Splenic flexure pain
Posted , 88 users are following.
Hi all. I have been suffering with pain in upper left abdomen below the ribs for 7 months now. I've had loads of tests and nothing has come back showing anything. Had faecal calprotectin test done and that was normal so the docs have not done an endoscopy. Sometimes the pain ramps up to where I can constantly feel it and I can agrivate it with movement such as twisting or stretching Other times it just rumbles along and I hardly notice it but it's always there. Do any of you guys ever get this?
The best way that I can explain the location of the pain is like this. Make a fist with your left hand and place it half way down your left rib line just underneath. Where your little finger rests is where the pain is mostly. I does travel about a little bit but it's mostly there. This normal for ibs?
0 likes, 161 replies
wendy10029 leigh74005
Edited
I can't believe how similar these descriptions are to my mystery pain... I am going on 16 months now of a pain that is like having a golf ball in the left side of my abdomen. This "knot" comes and goes. The cramp-like pain starts rather like gas but the peaks to labor-like contractions and then eventually goes away. I am 48 years old and have had two children but never any abdominal surgeries. My colonoscopy came back normal as did the CT scan and ultrasound. I sure wish these daily spasms would stop. I am so tired
MackieJ leigh74005
Posted
I'm having a painful bout of what sounds like the same thing. I've been constipated for several days (due to some very indiscreet eating). Moving, breathing, coughing, jolts in the car--stabbing pain. It's right where the splenic flexure is probably located. I wonder if hard, dry bits of stool are irritating the colon there where it sort of turns corner. When the pain started a couple of days ago, my first thought was "stitch" in my side. I now realize that pain there is not all that uncommon for me, just not usually as severe.
MackieJ
Posted
Update on my post from a few weeks ago:
Although I was running a low-grade fever with it, I went ahead on a scheduled 6 day car trip. I avoided milk products, drank lots of water, and added a lot of fiber, including ground flax seed. A week after the pain started, I finally started pooping again--a little at a time--and by the 2nd week, the pain was mostly gone.
Plysg leigh74005
Posted
I'm so glad to have found this thread. I actually signed up to Patient just so I could respond! I've been looking for an answer to this since 2014, and it's interesting to see how hits for 'splenic flexure syndrome' have increased over that time.
The pain under my left rib is pretty much always there nowadays, with the exception of when I'm ill (say with a bug) - interestingly it disappears then, maybe because I'm 'empty'? It all started after an operation for endometriosis. The 'bubble' pain happened every couple of months and would keep me awake at night. Like a trapped burp, but a bit lower down. It drove me crazy. Then over the years the bad patches have joined together and I even think it's affecting my control, which has been hugely distressing. Sometimes it's just uncomfortable, but at its worst I have full on fever and the "poisoned" feeling that someone else mentioned earlier in the thread. It's such a relief to find I'm not the only one.
CT and MRI scans were clear, and no inflammation identified in samples. We've therefore been working on the assumption I'd developed an adhesion from the surgery, so I was on the waiting list for years to have a second operation to free it. That happened in March 2019 and guess what? No adhesion. Nothing at all up under my rib, in fact. Lots of endometriosis on the lower RH side so in theory that could be distorting things, but from the perspective of my gynae and gastro, it's not something structural.
Having read solaralex's success with physiotherapy, I'm going to go and give this a try in earnest. I actually saw a visceral massage therapist last summer who stretched and pulled around my ribs, and I left that first appointment completely pain free. It was bonkers. I think if I didn't have the operation coming up to treat the 'adhesion' I might have stuck with it, but because we were sure the operation would fix it, my mindset was completely wrong and I didn't see the cost as being worthwhile. I was just desperate for them to go in and 'free' it.
This has gone on for far too long now, and at times I've even considered quitting work it's been so bad and so intrusive. Sorry for the rambling post, it's really felt like a massive step forward to read others with the same mystery illness, and even more so to know that some of you have been able to overcome it. Good luck, and thank you!
richard98584 Plysg
Posted
This could have been written by me. Have you found relief? There's a 13 year little girl in this thread suffering from this. I can hardly get out of bed, I can't imagine a 13 year old dealing with this. I want to get to the bottom of this. Let's get this in front of doctors.
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Plysg richard98584
Posted
I'm sorry to hear you're suffering too.
Update from my side in case this helps anyone else: I moved house in March and my gastro immediately dismissed me from his care as I was out of area. No more tests, no more support. He just told me to speak to my GP 'if I was still having issues'. Needless to say, I was pretty devastated. GP's conclusion was that it wasn't gastro at all - I probably had a back problem.
So, I started physio a few weeks later: my muscles on my left-hand side around my ribs are very tight, and there's definitely less flexibility there. He got me to do a lot of breathing deeply with my back arched to the right (so stretching along the problem side as I breathed). This was helpful in the moment but had no effects afterwards. Then physio decided that he's concerned about the combination of symptoms and wouldn't take my physical treatment further until we find out what the underlying problem is. So here I am...in limbo!
I find stretches on my left hand side helpful, especially if the 'bubble' is so bad I can't sleep. I also find two tennis balls in a sock good for freeing up some knots in my shoulder blades (put the sock on the floor, lie on it and roll around a bit so the tennis balls dig into the muscles on the shoulder blade - be careful if you have known back injuries and obviously don't overdo it).
The problem has also progressed to cause some numbness in my back too, so I saw a massage therapist who helped me work some of that free. So there's definitely a muscular issue going on, the question is if it's the cause of the problem, or if something else is causing the muscles to spasm (such as an injury). I really do hope it's just a muscular thing that can be worked out with physio, I just don't see how this connects to bowel issues yet.
I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has an elevated heart rate as a result of it? I think it's because of where the problem is (below ribs) that it's pulling on nerves that regulate the heart. My resting HR increased by 20 points from before the pain starting in 2014 to now and it's consistently high (i.e. not just when I'm anxious or stressed). I saw a cardio but ECGs were clean, no obvious cause. I do think it's related though as they both started the same time. Anyone else?
richard98584 Plysg
Posted
When you take a sup of water or liquid does it hit this bubble spot and cause air bubbles to break up and be expelled?
Plysg richard98584
Posted
Hi Richard, no that doesn't happen for me.
janice22852 Plysg
Posted
I have lots of same symptoms as people who have posted in this thread about splenic flexure. I've been suffering with persistent digestive issues for around ten years now and had lots of tests but no real answers. My symptoms aren't severe, I would describe it as discomfort most of the time rather than pain, but sometimes get quite bad cramping feeling in stomach. I also get gripping sensation around my lower ribs. It bothers me more in the night and disturbs my sleep and when sitting at a desk, but I also tried a standing desk for 2 weeks but still had symptoms. I quit a really good job this year partly because of the symptoms. Gastroscopy showed gastritis in lower part of stomach but a month of PPI made no difference to symptoms. Ultrasound revealed some gallstones and had gallbladder removed 2 years ago despite the pain being mainly in left ribs exactly where you all describe, although sometimes it was centre chest, but I still have left lower rib symptoms. I also get lots of ectopic heart beats and sometimes a rapid pulse after eating. Tests on heart were normal. I've tried amitriptyline for the stomach pain which took the edge off the symptoms and helped me sleep better but I wasn't symptom free and it caused constipation and bad hot flushes. I can't sleep on my left hand side because the bubbling gassy feeling in my back keeps me awake. The only things that really seem to help are going for a long walk, not sitting still for long periods and eating small regular meals. I avoid onions, garlic, chilli, and alcohol as these seem to make symptoms worse. I've also cut down on foods containing sugar and try to eat some fermented food and probiotic yoghurt regularly. Like lots of others I've tried acupuncture and osteopathy which can give temporary relief but they aren't a cure. I think the symptoms started with prolonged stress but they haven't improved despite having a career break this year.
shannon12797 leigh74005
Posted
Is it splenic flexure syndrome? That is what I have and it sounds almost identical to my pain.
wendy10029 shannon12797
Posted
I sure wish I knew... I have had 2 days of excruciating pain in that same area where the "ball" forms in the left hand side of my abdomen. I went back to my primary care doctor yesterday and was told th that because they can't find any definitive diagnosis he wants to treat me for IBS. If that doesn't work, he wants me to take an anti anxiety medication or anti depressant...oh geez... I know for a fact that this is not stress. So far so good today. no cramping episodes yet...
John-1 shannon12797
Posted
What is your pain line shannon?
stevejohn121 leigh74005
Posted
Hi Leigh,
How is the pain....Is this pain symptoms of IBS..I always think IBS symptoms should be constipaton (urge to go to toilet frequently)
richard98584 leigh74005
Edited
this has been going on with me, too. the exact same symptoms. lets find a way to get this in front of the medical community. i will do my part.
richard98584 leigh74005
Edited
Has anyone had any luck, even short term, with any specific antibiotic or anti parasitic combinations?
crh36530 richard98584
Posted
I tried the probiotics but they did nothing for me. They didnt give me antibiotics because my H.Polori (sp?) came back negative.