Pain Below My belly Button With A Low Grade Fever.

by Kelly
(New Hampshire, United States)

I am a 51 year old female and have been suffering with pain below and in line with my belly button for a couple weeks now. I went to my GP who took x-rays of my abdomen and did bloodwork. I have been running a low grade fever of 101 for the last week and have been more constipated then normal. I have had constipation since going on pain medication 2 years ago and take a stool softner and Propylene Glycol daily. I have RTS or "rabbit turd syndrome" with small compressed black stools. I also have no appetite and my stomach is bloated and it hurts to push in below my belly button.

I have chronic pain, Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and unfortunately I need to take pain meds to function so I know that is what is causing the constipation. Still this is the first time I have had this pain below my belly button. The X-rays showed I was full so my doctor called in Cipro and Flagyl and Amitza 8 mcg caps x2 a day. The Amitza has helped me to have a more normal bowel movement but the pain is still bad. It hurts so much I can't bear down at all to urinate and I urinate a lot more in small amounts. I was also told to drink and sip water as much as I can tolerate. My doctor thinks I may have Diverticulitis and is treating me for that. He told me to stay out of the ER because they would try and remove my appendix which he feels would be unneccesary. I am making plans to have a colonoscopy done which hopefully will show more of what is causing this pain. I had a test with a scope of my bladder last month which showed nothing abnormal except a little blood in my urine. Bladder cancer is very common in my family after age 50 so the test was really to look for that.

Is there anything else that can be done to resolve this pain? It feels a lot like when I had an Ovarian Cyst years ago and they did Laproscopy to remove it. I was doubled over a lot like I am now and the pain is in the same area. I am in menopause now so I doubt it would be that?



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Dear Kelly,

Your concerns about the possibility of bladder cancer is understandable.

You have been experiencing pain in your lower abdomen for the past few weeks, and especially more so in the last week with associated low grade fever. You are also passing urine in small quantity more frequent than you normally would.

Has there been blood in your urine - either visible to the naked eye or on bedside testing? Any weight loss recently?

The symptoms you've described here sounds more like a case of constipation, leading to pressure on the bladder and reducing out flow and this precipitating a cystitis. That is most likely what is causing your lower abdominal pain and fever.

I am very pleased to know that your doctor has started you on a very good antibiotics - ciprofloxacin. Hopefully, he would have collected and send off urine samples too. If there were blood in it, he could treat as possible UTI first and then repeat it and if there is still blood in the urine, could then send the sample off to test for any abnormal cells in the urine. That is if he suspects from your symptoms that something more than UTI is going on. It is very very unlikely from what you have shared here.

It is nevertheless very important to take your concerns seriously. What I would advice or suggest is that you speak with your GP again and let him or her know of your concerns of bladder cancer. That way, you can have samples sent off to the lab or a bladder scan requested. At least that might help to reassure you if nothing else.

I believe that in a few days time, you should be feeling much better - it takes about 48 to 72 hours for the antibiotic to set in properly.

Please contact your GP if you not feeling much better in 72 hours.

Do not hesitate to contact us, if you have any further questions or concerns, and many thanks for using our free online resource here at abdopain.com.