Question
Hi my name is Kayla and I'm 13 years old. Yes I know i am pretty young to be writing you about rib cage pain. Well I have been getting pains in my left rib cage. Tonight I was lieing down and it started to hurt really bad. I tried to get up and couldn't. I had to wake somebody up just to help me get up. It's so bad right now I can barely breath. Please help me it will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer
Hello Kayla,
    I do not know a great deal about acute rib cage pain, I mostly know about chronic pain (usually chronic back pain), so I do not know how much I can help. I do know that you can get gas pains that feel like they are in the lower rib cage. A lot of people are surprised at how bad some gas pains can be.
What you need to do is go to your parents or an adult that is responsible for your well being and tell them about the pain you have been having so they can take you to get medical attention. Just because you are young does not mean there can't be something wrong that is causing the pain. A lot of people, including doctors, will sometimes rule something out solely based on the patients age.
Get an adult to take you to a doctor as soon as possible. If the pain is so bad that you can not get up and/or you are having trouble breathing then you should probably be taken to the emergency room tonight.
Hopefully it will just be something as simple as gas pains but you really need a doctor to determine what the cause of your pain is as soon as possible.