burning sensations and numbness in upper abdomen

[MommaAnna]

Hello everyone,

Has anyone else been experiencing intense burning pain in their upper mid-abdomen? I am 29 weeks pregnant and have been experiencing this for about a month now. It started maybe 9 weeks ago with terrible pain below my right breast between my ribs and extending around to the upper right side of my back. This later progressed into the intense burning pain I feel now at my upper abdomen. I am now nearly numb along the top of my belly or very tender to touch there.

I have been super frustrated with the way my OB and GP doctors have dealt with the problem. They've run blood tests and examined me, but say the pregnancy doesn't seem to be endangered by this. My GP said I was suffering from inflammation of cartilage between my rib bones, which was perhaps triggering nerve pinching, which I feel at the center of my abdomen. This was his assessment after a perfunctory exam. The pain, however, is chronic and seems to worsen as my days go along. It is so bad that I can hardly walk more than a quarter mile without the burning/ripping pain in my upper abdomen. I also feel pain down my back etc. I am concerned about how I'll manage the rest of my pregnancy, since I can hardly go about my everyday activities, let alone exercise.

I am 5'8" and originally weighed 140, but am already up to 170, which I have been told is too much weight too fast. It all seems to be at my breasts and stomach, so perhaps all of this weight is causing these intense pains?

Should I be worried? Anyone else have similar symptoms and, if so, what did your doctors say? Have any of you found relief?

 

[Dubibump]

Hi there

You poor thing! I have had the numbness and a feeling of sunburn across the top of my bump from about 5 months. I'm still having it because little one is breech so her head is making me even more sore. I don't have the inflammation you have, it sounds horrible! I'm so sorry you are suffering from this.

 

[Mommy2be20]

I had that with my DD, it was awful! I would almost be in tears most days, especially as I got bigger. My midwife said it was the weight of bump stretching my skin and ligaments. I used a heating pad for short spans of time for a bit of relief, cold might be effective too but I never tried it. Hang in there, as soon as your bundle is here, it'll disappear

 

[Hopeful27yrs]

The pain you're describing is common and is called neuropathic pain. The nerves that supply the abdominal wall come from underneath the ribs and so with the stretching and pulling on the nerves they become sensitised or numb. It's similiar to sitting on your foot for a while and the foot becoming numb. When the pressure is released the nerve comes back to life but with a range of odd sensations. Instead of one insult however this continues for months with the increase in size of the abdominal wall and so the nerves hardly recover in between. Hence the longstanding numbness and burning sensations.

This will recover - but slowly when the pressure is off. Unfortunately traditional pain relief helps little - but gentle massage of the skin will help the skin when recovering.

I've had the same thing and have still got a very numb patch at the top of my bump. Initially had burning and a lot of pain but it's calmed down since bump has dropped.