Upper abdominal cramps (severe spasms)

I'm 42 years old and a male... I always get these pains when I'm over-weight and trying to lose weight. I am almost certain it is related to lack of water and vitamins. I started taking 2 one a day vitamins each day and started dinking ots of water, and the spasams and craps have dissappeared.

For me, it was always on the left upper ab, right under my last rib. I would have to lay down onmy back to get them to go away. Really sucks if you are driving at the time.

So, drink more water, take more vitamins, and lose weight!!

Have you had your gallbladder removed? If you have I would consider the pain to billary related. I have the same issues myself and I have been suffering for 9 years off and on with it. Good Luck and I hope this information helps you alot sooner than I received help.

yes i have had my gallbladder removed, i wish these cramps would go. gill from enfield

I just went through something very similar. Would you be willing to talk through email?

Mine began with lower back spasms twenty minutes later wrapping around to upper abdomen spasms. During ER both hit, would like to hear more from you on this...especially since so new to me.

Hi there. I just experienced an episode right now so decided to google "severe abdominal muscle cramps" and came accross this page. That is exactly how I would describe them, severe. I guess mine happen just the same way as when you get a cramp in your calf muscle. The type that happen when you are sleeping in bed at night and have to jump up and scream and everyone has a heart attack because they dont know what wrong with you, but you are in so much pain you cant even talk. You try to walk it out, but the muscle is sore for days after. This is what happens to me but in my upper left abdominal muscle, just under my left ribcage. It happens when I twist a certain way or place strain on my abdomen by lifting or trying to bear my weight while bending over. You can feel the muscle tensing tighter and tighter and twisting till it leaves you breathless. You can feel that there is a huge extremely hard lump there that is actually the cramping muscle. You dont know what to do. Sometimes I try and move suddenly to stretch it back as quickly as I can, and sometimes this can help a little in the duration of the cramp. I also try to breath it out. Still I am sore for days after. I have to avoid certain activites, mostly public ones like exercising as it is so embarressing when it happens. I was once on a roller coaster with my kids and it happened and I could barely breath the whole way around, I amlost passed out from the pain! I really think that it is caused by overuse or overstretching of the muscle. For me, I think it came on after having children, but perhaps being overweight or unfit could be another cause. I too have had many tests and nothing at all has been found. I guess I could try and bring one on in front of a Dr to let him see what I am on about, but just the thought of it sends shudders down my spine!!!!! btw... I am a 40 year old mum of 4 kids and have been having these for around 15 years or more. My oldest is 17!!!!

I have this sme pain now after having my daughter it's been 5 months and it hasn't stopped...usually after I take a shower or eat....

I too have suffered from this exact same nightmare since shortly after delivering my third child.  The last episode was at Carraba's when I bent down while sitting in my chair to pick up a napkin off the floor one of the kids dropped and I knew immediately it was a mistake and WHAMMO.  Of course, the waiter was in the process of taking our order and my husband kept asking me what I wanted to order for the kids while I sat in my chair, back arched, and palpitated the spasmic knotted muscle (which of course is directly below my chest which added to my humiliation) while mumbling through gritted teeth, "Not now, I'm in pain!"  I'm just glad that the waiter didn't call 911 or announce to the restaurant medical assistance was needed at our table.

Needless to say, I doubled my search efforts on-line after that incident to try to see what is causing this and because I am now expecting with my fourth child and fear that it will be amplified in pregnancy.

This is the only post I have found where others are actually describing the exact thing I am dealing with and I was very hopeful that by the time I got to the last page there would be some ANSWERS! I was disappointed to not see any other than the typical hernia (which we all know that it is not if we have done any research at all) and nutritional deficiencies. 

So, I had an OB appointment today and at the end he asked if I had any questions and stupidly I said "no" as I didn't think he would know the answer as it seems no doctors do and then thought better of it and went ahead and described my problem.  He answered before I practically finished talking and said very matter-of-factly, "It's a Rectus Diastasis".  He described that it is a separation of the ab muscles that can happen anywhere from the pubic bone up to the rib cage.  I did some on-line research and found that the separation can be caused by many things such as being overweight, surgery, doing strenuous typical ab exercises, and very commonly pregnancy.  All that is left in the "gap" between the separated muscles is a thin tissue that isn't thick enough or strong enough to hold everything in place that is supposed to be behind it (organs) so they push forward causing the typical belly "pooch" that is actually not flabby skin or excess fat but the innards pushing forward between the separated ab muscles.  The very top muscles are still connected due to the nearby bones keeping that area from stretching apart and they are the ones that are going into spasms when we move the wrong way.  Bending over puts excess pressure on the midriff and pushes all the innards forward and the only muscles left to to try counter it are the top ones that are suddenly over-worked and go into a spasm.

Please do some on-line research on Rectus Diastasis, also known as Diastasis Recti, and also consult with your primary care physician.  There are some guides on-line on how to self-test yourself to see if you have the condition and there are a few exercises you can do to help.  The WORST thing you can do is to ever, ever, do any kind of typical ab crunch exercise as this makes it worse.  Even when healed you should never do crunches as it will be prone to separate again.

I am ordering the "Tupler Technique" program tonight as it comes with the exercise DVD, book, and also a midriff splint that they claim is perfect for pregnancy to keep the problem from getting worse and also helps significantly in the healing process for everybody, pregnant or not.

I hope that this is some solid help to many out there as from what I read, most posts on here seem to be from people who have had abdominal surgeries, are overweight or were overweight, had a pulled ab muscle from a workout, or were pregnant and I think this may be the cause for many.

God bless!

The EXACT SAME THING happens to me. Have you gotten any advice?

hey thank you thank you thank you....i am visting the hospital doctor soon and i will put this to him. Gill from london

I sat up today and got a back spasm so I thought but within 10 seconds I had on the upper left side just below my rib cage I have this knot protruding from my stomach. I seriously thought an alien was going to rip out of my stomach. I couldn't stand, sit, bend. I was just paralyzed. I too have been sent to physical therapy and I am still getting them. I have known for years if I tried to do a sit up a ball size muscle will cramp so I do not do sits ups ever. But now between the back spasms pushing everything out toward my stomach I need help. No one still seems to have the answer.

your doctor shouldnt say just live with it

I to have the same symptoms you describe. I have been having them everyday for a year. I went to my Doctor and they did a ultrasound and saw nothing...they then did a hida scan...said gallbladder fuction was 16% and sent me to a surgeon for gallbladder removal...still had same pain after gallbladder removal...My primary doctor then sent me to a GI and Liver Specialist...He did a upper endoscopy...was normal...did a CT scan...they called and said they saw some colitis and wanted me to return for a colonoscopy...well colonoscopy was normal with no colitis. About a week after my colonoscopy my pain subsided.That lasted about 2 weeks and it is back, but not as strong. So now they say it is IBS and have taken me off all dairy, put me on High fiber, this I dont understand because fiber makes you go to the bathroom and I already go sometimes 5 times a day since the gallbladder removal. Anyway I was also put on anti spasmotic pills...dont work. As some of you on here have said..the only thing that seems to help is to lay flat on my back. My pain is in the upper right quadrant just below my right breast. it is from my sternum to the right and around to my back/shoulder blade. Sometimes it feels like a charlie horse, with a burning. After the skin feels numb, like it is asleep, but very sensitive. When I bend to pick something up off the floor it feels like there is a ball under my ribs and it is being compressed and causes pain...when I straighten back up it feels as if something is to short and will rip if i stand all the way straight up.

what you say is exactly what happens to me and how i feel after wards ,what i do now is try to avoid doing anything that will start it off, but it does sometimes catch me unawares.if you get an answer to what it is please tell me,im going to see my GI goctor next week, dont no why i bother as nothing gets solved. Gill

I had my gallbladder out several months ago too. I kept experiencing right side pain for months afterwards. My father is an MD so I asked him about it. He stated that at the bottom of the gallbladder is a very complex set of nerves which run through the abdomen & body. Unfortunately there are some people who may experience pains & stabbing sharp pains for a year ( or more) after surgery although more than a year would be unusual. Obviously because the nerves are repairing themselves. Re:possible left over stones, they usually show up relativley soon after surgery because they are stuck in a bile duct. If that happened you would be really really sick. Since this has been going on for years have you had additional blood work or scans? I only ask because I knew I had a liver cyst & was getting that checked when they found stones & sludge in my gallbladder, which lead to surgery. Good Luck

RE: GERD if you want to see if the pain may be cased by acid & you don't want to take Prilosec, at the very least take double doses of Maalox or Mylanta for a week or so. Those products are different than Prilosec. The Maalox etc coats your stomach & can help sooth pain, the Prilosec reduces the amount of acid your stomach makes. If the coating helps then it would be prudent to try the Prilosec.
I myself used to have heartburn so bad for so long that I literally thought I was having a heart attack. Having worked in an MD office for 20 years I am a typical bad patient. But after making a nurse practitioner do 3 ekgs, I finally came to the conclusion I needed a GI visit. After an endoscopy was done I was told that I had Barrett's esophogitis, (something you don't want to hear) it is precancerous changes in the lining of your esophagus. As we know there is NO treatment for esophageal cancer. Additionally the sphincter that hold food in my stomach had been eaten off. I hope you take care of it before you reach this stage it isn't pretty