Sources of Severe Abdominal Pain

There’s abdominal pain that simply makes you feel uncomfortable, and then there’s severe abdominal pain, the kind of pain that has you doubled over or unable to function.

Some conditions associated with severe abdominal pain include:

• Appendicitis: The appendix, a finger-shaped pouch attached to the colon on the lower right side of your abdomen, has no known function, but it can become inflamed and cause severe abdominal pain that gets worse over a 6 to 12 hour period.
• Diverticulitis: Diverticulosis occurs when the small pouches found along the length of the digestive tract become inflamed. If they become infected, the condition is called diverticulitis. The inflammation can cause severe abdominal pain, sometimes accompanied by nausea, chills, and fever.
• Pancreatitis: Pancreatitis occurs when enzymes within the pancreas that aid in digestion start attacking the pancreas itself. Signs of this potentially serious condition include nausea, fever, abdominal swelling, and sharp, sudden abdominal pain that starts in the upper right abdomen and may radiate to the lower back.