In the last 3 months, I have had a persistent pain in my upper, right
back, just under my shoulder blade and I have started getting
migraines again (after 20 months without due to ditching instant
coffee from my life). I also have a feeling of achey, 'fullness' just
under my rib cage at the front which corresponds to the shoulder blade
ache. I don't notice any increase in the discomfort after eating fatty
foods, but have noticed that I am really 'off' wine, which I used to
love (only a vat of virtual shiraz for me, honey!). Every time I
breathe deeply, it hurts, but there's no 'sore' spot which would
indicate a cracked rib or a muscle problem. I've had blood tests and
an abdominal ultrasound and, when that came back with a gold star
result, I had a hidascan which gave my much maligned gall bladder a
clean bill of health. There is a family history of gall bladder
problems in my family so I was much surprised to learn that mine was
apparently behaving itself. A month has passed since the hidascan and
I still have the aches and the migraines (on average 2-3 a week). I'm
reasonably calm and quite happy, I can still play tennis without any
hindrance from this. All in all, I don't quite know where to go from
here. My GP is going to send me to a gastroenterologist but I wondered
if any of the medicos or other therapists out there might have a
suggestion of what could be wrong with me.

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Clarification of Question by queenam-ga on 17 Jun 2003 22:18 PDT

Well, I got the results of my CT Scan and apart from a "mildly
enlarged spleen", there's no pleurisy, no sarcomas, no gall bladder or
liver or pancreatic or kidney abnormalities. Which is good news,
except that I still have something wrong with me :(
The next steps are to have full blood work done to exclude the
cytomegalovirus and lots of other nasties including Hodgkins. Then
it's off to a general physician to work it all out. *sigh*
As I said before, I'm very grateful for everyone's input. My GP's been
very forthcoming with information simply because I've been able to
asked informed questions.

Check out the bug "CYTOMEGALOVIRUS" on the net. Try and leave the gall
bladder in place. Its essential for processing fats.

I had similar symptoms, including the rather odd aversion to wine
(Merlot was my thing). It eventually culminated in a sudden onset of
pain so severe I was incapable of even rational thought. Turns out I
had a near fatal encounter with something known as Pyonephrosis. This
is not the same thing as a run of the mill kidney infection
(Pyelonephritis). Basically, Pyonephrosis means puss in the kidney
accompanied by or resulting in a blockage. This can occur in the
absence of a urinary tract infection. In my case, I had a very large
kidney stone blocking the entrance to ureter from the kidney. However,
as I understand it, Pyonephrosis can be caused by other conditions,
including steroid use, a weakened/suppressed immune system, a ureter
stricture, prolonged bouts of Pyelonephritis, etc.

I am posting this as a comment as your question as I don't feel it can
possibly qualify as the type of answer you are seeking. However, due
to the similarity in our symptoms, I feel compelled to urge you to
check with a nephrologist or a urologist and at least have this
considered. This can be easily diagnosed via a C/T scan with contrast
dye (they can give you prednisone if you are allergic to the dye). I
would ask for a creatinin test BEFORE the C/T scan, as it is an easy,
quick blood test to determine whether there is impaired kidney
function that would be worsened by the use of the contrast dye.

Don't rely on urine tests alone. As I mentioned, this can occur in the
absence of a UTI. In my case, even the presence of blood and protein
in the urine was  minimal. Interestingly, even my white blood cell
count was not that alarming when first tested. However, 3 hours later
the wbc had tripled and I was on the brink of death - quite literally.

I don't wish to alarm you unnecessarily. However, my doctor was also
unable to determine the cause of these vague symptoms you and I seem
to share. By the time the real pain began, I was hours away from
death. Please, get your kidneys checked.

antivirus-ga

One consideration that comes to my mind is Hodgkin's disease,
particularly if the pain occurs or increases after drinking wine.  I
have a friend who had Hodgkin's as did his mother and they both
experienced pain in the chest/back when drinking alcohol as one of the
early symptoms.  In fact the friend was diagnosed when he brought this
possiblity to the attention of his physician, who had not heard of
this alcohol induced pain as a presenting sign of Hodgkin's.  It's
interesting that the workup so far has all been directed towards
abdominal problems, when the pain is more in your chest and is related
to breathing deeply.  Although some abdominal problems do typically
cause pain in the back, shoulder or chest, chest problems also cause
pain in the chest.  If they have not already done so, they need to do
a Chest X-ray and/or CT scan of the chest.

I agree with ac67-ga regarding a chest xray or better yet, a chest CT.
 You did not mention your age or whether you are a smoker.  Under the
R shoulder blade with pain on deep inhalation sounds like something in
the lungs.  I am not sure if migraines or alcohol consumption are
associates or just coincidental.  I would consider some type of
irritation of the lung lining (pleurisy), an infection in the lung, or
(hopefully not) a tumor.  Only a CT will be able to see what is going
on.  Not to scare you, but a friend of mine had some similar
complaints of back pain, and it turned out to be lung cancer - do get
it checked out further!

I'm really grateful for everyone's comments and advice. I've certainly
done further research on everything that has been suggested. FYI, I
don't
smoke and I'm in my early forties. Just to let you know, last
Thursday, I went and had a CT Scan on my lungs and abdominal areas
with the contrast dye (ingested and injected - yuk!). I'm still
pending the results.

Have you ruled out pleurisy?