I know you guys aren't doctors but...

[lesley_x]

I'm having some problems and just wondered if it could be related. Literally within 2 miles of cycling I get pain under my right ribcage and feel like I could spew. It's not normal but I was scanned there a couple of months back and it was fine. Wondered if there's anything I'm doing wrong.

I am newly folate deficient and kinda wondered if that was something to do with it.

Cheers

 

[Venod]

Don't know anything about folate deficiency, it could be a simple stitch.

http://www.coreperformance.com/knowledge/injury-pain/side-stitch.html

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

If it is a sharp, stabbing pain always in the same place, it could easily be a chest infection and can do unnoticed until exercise starts. Coughing or not, it may take a trip to the dr's to establish the cause. (I'm a severe asthmatic and often get chest infections that have few other symptoms with no cough and other than a stabbing pain in a particular point in the rib cage usually on exercise and my asthma playing up for no other apparent reason, I can go without realising I have one - your GP would be able to hear it in your lungs which is usually how I find out.)

 

[lesley_x]

Yep, it's a sharp stabbing pain right under my right hand side ribcage. It comes on after a couple of miles (I have had this for about a year but I'm too stubborn and just kept going) and resolves in a couple of minutes when I stop. I have never had chest problems before. Does it make you feel a bit sick too?

The stitch thing, it definitely does remind me of the stitches I used to get when I was a kid, although probably higher up. It's that kind of tugging feeling. It's just that it happens every time I ride, without fail.

I have other health conditions which at the moment are begin treated and pretty much under control. I never get this pain at any other time, only when cycling.

Ohhh if only doctors would take me seriously!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

does it come on with any other form of exercise? I know you say only when cycling, but I don't know how hard you push, what type of cycling (road bike, commuter, mountain bike etc) and how fit you are otherwise? Are you always wearing the same clothing? is it too tight?

It could be anything from a chest infection, to stitch and back to the lung lining not having free movement (pleurisy) etc or it could simply be that your bike set up is wrong and you are pinching a nerve or similar when folding down into a road bike position... too many q's.

Have you spoken to your GP about it?

 

[lesley_x]

does it come on with any other form of exercise? I know you say only when cycling, but I don't know how hard you push, what type of cycling (road bike, commuter, mountain bike etc) and how fit you are otherwise? Are you always wearing the same clothing? is it too tight?

It could be anything from a chest infection, to stitch and back to the lung lining not having free movement (pleurisy) etc or it could simply be that your bike set up is wrong and you are pinching a nerve or similar when folding down into a road bike position... too many q's.

Have you spoken to your GP about it?

The only other real exercise I would do is on the turbo or walking the dog. I get no pain or nausea doing either of those things but I don't push nearly as hard. I ride a road bike for commuting/road and a cyclocross for paths/trails. It happens on both bikes but seems to come on more when I'm pushing harder, for example after a climb it would be worse. It happened last summer when I was wearing shorts and a jersey and today I'm wearing tights and a jersey/jacket.

My CX had a bike fit at my LBS and was set up. The fit of my roadie hasn't changed since I got it and it's super comfortable, so I dunno. I kinda wondered if oxygen wasn't getting to the right places given I've not got enough folate. I definitely haven't been able to get as fit as I was a couple of years ago despite riding more.

I have spoken to GP and my consultants about it. I am met with blank faces. Tbh they don't really care but I'm getting more and more frustrated.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

the only thing I can think of is to make a GP's appointment and tell them you are having problems exercising, getting breathless, are getting a stabbing pain and sometimes coughing and if you get nowhere as them to listen to your chest, or if your surgery has more than one doctor, see one of the others.

Can you walk the dog faster to see if that initiates the pain?

 

[midliferider]

Just to clarify before I offer my opinion,
Who made the discovery of Folate deficiency? I asked that as it is extremely rare in normal healthy adults.
What are the other health problems? Anything to do with liver?

 

[lesley_x]

Just to clarify before I offer my opinion,
Who made the discovery of Folate deficiency? I asked that as it is extremely rare in normal healthy adults.
What are the other health problems? Anything to do with liver?

Well, if my docs would pay attention I could answer your question. I have high liver enzymes (transaminitis) and positive AMA, fatty liver with lesions on it. No gastro has bothered to diagnose it, not really that interested. My rheumatologist says primary biliary cirrhosis due to positive AMA antibody but he can't make the diagnosis as it's not his field. I have suspected inflammatory bowel disease, but again trying to get a gastro to diagnose it/look twice at it is a struggle. My calprotectin is high which normally indicates IBD. My GP says this is the most likely cause of the folate deficiency (bowel is inflamed so not absorbing properly, makes sense)

Also sjogren's syndrome. Recurrent cholecystitis, diagnosed but never confirmed.

Tbh no one will really talk to me about it, just told me to take a multivitamin and no follow up testing to make sure it's sorted. Frustrating is putting it kindly.

I am complicated though, to be fair.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Hi complicated ....
Could it be a case of simply not taking enough time to warm-up when you get on the bike? It takes me at least 15 minutes gentle spinning to get me 'up to speed' so to speak as far as the cardio-vascular system is concerned.
It does sound very much like a simple stitch:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/health_and_fitness/4275830.stm

 

[midliferider]

There are two parts in this answer.
From information you have provided, doctors appear to have done investigations and come to a conclusion. Perhaps your understanding of "diagnosis" and "conclusion" is different from doctors. My reading is that you do have a diagnosis. That is you have a fatty liver with raised liver enzymes and positive AMA.
Then there are other possible explanations for other symptoms. Sometimes it is not possible to put everything together and make one unifying diagnosis.

Then the pain may very well be related to liver or gall bladder as it is located in the right side just below the rib cage. But it is more likely to be musculoskeletal as it comes with exercise and relieved by rest. Other way to look at is this. You have had this pain for couple of years, has not made significant restriction of exercise capacity. Therefore it is extremely unlikely to be of significance. If you had pain for 2 years and you are active and well, it can't be that significant.