Tbanders
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I'm a 21 y/o male American international student in the UK for the next several months. Recently, I began feeling a fullness/pressure on my right side, especially prevelant when sitting down and after eating. After a day or two, I investigated and found several hard lumps. 

- One that starts at the bottom of the floating ribs, all the way up until the sternum. This lump follows the rip cage, and also appears to follow several of the floating ribs. It doesn't protude out too much, but the end towards the sternum does leave the ribcage and continue unattached, suggesting it's not inflamation. 

- One much smaller, but still prevelant lump around my right breasts. Much smaller and even less prevelant, but enough that the deformation is noticed when I run my hands over it. 

It's worth mentioning that when standing, and even sitting normally, neither of these are noticable. It is only when I puff out my ribcage that they can be seen and felt. Additionally, both are hard and unmoving. I can only feel the lower one attached to the ribcage, the upper one I just noticed today. As far as I can tell, discomfort with very occasional pain are my only symptoms currently. I'm relatively fit at 178 cm and 10 stone/140 lbs.  

The reason I'm posting here is becaue I don't know what to do. I'm a 21 y/o international student here for less than 6 months, meaning I don't qualify for NHS. I'm going to be talking with a gp over the phone on Monday in order to potentially schedule a later appointment, however I don't have a lot of money, and I don't know how much my American insurance will be willing to cover if this is the worst case scenario. There's a chance that it could be something that I could ignore until I leave in June, but I really don't want to wait that long. Any advice, comfort, medical suggestions, anything would be helpful at this point. 

Thanks for your time. 

  • Offline

    Hey, Tbanders!

    I'm a 21 year old male with the exact same thing as you, a hard immovable lump on my ribs, I had it examined by a doctor, who said he thought it was 1 of three things, a ganglion cyst, extra cartilage or a bone spur! None of which are bad, or malignant in anyway! I don't suppose you went through a recent coughing spree, or slight/severe injury to your chest area? All of those could cause the above mentioned things! It's also important to remember not all bones are smooth, and all our bones are different, some of our bones just have little bumps here and there! If you could afford it, I'd recommend going to a private health firm and seeing if they could examine it for you, I'm not sure how much it would cost, but I doubt much! Doctors are incredibly good at figuiring out what a lump is just by feeling it! 

    Do you have any other symptoms? A feeling of fullness could be caused by stress, I know I get it when I feel stressed, and it causes me to eat way less! Have you noticed any weight loss for example? Weight loss that hasn't been caused by eating less?

    Wishing you all the best man, it must be a bit daunting being in a foreign country, hope it goes well! Keep us posted, I'd love to speak more!

     

  • Offline in reply to Tace

    Hey Tace, thanks for responding. 

    Fortunately, or unfortunately in this case, I have had no recent injuries or coughing sprees. My most recent chest injury would go back to my American football days, in 2012, and I haven't been sick in years. While I do have a history of anxiety and stress, I'm also well aware in those present themselves physically, as both result in purely chest pressure, while this is more rib pressure.

    That being said, your response did give me a lot of peace of mind, at least more than what I had earlier. I do have reason to believe it's not malignant, but I also know that it's far to big to be a cyst/bone spur, and generally too low to be cartilage. I won't know for certain until it's checked out, but I can't help but worry a little.

    From what I've heard through asking around, my best course of action is visiting with a GP, which will cost about $40 (don't have a pounds symbol on my keyboard). Any costs or diagnositic processes beyond that, I am in the dark on. 

    Once I get the initial talk through on Monday, I'll hopefully have more information. Again, thanksf or responding, it really helped. 

  • Offline in reply to Tbanders

    Hey there again.

    I'm the exact same when it comes to the haven't been sick in years, then recently in the past 3 months now, I've felt awful! I think it's just us who rarely get sick dealing with being sick? 

    I see, do you think that the stress and anxiety symptoms might've radiated more due to recent worries? I believe I read somewhere that believeing about pain in a certain area of your body for an extended period of time, causing pain to be there, which is wild to know how much control our brains have over of physical sides! You would think we would be in control of that at least haha!

    Ah, too low to be cartilage? I'm guessing like myself you have looked up images of the ribs, seeing where the cartilage is, as I was surprised how far down the cartilage comes especially on the bottoms ribs, it explains why you can basically bend your ribs if you push on them, well your lower ribs anyway, don't go breaking a rib checking this haha! I've seen reports of absolutely huge bone cysts, way way bigger than most diameters of the affected bone, so it's definitely a possibility? The worry is awful, and is arguably the worst part! I hope it won't cost you an arm and a leg, but it notoriously can!

    Best of luck man keep us posted!

  • Offline in reply to Tbanders

    Hey again!

    I'm just stopping by checking in on you, have you gotten any further news on what's going on?

    Best of wishes!

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