PAIN IN LOWER LEFT ABDOMEN: Hi, I have had a... - Pain Concern

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PAIN IN LOWER LEFT ABDOMEN

pump321 profile image
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Hi, I have had a horrible pain in the lower left side of my stomach for over a month now and have been given 3 lots of antibiotics but they haven't work. I have seen 4 Doctors at my surgery and it has now been decided that it's not diverticulitis so I am waiting for an ultrasound scan. I am feeling really ill living with this awful pain day in and day out so have asked for a private scan as the NHS is about six weeks waiting. I have been to A&E twice in the last two weeks as I am at my wits end but they test my blood and urine, say there is no infection, give me pain killers and anti-sickness tablets and send me home. Because the pain is not stabbing and I am not actually being sick they don't count it as urgent but I am really really ill. I am really scared now as there has to be a reason why this horrible pain won't go away. I feel so sick most of the time unless I take anti-sickness tablets and they take hours to work if at all also feeling really weak and shaky. Cannot concentrate and spend most of the day crawling in and out of bed with a hot water bottle. I really don't know what to do. I don't make a lot of fuss about nothing but now really really worried. I need some advice please if anybody reads this post. Hope this makes sense as I cannot think straight. Thank you.

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grace111 profile image
grace111

hi i saw this post 7 hours ago and didnt reply as i wasnt feeling well and had to lie down which i'v been doing nealy all day. i wasnt sure what i could say i have been feeling sick an feverish myself on and off but not constantly and not with a pain in the left hand side of my stomach,its important to know whether your male or female women obviously have more organs (womb, fallopian tubes and ovaries) in the abdomen, they are more likely to suffer with abdominal pain than their male counterpart - be it on the right or the left.Also certain conditions that causes a left sided abdominal pain, like irritable bowel syndrome are more likely in women, thus making pain in this region more commonly seen in women.an injury or infection or strain on any of the organs on the left side of the abdomen could leat to a left sided pain.i also thought it may be some kind of virus with all the horrible shivering and shaking and needing a hot water bottle. it doesnt seem to be an infection as you;v had a few doses on anti bionics. i just wanted to say welcome to the forum and we are not doctors so cant diagnose any problems we can only share our own experience of pain, and i do hope that you find out what is causing this as i feel so sad for you and have been thinking about you since i read this earlier and didn't reply as i was so tired and not feeling well and when i woke up at at 9.30 i came to look and see if anyone had replied so i had to say hello and welcome you onto the forum at the very least. maybe somoe one else will see this post and drop by to say hello even if they dont have your symptoms,keep in touch and when you find out you can come back and tell us as maybe someone else is sufferng simlar symptoms and are in bed ill. i think its bad enough being ill and knowing whats wrong with us but being ill and not knowing can be worse as it leads us into all sorts of worry and googling things to see if we can find out whats wrong with us and often coming up with the wrong answer. as it could be so many things this left side pain, if your a man its defiantely not your womb or ovaries or fallopian tubes.be gentle on yourself and just have plenty rest as thats all you can really do until you get this scan, my heads a bit all over the place to as iv not long woken up after sleeping all day. love grace xoxoxo🤗

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pump321 profile image
pump321 in reply to grace111

Hi Grace, Bless you for answering my email after you have been feeling so ill yourself and having to spend your day sleeping. How kind of you to welcome me to the forum and go to the trouble of reaching out to me when your are feeling so poorly yourself. I much appreciate all the effort you have gone to to reply to me as soon as you were able. It's great to know that when you post a problem, usually in desperation, that some kind soul like you will reply with a comforting and sympathic message. It helps so much just to know that we are not alone and others care as they also know how anxious we feel if they have experienced feeling so ill and wondering what's wrong and what the outcome will be.

Are you also wondering what is wrong to cause your nausea and feverishness? I'm sure you've had the most horrendous day. Feeling sick and feverish makes you feel so helpless and feeling so knocked out.

I am a lady of 70 and have had my left ovary removed with the fallopian tube many years as I had a huge cyst growing on it so it's not that causing the pain.

I rang the Ultra Sound Scan department this morning and they told me I had been rejected as the radiologist thought I didn't need a scan after looking at my records presumably. My doctor also rang me to confirm the scan had been cancelled. I have now made a private appointment to see a gastroenterologist on Friday as I cannot wait another 6 weeks or more on the NHS. Looks like I'll have to have a colonoscopy and maybe an endoscopy too.

I know what you mean by googling symptoms! I've been doing that today, I know we shouldn't but desperation makes us it seems.

I much appreciate your very kind message Grace and do hope you will soon begin to feel better. I am really grateful to you for taking the time to get in touch with me. I will come back again when I find out what is causing this pain and let you know. Once again, many thanks for your kindness. Take care and I sincerely hope you get well soon. xxxx

grace111 profile image
grace111 in reply to pump321

thanks very much for your very kind words. your exactly correct in what you say i know what its like to be ill and have no one to talk to or help me, and i did realize it was in desperation as i could see it in your letter and i did feel so bad for you when i couldnt reply. i did try but cancelled the post as i just wasnt well. i have had a big operation where i had a gallstone stuck in my bile duct and iv had to have it reconstructed and attached to my lower intestine, which is the bowel.seemingly it takes the muscles a year to recover properly i also had a hernia this was just over 4 months ago. i quite often feel sick and ill as do quite a few people who have had gallbladder surgery. although mine was very complicated and not straightforward. im so sorry to hear that your appointment was cancelled for your scan, life can be so difficult at times. im 65 myself, its terrible that you have got to pay to be seen as if they are cancelling your scan this time then they will do the same the next time unless there are new symptoms, i know what its like with google i think its great for many things but not for looking up our illness. i also had a hysterectomy many years ago. well 24 years ago. it was a total hysterectomy. you know it could be scar tissue causing that pain, when i was in hospital i kept getting infections with my stone in the bile ducts and even my scar tissue where i had the hysterectomy was painful as was a tooth that needed attened to i thought maybe the infection is in the blood and its going to all the other places too. i developed terrible pelvic pain just before my operation and had been on many courses of anti biotics and even when the operation was done i still could not get rid of this pelvic pain and i have no ovaries or tubes or womb and i got a scan and they could see nothing so it did remain a mystery. i was on morphine for that pain thats how bad it was and i decided to try to just one pill a day instead of two as they were prolonged release after a few weeks of taking them i started to take one during the day then none at night i did that for a few weeks then stopped them all together and the pain has dissapeared. so that is still a mystery to me. what was that pain i do not know but it was so sore and achie like toothache. i was bent over with it,your left ovary is the left side of your stomach and it could be the scar tissue. where they cut it out. i mean im not a doctor but that is what happend to me. of course i had an infection first then the pain started there, im so pleased that your going to be seen on friday and you need to get something that works to take this pain away or at least reduct the severity of it. i must say i think your grammer is lovely im always getting into trouble for my spelling i think im to lazy to fix it and i always say people know what im saying anyway. the problem is i have an injury to my both my wrists and my fingers are slightly numbe and i try to type to fast and make mistakes. anyway i hope my spelling doesnt bother you. also im on strong pain killers although less than what i was on and it affect my memory. good luck for friday dear.im so glad i came back and made the effort to post to you as its cheered you up. there are many lovely people on this forum and for what ever reason they have not yet replied but they are so generous in thier love as they are very ill a lot of them themselfs. so speak soon love grace i will be watching out for you on friday to see if you get any help from this doctor your having to pay to see. love grace xoxoxo 🤗

1881ellie profile image
1881ellie in reply to grace111

Hi grace I was going to mention about left and right side pain as I was told irritable bowel.which burst now I have no large bowel,I still have the pain and now have cyst on ovary and hydrosalpinx on fallopian tube 10cms and growing . I have scar tissue to .so doctors kept saying just bowel playing up and it perforated . so the lady above best not ignore the pain.hugs ellie xxxxx

pump321 profile image
pump321 in reply to grace111

Dear Grace, I am so very sorry to hear all that you have been through and how you've had to endure so much, you've certainly been through the mill and had more than your share of pain and suffering. I only had my gall bladder removed some years ago and I felt so sick for about a month or more afterwards and that was a straight forward operation with keyhole. You've been through major major surgery so you are certainly suffering more than I did. I used to eat yogurt (although I hate it!) to try and stop the sickness, I'm not sure if it worked but the sickness did eventually go away after several weeks. If only I'd known that feeling so sick was a side effect of the operation I wouldn't have worried so much but nobody said. I'm sure you are feeling wretched and struggling along day by day. It's terrible to feel so ill and not able to do much about it except lay very still and hope to be able to catch an hours sleep now and again to escape from all the pain and sickness. I know how you feel when you said you felt so poorly you couldn't finish the first message you typed to me. When you feel that sick and ill you can't do anything at all. It takes away all your strength and concentration until all you can do is just lay very still. Only people who have been that sick will know what that feels like. I am so sorry to hear that you are alone Grace without any help. Do you have any good friends to lend a hand? I have lots of so called "friends" but they are all so fit and healthy they really do not understand so I just shut myself away and deal with it quietily and never tell them how bad things are.

I am so touched by your kind and compassionate message Grace, I can tell you are a very caring person. It gives me faith that there are lovely people on this site who we can "talk to" when we feel pretty desperate as it's obvious to me that the people I know are so wrapped up with their own lives they scarcely give a thought to others and yet people we don't even know are prepared to give up their time to help each other on this site and reassure us through the bad times. Your message certainly did cheer me up. It's amazing what support can do, it lifts your spirits and you don't feel so alone with it all. I have a husband who is good and I know he's worried but he just switches off and gets on with his life. We live in the country and he helps out with the local shoot 6 days a week so I spend a lot of time alone.

Don't worry about your spelling Grace, it's the content that is so heartwarming. I am a chronic migraine sufferer and have taken so much medication for the last 40 years I think it has affected my thinking and memory and I type the wrong words and don't realise it so you may find a few odd words that don't tie up also my concentration is not nearly as good as it used to be.

I had my ovary removed 24 years ago too Grace, not a whole hysterectomy but that's a co-incidence! I suffered 9 months of agony with the ovarian cyst growing to the size of a grapefruit. The pain was horrendous I don't know how I survived all those months. It was only a locum doctor who finally made the hospital take me in and operate on me.

Well Grace, I really hope you turn a corner soon and will not suffer for too much longer. I hope today is a little better than yesterday. Take care and I will let you know how I get on. Thanks again.

Love Marian x

pump321 profile image
pump321 in reply to grace111

Hi Grace, I do hope you are feeling a little better. Just thought I would let you know that the gastroenterologist did listen to me and is going to fit me in to do a Flexible Sigmoidoscopy on Monday. I cannot have a full colonoscopy as I am very allergic to the prep. medication so he's going to give me an enema and then have a look to see what's going on. That is I don't have another flare up before Monday. I am feeling slightly better now but since the antibitoics have finished I am rather worried I will go downhill again. Anyway, it was so kind of you to think of me yesterday. I hope and pray you soon turn a corner and begin to see some improvement. Laying around day after day feeling so ill is terrible. Please do get in touch and let me know how you are.

With love,

Marian xxx

grace111 profile image
grace111 in reply to pump321

thats great news and im so pleased that your feeling better to. i also have another problem and im to have a flexible cystoscopy thats to check the bladder as i had unbearable pain while i was in hospital and having the hepaticjejunoscopy operation as i'd had an infection and after the anti biotics the pain came back and i could not get rid of the pain i could not urinate and there were 700ml of urine inside me when they did a bladder scan i was in pure agony and got a catheter for 24 hours then when they took that out the pain came back and i'd just had the big 5 hour operation and they put me on oxycontin, as i was full of infection with the stone in the bile duct.im sure that caused all my scar tissue to flare up and that was what was causing the pain as even my tooth was sore the one that needed a filling. i decided to try and stop the oxycontin to see if the bladder pain was away and it was and its never been back since to thats about 3 months now bladder pain free. thats really good that they are taking you on monday as it wont give you much time to go down hill.thanks so much for that lovely post you said about me. i do try to be kind to people on the forum as sometimes other people dont understand and this is the only place we have to come to where other people understand what its like to be in pain, i keep myself to myself when im ill unless i really need someone to help me as i can be quite bad tempered. its horrible being in pain and you described it perfectly. im so pleased that your feeling better i just think that its terrible that you had to pay for this as its not right being left in pain like this so badly that you have to pay to be seen, what is the world coming to. well i know what its coming to believe me. im not feeling so sick as i was but im feeling rather depressed as its one thing after another and quite hard to bear, speak soon and i hope all goes well for you on monday and they find out what is causing your this pain, sending you love and prayers to a beautiful person, love grace xoxo 🙏❤️

pump321 profile image
pump321 in reply to grace111

Dear Grace, I can quite understand that you are feeling very down and depressed after all you have been through and you have still got to go back and have an examination of your bladder. It's all been such a nightmare for you to live through, so much pain not to mention the anxiety as well. The pain after the operation must have been truly awful and then not being able to pass urine and having to have it drawn off. I'm pleased you are pain free now regarding your bladder, let's hope it stays that way. I am pleased to hear that you are not feeling quite so sick as that's pretty hard to bare. It's hard to concentrate on anything when you feel that sick, all you want to do is lie down. It really doesn't seem fair that so many people suffer so much and others skip through life with no problems.

I'm afraid I don't achieve very much at all, just manage to get the washing done but the rest of the house is rather neglected. It looks ok but will not bear close inspection! Never mind it will keep. It's awful feeling so weak and poorly, I used to be super fit years ago and never thought I would be reduced to this.

I am on a clear liquid diet now until tomorrow but the pain is coming back gradually so not sure if they will still do the procedure. I will be in touch again in a few days to let you know how things are going. Meanwhile, take care Grace and hope things will improve for you gradually and thank you for your very kind comments and prayers, it's surprisng what a prayer can do xx

grace111 profile image
grace111 in reply to pump321

hi pump im just on my way out the door and was just checking for messages as i dont like to leave any that are important. this forum is starting to feel like my family now. i hate when my house gets in a mess i cant stand it as i feel its the only thing i have left that i have any control over. i was thinking about someone i know who is two years older than me and eats all the wrong foods and swallows tablets by the handful and i do sit and wonder why she gets away with it as we both had another illness that was the same. but then i put it out of my mind as i will never know the answer to that. im going some where very special tonight and its quite nearby and somewhere i need to go so i will send you a private message when i get back. my cat knows im going out as im dressed and have my shoes on, i will be back by around 10pm if i dont write tonight i will write tomorrow.i was super fit too at one time and did pilates and went to the gym. but these days are gone although i do still try to exercise as i had to as i couldnt carry my shopping and i can now. maybe i have been doing to much. speak soon and i do hope that you get your examination tomorrow especially as your paying for it as well. when i kept getting that infection pain the first time i had an infection they said it was E coli and i had 1% blood in the urine then after the anti biotics when they tested me as i was getting the same pain they said no infection but still 1% blood. where that pain has gone i have no clue. i better get moving thanks for all your lovely kind words they are so appreciated. love grace xoxoxo🙏 yes prayers are so important to me. and it is amazing what prayer can do.

pump321 profile image
pump321 in reply to grace111

Hi Grace, I am so pleased you are going out somewhere special tonight, it's great that you are feeling like going out. Please, please don't feel you have to contact me straight away when I send you a message and don't even think about getting in touch again tonight, i honestly don't expect that. I really hope you have a great evening and relax and unwind when you get home. You are so kind and dedicated Grace. I really didn't expect you to reply when you were just going out of the door. I have my husband here so I am not alone and I'm managing ok. I don't want you to feel guilty about not replying straight away. That's our trouble, we always feel for others and feel we must do all we can. I will be in touch again Grace when I get back from the hospital, (I may have to stay in tomorrow night so it could be Tuesday or Wednesday before I get in touch again, it depends how I react to the enema as I have allergies) until then please don't even think that you must reply to me straight away. It's lovely that you are so caring and it was so sweet of you to get back to me but I don't want you worrying about replying to me so quickly. Thank you so much for your great kindness. Hope you've really enjoyed your evening out. Sleep tight and will be in touch again as soon as I have some news. Will say Night night x

grace111 profile image
grace111 in reply to grace111

theres another reply down there pump321 and its worth reading too. ,xxoxoxo

Littlemole43 profile image
Littlemole43

I suffer with diverticulitis too and it is down too diet you have too cut out a lot of food and basically live on very plain meals . No red meat ,seeds , sweetcorn , spices , fried or greasy food . So basically plain chicken , plain boiled rice .

pump321 profile image
pump321 in reply to Littlemole43

Thanks for your message, Littlemole43. I have changed my diet to very plain food. Have just been living on chicken, salmon, mashed potato, eggs, rice. Have you experienced weeks of pain that doesn't go away with your diverticulitis? For months I had diahorrea without the pain but a month ago the pain started which worried me as I hadn't experienced that before. Also do you take antibiotics for your diverticulitis or just manage it with food?

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