Dear Doctor,

In January of this year I took a long haul flight (13 hours). In the last hour of the flight I was sitting scrunched up (leaning my head on a pulled down tray table) and experienced what felt like a muscle pull in my abdomen. This was a sharp and unpleasant sensation, which was relieved somewhat by standing up and straightening out my abdomen. The exact same thing happened about 3 weeks later whilst I was doing push ups at the gym.

Fearing an abdominal hernia, and went to a doctor and ended up getting a CT scan – no hernia was detected.

Meanwhile, since this time (about 3 months now), I’ve been feeling a general discomfort in my abdomen when sitting (I have a desk job), which is generally relieved by standing or lying down. In the past couple of months, I’ve also started getting a much more upleasant tightening sensation around my solar plexus, and this has been getting worse to include a feeling of breathlessness. Also, any pressure my abdomen increases this sense of breathlessness. This means I have had to stop doing all sport.

All this is a bit worrying for the following reasons:

- I am 27 (male)
- Generally healthy
- Drink very little alcohol (1 drink a month, max), don’t smoke, don’t drink coffee

Symptoms are worse if I have a heavy meal.

Any ideas about what is going on, and how best to treat?

Thank you.