Uncomfortable feeling Under Left Lower Ribs and varying bowel movements

1 year ago - endoscopy and biopsy on small bowel.

Specialist said slight hiatus hernia and slight damage to the villi in my small bowel.(doc was thinking along the lines of celiac) but ruled it out as the bloods showed negative and no vitamin deficiences.Doc came to the conclusion that it was more of a food intolerance and told me to go easy on the gluten and come back in a year for another test.  

With that being said, i carried on as normal.

I original had an endoscopy because i was getting pain in my left shoulder blade and some discomfort in the middle of my back when i swallowed...i could literally feel the food going down my food pipe and i had convinced myself something was wrong with my esophagus.

Since the test i have carried on as normal, but cut out alot of Gluten, but didnt cut out my alcohol or coffee consumption (i drink heaps of coffee, and drink alcohol on weekends but have a tendency to overindulge when i do).  I havent had any major flare ups until about 6-8 weeks ago when after taking 2 anti inflammatories on an empty stomach (i thought they were panadol) i felt terribly ill, dizzy, nausea and upset stomach.  Since then i have had this niggly pain in my left upper quad, under my ribs.  I feel it mostly straight after i have eaten or sometimes when i wake in the night and i start worrying about it, it seems to come on worse.  These last two weeks have been the worst and i have been watching carefully for triggers.  I have also joined several different facebook groups to try and figure which of my symptoms are most similar to including, ibs, gastritus, hiatus hernia and reflux discussions.  So far i have found that the major triggers to this pain are; onions, pistachios, cashews, shallots, coffee , chocolate and stress.  I seem to fit mostly into the gastritus category.  Ive had some blood work done which has turned out fine. I have eliminated gluten just in case and will go back to basics in food for a while...ive found that bananas ease the pain and coconut water seems to ease it as well.  I have some reflux tablets that i will take for a month and monitor for differences.  My usual symptoms are as follows;

Niggly sensation under left rib (almost like a stinging sensation)

brain fog

dizziness and nausea(when the pain is at its worst)

pain in stomach is noticed more on sitting

pain is felt in left shoulder blade (like a pulled muscled or trapped wind) and also a pulling tight feeling under the collarbone on the left side.

pain is worse after swallowing and sometimes can be felt in middle of back and left shoulder blade when swallowing.

I hope that this has helped someone out there.  If anyone else experiences the shoulder blade pain please let me know as it will be a little bit assuring.

I have been having very similar problems and I may have a solution.

For me, starting January, I started to feel a lot of discomfort underneath my left ribs towards the center of my torso. It began with waking up one night feeling like I had a side ache.  Since then, there hasn't been any pain, but I have been extremely uncomfortable.  I noticed that I could not eat as much food either without getting full.  I was burping a lot more and my bowel movement seemed very irregular. The best way to describe the discomfort is that it felt like somebody was constantly poking me in the ribs. 

I too, have seen a doctor, had a cat-scan, blood tests, antibiotics, etc. The only thing that came back was that I had the H-Pylora bacteria which could cause ulcers, but I have had ulcers before and it didn't seem to match the description because I haven't been feeling pain. I kept coming to the conclusion more and more that it had to be something related to my stomach or large intestine or Spleen.

In any case, I eventually realized that a lot of my clothes are tight around my waste. This is due to me gaining quite a bit of wait lately.  I didn't think it would necessarily be the problem because the discomfort was up around my ribs. However, I purchased wider clothes and realized that I should be in larger sizes than I have been wearing. Almost instantly, things have greatly improved.  I wouldn't say I am at 100% from where I was before, but I am at least at the 85% or higher mark and I believe it will get better as I wear more comfortable clothes.

This may or may not be anybody's issue here, but I feel it was mine and I feel so much better now. I feel silly that I had to pay a doctor and go through all of these tests to figure out my belt is too tight. I think this happened kind of like the idea of putting a frog in hot water. My clothes got tighter so gradually that I didn't realize how tight they were and that they could be putting pressure on my organs that would effect my stomach. 

Anyways, it's worth a shot. Consider your clothes your wearing around your waste. Everything from your underwear to your belt. 

This is for whoever is out there reading this...  I've contributed to this thread before, but I have found something I believe will help.  After visiting a ton of Doctors, including Naturopaths, Chiropractors, and Physical therapists... I finally heard something that makes sense. 

Last year the chiropractor told me I had arthritis in my thoracic spine (middle back (a tiny bit higher).  She didn't tell me what I would feel because of it, and I didn't ask - silly me?!?  I just knew that my spine didn't hurt at the time.. although I was feeling the pain on my lower left rib.. she did not connect the two and neither did I.  The pain is also sometimes on my right rib, and sometimes at other points in my ribs.. but most of the time it was my lower left rib.   

Anyhow.. I saw another doctor yesterday, and although that doctor was stumped when I shared my story about my rib pain, she brought in another doctor in the office - one with more experience. The other doctor wanted me to get another xray of my spine.  She said that what she would be looking for is arthritis in my spine (mid/upper back - look it up).  And that if I had arthritis in my spine, it could be messing with a nerve and could definitely be causing pain in my ribs... including my lowest rib and it wraps around!  Anyhow - she suggested physical therapy!   As luck would have it, I had scheduled a 90 minute massage for today, and my new massage therapist also happens to be a physical therapist.  I asked her about my rib pain, and she mentioned the Thoracic spine could be causing the pain in my rib!!  ... Crazy, right!?  This has been almost an entire year, numerous doctors, numerous blood tests, colonoscopy, endoscopy, xrays, ultrasounds, etc...  She not only gave me a regular massage, but did not myofascial as well.. as she was certified to do that.  And you know what...It actually helped.  She did this thing where she pushed hard in between all of my back ribs - between the rib bones - there is a name for it, but I don't recall what she called it.   It hurt like hell, but also felt good at the same time!   As some of already know, exercise really helps arthritis.. so be sure to exercise too!  Curcumin also does wonders for arthritis.  Something else to know.. tons of people get arthritis, and it doesn't always cause pain... until it hits or interrupts a nerve or something. 

I truly hope this helps everyone!!!