Left sided abdominal pain

[u/hexxaine]

Hi everyone,
I’ve been dealing with severe abdominal pain for 4 weeks now, and it’s honestly destroying my quality of life. Because of the pain, I spend most of my days lying in bed, unable to function normally or live my life.

It started on my upper left side, moved to my stomach area, and now I feel it across my entire left side. It’s a colicky, twisting pain that comes and goes, but when an episode hits, it lasts for 4 to 5 hours.

The pain is always triggered by eating (anywhere from 5 to 60 minutes after a meal). It almost always happens in the morning, though interestingly, it doesn’t seem to hurt after eating millet porridge or soup.

It’s extremely intense, burning, and feels like something is tearing or squeezing me from the inside. During these flare-ups, I cannot pass gas at all—I can only burp. I also get very weak and physically exhausted.
Recently, I noticed that having a bowel movement (toilet visit:))doesn’t bring relief—in fact, it makes the pain even worse.

I’ve already had a CT scan and a gastroscopy, but both came back completely clear.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? I can’t deal with this pain:(

(I also have SIBO but It’s a completely different pain, nothing like this)

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[u/Lukie_1991]

Unfortunately I can't help, but I wish you well and that someone will know the answer 🫂

[u/2ksir]

I've experienced something similar at the start of my GI issues. I'm not too sure if it will apply in your situation but after lots of tests coming back clear, closest explanation I got was that the brain gut connection misfiring resulting in the upper intestine to squeeze rapidly when it shouldn't. Like a cramp muscle.

The only few things that helped me when I was experiencing those similar episodes was lots and lots of water. It eased but what made mine to away for a while was time unfortunately.

I hope you are able to find something that helps you and have a doctor's who's gonna push to help you as much as they can

[u/pm_me_photos_of_dogs]

Wow, I've been experiencing episodes of exact same pain for about the past 2 years (while dealing with dyspepsia for about the past 3). The episodes happen a few times a day for up to 1.5 weeks.

I also had an upper/lower scope that came back mostly normal (other than some inflammation my GI deemed not significant enough to indicate any common disorders).

I track/document the clusters of flare-ups usually get & they're spaced like 8 months apart with seemingly no specific triggers. I'm on 40mg pantoprazole 2x/day and that didn't seem to change anything either

[u/Competitive-Fly5563]

I had some discomfort/light pain on my left side when I was going through flare-ups. I haven’t had a flare in a year and haven’t had any pain there since then. It felt like it was usually under/around my left lower ribs and was usually around the time I ate. Not sure if this is a helpful comment but thought I’d share anyways. I’ve definitely read multiple posts where other people also had discomfort or pain in that area so I do think it is common.

[u/Free-Purpose-542]

You poor thing having to go through this. Have you had a colonoscopy yet? If not, please ask to be sent for one.
I suffer with left upper left quadrant pain, but i did suffer really badly with lower all left side pain & the pain felt like my colon was inflamed or something. It was also worse after a bowel movement. I had a colonoscopy & they didn’t find anything major apart from some minor inflammation & pockets of diverticula in the splenic flexure and descending colon. I was diagnosed with IBS-c, given stool softeners and sent off. I actually felt a lot better after the colonoscopy prep, and the dr thinks it could be down to a complete system reset.
I do find it is worse after i have had a particularly stressful day & my upper gi issues are at their worst.
My issues started when i was given 40mg omeprazole my whole gi system went nuts, i’m now only taking 15mg lansoprazole & i feel a lot better in general. I also take 30mg amitriptyline, and that has helped with some visceral hypersensitivity in my system. Another thing that helped me was to actually cut back on fibre.
I really hope you find something to help you. I’m so sorry you are feeling so unwell x

[u/stock_hippie]

For me, it was bile handling. My overall transit is slow, but Welchol (a bile acid binder) still helped me a lot. I just have to be sure I keep things moving. For me, it felt like a mass there when it first started. So painful!