# Pain or Tenderness in Lower left side of abdomen?



## YouAreSpecial (Jun 30, 2003)

Hi everyone. Hope everyone is enjoying the 4th of July weekend.I am an IBS-Pain Predominant sufferer with a leaning towards Constipation. No diarrhea. I often times feel a tender, ropelike, swollen part of my colon in my lower left side. It is not all the time, comes and goes. I have pointed it out to several doctors, all who dont seemed to be concerned. None of my tests seem to ever show anything either.Some days its more tender than others too, like today. (When i push on it). Everything I read says Divertuclar Disease is notorious for lower left tenderness, but no doctor seems to think its that?? Why not?? Sometimes I think my symptoms more likely fit that than IBS.Anyone else have any lower left pain or tenderness to the touch?Thanks all!A.30 year old female IBS-P/ IBS-C long time sufferer


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## lflower (Jun 23, 2003)

That is interesting. You have the pain on your left and you are a "C". I have the pain on my right and I'm a "D". I wonder if there is a connection here. I can see why the "C" pain might be on the left because that is where the wastes start backing up and getting more compacted, near the rectum. I think with diverticulits you would have fever and enlarged lymph nodes (in your groin crease there's a big lymph node) cuz I thought diverticulitis was an outpouching that gets infected. So you might show high white blood cell count.?? That is what I have seen on the net, that diverticulits is typically on the left. My pain is just like yours that I can push down in one particular spot most of the time and it hurts.


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## gilda (Jul 5, 2000)

I am predominantly D and also have pain in the lower left. I saw the gyn 4 times last year with this pain. I was told by the last Dr that I saw that it was just the IBS that was causing the pain and that most IBS patients she saw had that type of pain on lower portion of either side.


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## YouAreSpecial (Jun 30, 2003)

BumpJust wanted to bump this once more to see if anyone else had any advice for me.Thank you to anyone who can take a minute to help.THANKS


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## kac123 (Aug 2, 2002)

Hi YouAreSpecial, In IBS terms i'm an alternator - usually C but that swings to D on some basis that i haven't entirely figured out yet... Anyway - my pain 99% of the time is in my lower left, and is acute whenever i have an "attack". Sometimes that area is tender to the touch whenever i'm not in "atack mode". This was explained to me by my GI as my sigmoid colon spasming and causing pain and he prescribed antispasmodics to help me deal with it (presently i'm on Bentyl, I think the generic name for that is dicyclomine). He gave me a visual description as well...lets see if i can re-create this: he had me put both hands out in front of me and told me to pretend i was squeezing a tube of toothpaste out with my left hand at the back end of the tube and my right hand near the opening. He said that "normal function" would be my left hand squeezing followed by my right hand when my left hand opened. He said that when my colon spasms that my right hand squeezes, then my left then my left again, then my right and my left together... you get the idea. As for Diverticular Disease - from what i understand a big sign of that is rectal bleeding and D, and being slightly older than either of us. I don't know if you have had a colonoscopy, but that would show it i would think. Anyways - i don't know how much help i was, but thats my two cents! Hope you are feeling well today







Kac


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## YouAreSpecial (Jun 30, 2003)

Kac,THANK YOU! Yes, that really helps me out alot. I am a Pain Predominant leaning towards C. I sort of pictured my sigmoid colon dystending, because my stool is sluggish in that area where I can feel it and the tenderness is. I very rarely get the urge to move my bowels, and I attribute that also to the sluggishness of that area of my sigmoid colon. Its almost like the stool just stops there and doesnt empty into the rectum properly like it should. I can have a BM if I go in and sit on the toilet at the same time every day and have a good amount of straining alot of the time. If I do get the urge to go, it always is accompanied by pain and cramping.Thanks so much for your advice. It really helped!A.


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## kac123 (Aug 2, 2002)

Hi A - Glad i could help someone today







Do you do/take anything to help with the C that you experience? I take citrucel (with a whole lot of water) to keep things moving a little and i often find that if my spasms start up taking some citrucel helps. Do you have a fiber that you take? I don't know if adding some bulk to your stool would help things move a little more. Also, have you discussed Zelnorm with your doctor? I think that on the Constipation forum there's a thread about slow motility as well....just things that are popping into my head as i wait for my timer to ding here at work







I know you said pain was your predominant symptom - i have the C as mine, but its the pain that is brought on by too much C that is really unbearable for me thats why i try to control the C as much as i can.OOh - theres the ding!







I hope you are having a good day still!-Kac


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## unblissfull (Mar 21, 2003)

I've had diver about 2 yrs ago and was in the hosp for 10 days. It took almost a yr to recover. When I had it my stomach was distended so far out I thought I would pop. The pain was worse than having a baby. My blood pressure and temp were high. I hadn't had a bm in a week. The pain was on my left side and hurt through to my back. I didn't need surgery thank God but I couldn't eat the whole time I was in the hosp. I to went to my ob at first thinking it was that. She brought me to the surg office right from her office and I was admitted to the hosp from there. I now see a GI dr and am on 2 tabs colace a day and no nuts, seeds, corn, peas, dried fruit or anything that comes out in the same form it went in. I have been down graded to IBS for the last 1 yr and have a lot of pain and cramping when I'm under a lot of stress or worry. The bental isn't working anymore. Any suggestions on what to take for the pain that works????


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## unblissfull (Mar 21, 2003)

what is Zelnorm?


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## kac123 (Aug 2, 2002)

Hi unblissfull, Zelnorm is a drug out used to treat constipation - i don't know much more about it than that, but you can jump down to the 5-HT4" forum and that entire forum is dedicated to threads on it. As for a way to control the stress based pain, you could look into anti-anxiety drugs if those would help, or you could try hypnotherapy. When i get stressed my C switches to D with the pain and the cramps. I did self-hypnotherapy using "Mike's Tapes" - if you go down to the Hypnotherapy forum they talk about Mike's tapes all the time. I used them every night at bedtime and they drastically improved my life and made it so that i could actually function like a "normal" person again. That and some over the counter biofeedback/relaxation techniques have helped my stress levels a whole lot. Good luck!-Kac


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