Mothering › Forums › Archives › Pregnancy Archives › September 2009 › Cramping on one side only?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Cramping on one side only?

post #1 of 10
Thread Starter 
Has anyone else experienced this... I'm wondering whether or not to call the Dr-- dh is pretty sure that they will just say everything is normal

I've been having pains one one side of my abdomen only for about a week. They have been getting worse and worse and today I just want to curl up in a ball.
Nothing seems to help, changing positions, walking, not walking elevating my feet.

The only thing I can find about this is an ectopic pregnancy, but it's waaay to late for that, right?
post #2 of 10
round ligament pain? last pregnancy i spent the day in the ER around this point because i had a stabbing, horrible pain in one side. they thought it might have been my appendix, but turned out to be those darn ligaments.
post #3 of 10
Sounds like round ligament to me. (And yes, an ectopic preg would have burst your tube by 12 or 14 weeks.. .these LOs are way too big for that now!)

They might check you for kidney infection if you go in. . .but probably just a ligament or a strained muscle.

Hope you feel better!
post #4 of 10
That's what it sounds like to me too. You could call the doctor to put your mind at ease, though.
post #5 of 10
How high or low on your abdomen? When you press on it, does it get worse, better or the same?

If it has you curled up in pain, call the doctor. They should ask you a whole bunch of questions to rule out other things like kidney stones, bladder infection, appendicitis, etc. While round ligament is painful, it should not have you curled up in a ball after a week of steady pain.
post #6 of 10
Thread Starter 
Thanks so much you guys, I feel so much better after reading your posts.

I took another tylenol-- I *hate* taking painkillers! It seems like telling your body to shut up instead of listening to it, you know?

I'm hoping that it is just round ligament pain, thats what I though initially because my belly has grown a bit in the last week or so. It's just bothering me that it's on one side only.

If it comes back after the tynenol wears off, I'm calling the midwife's office-- I don't want to be dealing with this all weekend.
post #7 of 10
Hmm...

A few things come to mind.

Baby could be laying on a nerve, this happened to me near the end of my first pregnancy, I had an extremely tender spot at the top of my uterus that really limited my activities and caused me a bunch of pain. Best we could tell, it was the weight of the baby pulling on a nerve. After birth, I had a numb spot across my ribcage on my BACK at the same level as the pain had been in my FRONT, but because all those nerves wrap around your ribcage, the dr suspected the nerve had been damaged or even severed, causing the numbness.

BUT, they also were worried about an abruption, which is another possibility. Anytime there's specific spot pain, that's a concern. A quick ultrasound ruled it out, also ruled out a uterine adhesion. It might be worth calling the dr to rule out something bad like that.

Is it in a location that it could be an ovarian cyst? A friend of mine had one that got much larger during pregnancy, plus the weight of her uterus pushing on it, and they actually had to remove the cyst at 34 weeks because it was bleeding.

Other, more common, things could be: constipation or gas (yes, those pains can get rather severe during pregnancy, although you woudln't expect them to last more than a day or two), bladder or kidney infection, appendicitis, gall bladder attack, pulled/torn muscle, and of course round ligament pain.

Some uncommon things: injury to the spleen (have you had anything happen recently that could have caused internal injury like that?)

My suggestion would be to just go in and have it checked, it's likely to be nothing serious, but worth ruling it out also. And, when you know that it's nothing serious, you might be able to relax some and notice your pain actually decreases because of it. The worry alone can make the pain seem so much worse!
post #8 of 10
Tex, are you okay? We cross-posted before, so I didn't see your update until after I posted. If tylenol eases most of the pain, then it's likely nothing serious. But if the tylenol doesn't work, or doesn't work long enough, then I still think you might want to get checked just to be on the safe side
post #9 of 10
Thread Starter 
2boyzmama, thanks for your post. Your posts are always so knowledgeable and well thought out.

I am actually feel much better after taking a 2nd dose of Tylenol. I know that it doesn't sound like a big deal, but I rarely take painkillers so...

Yes, the pain is where I would think my ovaries would be if I wasn't pregnant. (I have no idea where they go when you are pregnant...) I tried to explain this to DH, and he said, "No, texmati, your fallopian tubes disappear when you are pregnant, so it coudlnt be that".

I've also been drinking a lot of water, thinking I could be experiencing some weird side effect of dehydration.

If the pain returns tomorrow, I'll definitely call. Of course, my midwife doesn't work on fridays, so I'll have to speak to a nurse/ob, but it's better than nothing. I can't do another 3 days like this.
post #10 of 10
How are you feeling today Tex?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: September 2009
Mothering › Forums › Archives › Pregnancy Archives › September 2009 › Cramping on one side only?