Upper abdominal cramps (severe spasms)

I have been reading everyone's postings....I have been suffering from this for years...I have had tests after tests. However, I am noticing that noone has mentioned anything about paing on the upper right side, which that is where mine is. They are stating left. I also noticed noone satated anything about having Gerd, or their gallbladder taken out....that is when all my pain stated, it was the pain that caused me to have my gallbladder to come out, but I still noticed that the pain is still there.

I was also told that maybe a small stone was left behind. This pain comes if I do sudden moves, sneeze very hard, try to work out at gym (crunches) or singing very hard (I am a recording artist).......I woul love to truly know what this is.....and a while a go, when I was married, it would definitely be painful after an orgasm (hehe he dont me to be graphic, but this is real)

Dr stated that when I have this pain again, to go to the ER and get blood work done ASAP.....hmmm how can i when Im on the floor in pain...LOL....but he stated soon after.......stated something about the liver and pancreas productions....I dont know...It might be weeks before I have a big major attack, and I sure as heck not gonna doliberately bring an onset on.......

Wow this is got to be the biggest godsend ever I feel like I've just joined a new family that understands my pain literally!!! Everybody's post sounds just like what I've been going through. At first I thought my pain came from a car accident I had but I'm starting to believe it's something else entirely. I have the same symptoms just like all of you and many of the same triggers such as laughing, sneezing, or somehow making too sudden of a move like bending over to tie shoelaces. It is extremely painful and once it occurs I must stop whatever I'm doing and as many of you have said there is no position that seems to work. I usually try lifting my arms over my head and stretching to push the muscle back in the opposite direction but it doesn't really work all the time its just all I know how to do. My spasms start in my solar plexus like a tight not, and if I'm not careful it spreads to my stomach and chest. I almost believe that if it can spread throughout your entire body if you panic and continue to move. So for me there is no one place, it just spreads from my solar plexus most of the time although it can start other places. Another painful area is definitely the ribcage, especially when laughing or turning to the side too abruptly. Many times it has started in my solar plexus and spread to my ribcage resulting in me dropping to the floor contorting switching sides to counteract the spread of the spasm. One stretch that sometimes helps in the situation I have found is to lie flat on your stomach and too use your hands to push you off the floor lifting just your torso. This is a common exercise stretch that just happens to temporarily delay the spasm but you have to keep doing it for awhile. Well as for the guest who mentioned getting as spasm during sexual intercourse or recording I must confess I've had the same thing happen to me. It's times like these that honesty is truly the best policy. I record as well and I'm also starting to believe that somehow certain breathing techniques do help to lessen the spasm I swear there is some kind of connection with breathing and muscle tension. Perhaps we can all work together to find a way to conquer this pain I for one would love to find out just what the hell it is in the first place. Thanks to you all for allowing me to feel like I'm no longer crazy for feeling this type of pain for the last thirty or so years!!

I too have been plagued with this bizarre "cramp" in my upper left abdomen! It seems mine started after I had my gallbladder taken out several years ago. I never know when it will strike and double over with the pain when it does. Just had a "spell" as I call it night before last while lying in bed watching tv. No reason, just all of a sudden, there it was! When my pain strikes, I have to lay on my right side and hold my fist over the "knot" that forms until it subsides. Sometimes it lasts for several minutes and sometimes longer. Then for days the place on my side is sore, and sometimes I even have diarrhea for days afterward. I have consulted with several doctors who tell me that it is probably scar tissue from my gallbladder surgery. I'm not so sure now after reading this site! Thank you all for your stories, because now I don't feel like I am alone in this! Anyone who hasn't experienced this pain could ever understand! Thanks so much!

Wow, it is SO nice to see that I'm NOT the only one this happens to! (However, I entirely understand how much this sucks and I don't want to make light of it!)
For me, I have a rare condition called CMT. it's sort of a mild neuro-muscular dystrophy. So my legs are messed up and I have scoliosis, and I have body wide aches and pains. That's normal for me. However. These cramp things are not generally things that others with my condition complain about, so I'm not sure if it is something else or it's because of the disorder I have, this is exaggerated for me...
I find if I stretch too much, like if I stretch my arms out in front of me and clasp my hands together and then bend forward, it gets me EVERY time. I also get ridiculous sudden neck cramps which happen when I move my neck suddenly, randomly. Both of these things make breathing impossible, as the pain really is so severe that it takes my breath away.
My doctors are not investigating this at all. It seems Nova Scotia has a less than fantastic healthcare staff, or maybe they're all awesome except for the ones I've run into. Nobody takes me seriously, and it took me 3 years to convince my family doctor that I was in enough pain to warrant a referral to a Neurologist (who diagnosed myself and my mother within 3 minutes of meeting us).
It sucks, but I think i'm stuck with this thing. And yeah, laying down IS the only thing that makes it go away, and I laughed about the "laying down in the streets" comment :-)

I came upon this site googling "Muscle cramp upper left abdomen". Eek...I guess the fact that docs don't know what it is - is actually a GOOD thing because if it was life threatening you'd hope they would, right? This happened out of the blue yesterday for the first time. And today as well - literally both times when I was on the toilet (TMI, I know!). And like one other person said, was like a charlie horse on my upper left abs. I held my breath and couldn't even move until it went away...like maybe 15 seconds. I have a feeling it's my seated position on the toilet that brought it on, however it hasn't happened in a seated position like a chair. How odd...I'm glad to know that it's not a weird symptom of some scary serious problem though - I can live with this annoyance. Yay for middle age!!!

Hello, I have this exact situation in my right upper quadrant of abdominal muscle. It goes into a charley horse with a rock hard golf ball sized spasm that is excruciating. Mine began after having laprascopic abdominal surgery back in 2000. I don't know if it triggered some nerve irritation or is connected with dehydration or magnesium deficiency but it is a royal pain! If I do situps, reach down for something on the floor from a seated position ( crunch position), stretch a certain way, it gets triggered. I asked my trainer about it and we just adapted the way i do ab exercises. What I do for relief is the second it starts to spasm i press my thumbs up under the ribcage straight into the muscle where the "golf ball" usually originates from (stretch the attachment of the muscle) and this seems to help a little by preventing the full scale episode but i still experience the scale of 10 spasmotic agony but for a shorter time. Enough to break a sweat and almost cry and def takes the breath away. I just assumed its a charley horse in the ab muscle from some nerve irritation from the surgery. Thinking of adding more calcium/mag to the diet to see if that helps.

Thank you all for this information. I've been dealing with this same thing for a little over a year, since my second child. It is unbearable when it happens, I can feel the spasm (hard as a rock), and it doesn't seem to have a preference from right to left. Incredibly sore for 2-3 days after and it seems random in terms of "active" periods. Seems that pressing hard on the spasm and keeping moving/walking around helps it go away faster. I can go for 2-3 weeks without issue and then have an episode three days in a row. Seems to happen most often when I'm sitting or moving from sitting to reach for something, etc. Although it has happened on the toilet and at other "private" moments! It does seem to happen more often when I'm not getting good sleep...with two under 3 that's a common issue :-)

Had CT scan, upper endoscopy and ultrasound. Found that I do have a hiatal hernia, but the doctors say it is not related to the spasms. They gave me drugs for GERD and then Prilosec to try for a month. The drug for the GERD is an anti-spasmodic and it seems to help in the moment, if I have them with me! Has anyone ever tried acupuncture? I'm nervous to take the Prilosec so haven't started it yet.

Thank you all for sharing your information. I've been struggling to understand why there don't seem to be any answers and feeling alone with this issue. Look forward to hearing if anyone has tried acupuncture...I'm willing to consider more options/approaches.

I also get exactly, these symptoms. Feels like a cramp, and a lump protrudes for the duration of the cramp. I was 14 when I first got it, and thought I was having a heart attack.

I feel as though maybe it has something to do with our bodys nutrient balance, I am not sure. Maybe lacking in potassium, apparent ally that makes you more prone to cramping. Bananas are high in this.

Have been dealing with the same as others. upper left side of abdomin area. It was/is the worst when it comes on in the middle of the night and persists for a couple hrs cannot sleep. Mine don't hurt they just spasm then relax then 10-15 min later spasm etc etc. like one of the people posting said you can see the knot twitching if you look in the mirror. Very annoying I think it is also something to do with being off balance with minerals.

3 days ago I had really bad shoulder pain. Thought it was a pinched nerve, doc couldn't find anything. Then 2 days ago started having severe pain on my left side, right by my ribcage. It was excruciating - it felt like something would burst inside me!

Yesterday I spent most of the day in the ER cause I just couldn't stand it! I had a really rapid pulse when I got there, so they were worried about a bloodclot in my lungs. Had a bunch of tests: CT, EKG, Xray, nothing to give any answers. The nurse told me it was muscular-skeletal, and really nothing they could do with that. They prescribed me Oxycondine, which caused me to throw up for 8 hours... I'm trying Extra Strength Tylenol but that's not doing a whole heck of a lot. Glad I'm not alone, but it sucks that nobody knows what's causing this...

follow up to my last post - I make sure that I drink 12 oz of water first thing in the am. I drink water throughout the day to increase hydration. I also added Calcium Citrate with Magnesium and have had tremendously LESS incidences of the spasm/ charley horse in my right upper abdominal muscle. I work out regularly and have had no problem with situps/ crunches like I used to. So seems like the musculo/skeletal reason was Calcium imbalance. I did learn that if you drink coffee/ caffeine it increases your chances of muscle cramps. I switched to decaf drinks and have successfully handled this problem with diet and nutrition. Hope this helps.

I am having a lot of the symptoms you guys are describing in this forum. The other day my friend was driving me home from an event we were at and I bent over to pick up a coffee cup I had dropped in his car and the cramps/pain in the upper right quadrant were almost unbearable. I've been getting this a lot lately depending on how I move but this was the worst yet. Plus, unlike the other times, the whole area is now sore to the touch for the last 36 hours. I've pulled muscles before and gotten charlie horses and stuff so I know the muscles can hurt for a while afterwards but I'm hoping this clears up soon. I'm about 40 pounds overweight so I'm sure that doesn't help and it is also compounded by the fact that I have a cold right now and am coughing too, which also hurts, all in this isolated spot of my upper right abdomen. A chiropractor I went to once on a whim actually thought it was due to a "rib that was out of whack" but I am not sure I trust a chiropractor for my diagnosis. One of these days I will just give up and suck it up and go to a doctor like I probably should have 6 months ago when this started.

well i also have these muscle cramps in my upper left side of my stomach/sixpack. also after certain yoga stretches or surfing, if i bend down and come back up i find my stomach muscle popped over my ribcage-ouch!
my solution is to arch backwards and push the muscle back down.
thought i might have a hernia but maybe not... good luck everybody

WOW! Thank God i am not the only one.... right down to the person that has it happen while wiping the tush -- crazy stuff! God be with us all!

Hi Everyone. I've been experiencing these upper abdominal cramps too. The only way to describe it is like it feels like someone is squeezing your upper organs. Fortunately mine don't seem that bad as those of you above. My spasms last only a few seconds & they are very sporadic, although I must add that I have only just started getting them since yesterday around 5pm & when I do get them it feels very painful it makes me catch my breath & wince. I have a doc's appointment later so we will see what he says...I will let you all know what the out come is....I would also like to add that I have cold,chesty cough,runny nose ect & I did have a major op called a 'whipple' (sounds like an ice cream!) which was due to the fact I had a tumour in my pancreas & so they removed my Gould bladder,part of my small intestine & the head of my pancreas, not to mention the tumour itself of course! but this was 2 years ago now so it may not be anything to do with it but thought it worth mentioning. Will get back to you all later & hope you all feel better soon or if not at least get answers :-)