Severe pain in side

[Kimple123]

Hi my mum has suffered a pain in upper left side for a year. Worse this past 4 months. She’s just had colonoscopy done and nothing mentioned during the procedure. She’s still waiting for official results as they took biopsy to check for microscopic colitis. She’s lost a tiny bit of weight but considering she’s eaten so little for months it’s surprising she’s not stick thin! I read somewhere that your body can hold on to toxins and not shed weight when it’s something to do with gallbladder! She has stones but told not causing issue. She’s tired all time. NO jaundice. She has IBS for years! The pain eases with laxatives! And recently for a few days when not eating gluten products (as experiment!). The pain feels like dragging but mostly sore. Gets worse at night! Runs to loo or constipated! She’s real fed up! Doesn’t know what to eat or not eat! Feels down and lacking energy! Tearful etc most of time. It’s so not like her!

Any ideas or similarity anyone?

[Regalbirdy]

Hi,

It sounds like your Mum is going through such a tough time. You sound so worried about her. I can’t be too much help except to suggest that you double check that she has had a coeliac blood test recently.

FYI, Untreated Coeliac Disease can be an extremely uncomfortable multi-organ condition (like many others here, I’m a Coeliac - so have some experience of this). Any Coeliac ‘gluten accidents ‘ I’ve had in recent years, have manifested in severe pain in my gut on the front left side - in between the top of my hip and the bottom of my rib cage. I also develop a desperate need to live very near a loo for many, many hours afterwards! This used to be a daily event prior to diagnosis, however the gluten free diet has helped a lot. Having undiagnosed coeliac disease also used to cause me to have severe fatigue issues to the point of exhaustion; and looking back, there were times when this almost felt a little like having mild case of depression.

Btw, Please don’t encourage your Mum go fully gluten free until any/all the relevant tests are done - it can mess up the results and can give false negatives for Coeliac Disease (after all results are in she would be free to eat what she liked!). Please also understand that being negative for Coeliac Disease does not always mean that a person has no sensitivity to gluten. Non Coeliac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) exists as a condition in its own right, it is just caused by a different mechanism in the body.

Coeliac UK has some useful information on their site if you wanted to Google more about symptoms etc.

I really hope your Mum gets some answers so that she can start feeling better soon.

R. B. x

P. S. Remember to also take care of yourself as well.

[Penel]

Hi Kemble

Sorry to hear about problems your mum is going through. Regalbirdy has given you some good advice: wait for results before cutting out the gluten.

I would add that, with a long term diagnosis of IBS, it might be worth looking into the Low FODMAPs diet developed by the Monash University in Australia. NHS dietician should be able to give you advice on this and you can find information on line.

I’ve not heard of the body hanging on to toxins, our liver and kidneys are very good at getting rid of toxins on a day to day basis. If the problem is something like gluten, it can affect the whole body in lots of different ways.

Hope things get sorted out quickly for your mum.