Sharp Pulling Pain in Belly Button - Part 2

This pain I feel in my belly button and bladder is definitely not from dehydration. I wish people on here would quit saying that with such certainty. Maybe you are dehydrated but my pain comes when I drink too much or too fast. That is the only correlation I have found.

Hello. I suffer from this pain since I was 8 and now I'am 24 years old. When it first happened I had ultrasound, urine and blood tests mutiple times, but to no avail. Just like many here I have discovered that quick and sharp moves of the abdomen, sitting hunched over and DEHYDRATION is a major cause, so over last 10 years I just tryed to stay hydrated and avoid sharp moves and I always sit straight, even now.
It kind of worked since I only had mild episodes when it felt like about to "pull", but I just relaxed my abdomen and drinked a lot of water.
To be honest I was sure that I can live with it untill last March when I had tons of hard physical work in my job. I forgot to drink and go to toilet and next morning I felt the "string", but for the short time and after 10 years of basically "running" from the pain it have returned scaring me sh*tless... I didn't know what to do at first since all my bad memories form the childhood returned. When I was 13 I felt this pain every month and sometimes even 3 times a week making my teen years close to nightmare.
So since the last March I fell sharp stabs in my navel few times a week, but my bladder is in pain almost daily now. After taking piss I have to stand still for like 10 mins, because of the pain. My bladder also can be painful when pressed and it just stabs at random times during the day.
Because of this I had again two ultrasounds and CT scan, but again to no avail. I mean, only one ultrasound showed some tissue that is leftover of the Urachus, but doctors think it looks "normal".
I have printed all the posts from here about Urachus and Urachal Cysts and I will show it to my urologist. Maybe he will be able to find someone who is willing to operate on me despite the fact CT scan showed nothing.
Lots of guys from this site had basically the same symptoms and no doctor could help, but in the end it turned out to be Urachus or Urachals Cyst. I had tons of finger push tests to my navel, so it can't be hernia. If you read this forum closely simillar pain is felt when you have umbilcal hernia, but it seems that when you do have a hernia dehydration isn't a major cause, so thats why I think I have something going on with Urachus.

Just for the record:
When I stand up or sometimes at night when a sleep I can feel awful string of pain from my navel to the bladder area and when I try to stand straight I can feel that the tip of my penis is painful too. When I stay hunched over the pain disappears, but deep breaths can trigger the pain again. Urinating during the episode is just pure nightmare to the point I can't go for the full stream.
Since the March my bladder is painful almost daily, but by staing hydrated I can again avoid "string" like pain.

PS. I will also show this to my urologist: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/criem/2018/6051871/

"We propose that the “pulling sensation” described may be a clue to the diagnosis in some patients in which the urachal remnant is attached to the bladder. We suspect that the sensation was due to the mechanical connection between the bladder and the umbilicus. The sensation resolved postremoval status of the remnant.

This does not appear to have been previously proposed in the literature."

So I had appointment today with my urologist and I did showed him all posts from this site about Urachus and Urachal Cyst. He wants to do cystoscopy, but I need to decide if its worth it since my USG and CT scan show nothing. It doesn't convince him that for some Urachal Cyst doesn't show up on USG etc and he thinks noone will do exploatory surgery without proofs from scans...

It’s definitely worth it. If I’ve learnt anything, it’s that you’ve got to be your own advocate when it comes to your health. This pain is impacting our lives to the extent that it greatly decreases our quality so I think you should try everything you can to get to the bottom of it.
I also disagree with your urologist that you would not be able to find someone willing to operate on you when nothing has shown up on the scan. Doing an exploratory laparoscopy is perfectly reasonable and medically sound when you have the symptoms you have described and it’s impacting your life to the extent that it is. Sure, they cannot tell you for sure that it’s a Urachus cyst because it didn’t show up in the ultrasound (and maybe that’s what he’s getting at), but it is still perfectly reasonable to have laparoscopic surgery to look further into it, especially when you’ve experienced symptoms for so long. People have exploratory surgery for all sorts of weird and wonderful symptoms that haven’t been diagnosed.
Also, who’s to say that just because a cyst doesn’t show up on a scan that a) you don’t have one when you’re symptomatic that isn’t inflamed at the time of the scan or b) that the Urachus is just extra tight or weirdly bundled in nerves or something and still causing you severe pain without there being necessarily a cyst.
Just my thoughts. My advice would be to go and get a second opinion from another urological surgeon. Keep being you’re own advocate and fighting for an answer to this. It’s what I’m doing and what I’ll keep doing.
Ps I am having surgery soon so I will update you on what the outcome is. Fingers crossed! And nothing showed up on my imaging either but my urological surgeon was stil pro operating on me.

Thank you for the relpy! I almost lost all hope and I was about to just give up. For what kind of operation are you waiting? Exploratory or full removal of Urachus and small portion of bladder?
They will probably ran some test on the Urachus after they cut it out.
I wish you all the best!

Sorry just checked this. It’s been over a year and the pain is completely gone. I’ve had all the triggers and nothing has come back. I was the stereotypical case you read about on these posts. I’m convinced it was something to do with the cyst that was seen on the cystoscopy and removing the urachus was the only solution. Btw, my urologist didn’t think it was possibly the issue but the surgeon who specializes said this is actually a common pain for urachal remnants. The surgery was not fun but worth it as I can resume a normal life.

I still get bladder spasms from certain foods but I had that pre surgery as well. Nothing compares to the sharp pulling pain and having it not return is truly life changing.

Did your cyst showed up on Ultrasound or CT scan or cystoscopy was basically your last hope in finding out what was going on?

Hi again!
Surgery is done and dusted. I’m feeling pretty awful. Had 2.5 days in hospital and am now back home however have to have a catheter in for another 4 days (7 days total) which is pretty damn uncomfortable. So basically I’m feeling a bit miserable at the moment but trying to keep the bigger picture in mind!
They removed my entire urachal remnant from the dome of the bladder to the umbilicus. The surgeons said they didn’t see any obvious inflammation of the urachas however they removed it anyway because given my symptoms they said it does seem like that is the culprit. Will be interesting to see if the pathology shows anything though. I asked the surgeon if he thinks it could have been causing my pain and how the removal would help this given they didn’t see an obvious cyst or anything, and he said that now there is nothing tethered to the belly button to cause the sharp pulling pain so they’re hopeful my symptoms will subside. To be honest he was a bit vague and I only spoke to him very briefly (surgeons don’t give you much time, I’ve found, particularly in the public system!), so I don’t have a concrete answer which is frustrating but I don’t think they can really give one. Assuming it is the umbilical ligament that has causing my pain all these years (which is exactly as everyone has described on this post) then I’m hopeful this will work. I think it’s just a wait and see game now, which will be a bit anxiety inducing but nothing else I can do. I have my follow up in 4 weeks so will report back then with any more info and again in a few months as to how I’m feeling. The surgery is pretty invasive and, to be honest, was much worse than I thought, but if this fixes the pain then it is so worth it. Like most people posting on here, I would do anything to not have to live with the pain anymore because it really decreases my quality of life, especially not knowing when it will strike. And...if the surgery doesn’t fix it...at least I know that’s not the problem so have ruled something else out, and at least I gave it a shot... how could I not at least try when I had a possible solution available. As my surgeon said, I have a lot to potentially gain and very little to lose by doing this.
My advice to this poster is keep following up with urological surgeons who might be open to doing the procedure on you and removing the urachas. By the time you get somewhere with it, hopefully myself and other people on this forum will have more answers as to whether this worked for them and then you can make an educated decision as to whether to go ahead with surgery or not. Stay strong and talk soon!

Thanks so much for getting back to us! That’s very reassuring to hear! I’m 3 days post surgery and feeling pretty miserable but am trying to hold onto hope that it will work. Can I ask how you went with your recovery? There isn’t much information out there on this procedure. I get the catheter out next Tuesday. Did you find it very painful after that or did you improve quickly once it was out? My incisional scar pains aren’t too bad, it just seems to be bladder spasms (presumably from where they made the hole and stitched it back up) and the catheter discomfort that are causing me the most grief. Thanks again for your help and I’m so happy to hear that this operation worked for you!

I have read through your answer with open mouth! You are very, very tough and I wish you all the best. I wonder what docs will tell you after they run some tests on the tissue in labs. There is a guy on this forum who had urachus removed despite the fact it looked fine as well, but it worked for him, so I think you are golden ;)!
I'am very curious, how is your navel post operation? Does it hurt? Any simillar pulling senstation? I have seen some Urachus surgeries on YT and sometimes they need to remove old navel and make a new one. Its called umbilicoplasty if I recall correctly.
Is this the case for you as well?

Thanks for your well wishes and positivity! It’s nice to know there’s people out there rooting for me and that understand exactly how this awful pain feels and impacts our lives (and hence why we would electively go through such an awful Op to improve it!) I haven’t actually been able to see my navel post op as it’s covered with a bandage so I’m not sure what it looks like yet. There are also two other port sites on each side of my stomach which are covered as well. I think the ligament was pulled out through the belly button which freaks me out slightly (particularly given that I can’t even handle someone touching my belly button!) but to be honest there is really no major pain there. My stomach feels very tight and sore in general from the incisions which is mostly just painful when I try and get up from bed or use my core etc, and I can’t fully stand straight yet (like 90% straight though). But there is definitely no pulling pain or pain mimicking what I experienced before...this was always my worst fear, that I would end up worse off or that it would trigger the pain again. Still way too early to tell though and I think it will be a good few weeks before I’m completely pain free, so I will keep you posted and in the meantime keep trying to be cautiously optimistic :-)
Thanks again!

Oh I soo feel for you. It freaks me out when I just think about being poked in belly button let alone having some port in it.
You will be fine for sure. If you don't feel anything simillar now I think its great indicator that it will stay like this ;)!

It only showed up on the cystoscopy. They tried to remove the cyst with another cystoscopy but when that didn’t work I decided to have the entire urachus removed. Very confident it worked. As the latest patient said at worst you can cross off anything anatomical (but i think you’ll find it will work).

It’s a urachal cyst. It’s just super rare and urologists don’t see it often.

Hello there again. How are you feeling? I assume you are off catheter now, are you fine? Did pathology showed anything?

Hey, thanks for checking in! Yes off catheter (than god!) - I had it in for 8 days total. I’m doing pretty well. Still feel a bit sore in the abdomen and get cramps in the bladder, but managed to go back to work this week and do some of my usual activities which is great. Probably at about 75% recovery :-) While having lots of weird crampy pains while I recover, I still haven’t had the actual “pulling/tearing pain from belly button”, so fingers crossed. I did, however, sometimes go months between episodes so I wont be sure as to whether this has worked or not until at least 6 months have passed I reckon.
Re pathology, I did get the report back which said it was consistent with a urachal remnant and that fibrous tissue extended throughout the whole length (whatever that means!). Haven’t seen the surgeon yet though to discuss it as he’s away but will see him in Jan and update you then. It didnt specify what type of remnant, and I guess this might just mean I had a lot of remaining tissue that wasn’t obliterated like it should have been, as opposed to a cyst or sinus. My doctor will be able to shed more light I am sure. Have you managed to see another’s doctor about yours and/or decided to have the cystoscopy? Just FYI, they did a cystoscopy for me as well at the same time as the surgery and didn’t see anything from the bladder. So even if your cystoscopy doesn’t show anything I still don’t think you can rule out the urachas being the problem!