Pain in Shoulders

Esophageal Cancer

Tags: Cancer, Shoulder Blade
Posted in Shoulder Pain on December 7th, 2009 by Andreas Xavier

There is a type of pain that is called referred pain.  In a lot of cases, shoulder pains are actually a referred pain. This simply means that the cause of the pain of a shoulder blade is not necessarily caused by a direct injury inflicted on the shoulder instead the pain could be related to a pain originating from one of the organs in the body. Generally the location of where the pain in the shoulder blade occurs will be able to give a clue to which one of the organs are actually affected. The affected organ would then send out a radiating pain to the shoulder.

For instance, if pain is felt under the left shoulder blade, this could be a signal that there’s a problem with the stomach or other abdominal structures or in the chest. On the other hand, if pain is felt under the right shoulder blade, this may indicate some sort of disorder at the esophagus.

The main symptom of this esophageal cancer is the acute sensation while trying to swallow or when food gets stuck in the throat or chest. As the cancer grows, pain in the throat, back, breastbones and shoulder blades will start to intense.

Esophageal cancer does not usually show early signs and the pain between the shoulder blades is usually one of the later signs of esophageal cancer. What happens here is the pain that is generated from a series of activities such as painful swallowing, vomiting or coughing up blood would allow the pain to travel along the nerves to the shoulder, resulting to a sensation of sharp pains in the back, between the shoulder blades, which may depict the signs of advanced esophageal cancer.

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Liver Cancer

Tags: Cancer, Liver
Posted in Uncategorized on June 9th, 2009 by Andreas Xavier

The human body is susceptible to all sorts of diseases but none of which are as bad as cancer. Cancer can be contracted on any part of the body and can attack any one of our organs, and one example of this is liver cancer.

The liver, located behind our ribs and on the right hand side of the abdomen, is the largest organ that we have in our body. The liver is important because it keeps our body healthy. So naturally when one of the biggest and important organs in our body contracts cancer that is not a good thing.

Liver cancer can affect anyone, and it can be due to certain factors as well, such as if you have had a family history of liver cancer then that is not good news for you because you might be at risk as well. Liver cancer also tends to affect those who are over the age of 60 more than it does younger people. Most unfortunately for you if you are a man, that means you are twice as likely to contract it.

Liver cancer is hard to determine in the early stages because the symptoms are not easily detected then. Some of the symptoms you can look out for however to determine if you have liver cancer or not are if you experience pains in your abdomen (which will lead to back and shoulder pains), weight loss, loss of appetite or a feeling of fullness, nausea, vomiting, fever and jaundice. If you find you are experiencing either one, two or a few of these symptoms, get to your doctor as soon as possible because you might have liver cancer and not even know it.

To determine whether or not you have liver cancer, you will need to undergo a few tests with your doctor in order to get the proper assessment. Some of these tests include a physical exam, CT scans, an MRI, blood tests, an ultrasound test, an angiogram and a biopsy. So if you suspect you have liver cancer, get a check-up as soon as possible to minimise your risk.

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