Lower left abdominal and upper pelvic dull pain for 6 months

[Arya2448]

6 months ago while in the middle of a highly stressful situation, I developed a dull pain along the left rib line. Bowel movement at least once per day sometimes two times. The pain has subsided a few time. On vacation, during days off, and after a three day fast. I have journaled diet and activity and there is no pattern of when it flares or subsides. It seems to get better if I am active during the day. Sitting for long periods of time does seem to aggravate it. I had a CT scan with contrast last week. I'll be doing labs this week and will have a consultation with gastrologist on 3/25. No blood in stool, stool appears normal.

[cyberbarn]

Hi,

It is good they are going through all the possibilities for internal gastro causes, but you said that it doesn't seem to be related to what you eat and how often you poo, but that it is along the rib line.

There are nerves that run between the ribs then they take a 90 degree turn to innervate the skin across your abdomin. These nerves can get trapped and it is actually a fairly common cause of abdominal pain, especially pain that is related to position.

My son has this and gets the pain mostly when he is laying on his stomach, or when he sits in certain positions. I am not saying this is what y ou have, but it is worth keeping this in mind and reminding the doctors of it if they say they can't find the cause.

[Arya2448 in reply to cyberbarn]

Thank you for the reply. I will definitely keep this in mind. This makes more sense to me due to my work. I am a chimney sweep which means that I am in a position and posture that would irritate that part of my rib/abdomen. My busy season is from September through February. During that time it hurt constantly. However, when I took a vacation or had a few days off it would get better. I have fasted, monitored my food types, adjusted my eating type and habits, even lost 30 pounds to try and figured out the onset and cause. I've added prebiotics/probiotics, increased fiber, and reduced sugar intake. I feel healthier just hate this irritating pain. Again thank you for the information.

[cyberbarn in reply to Arya2448]

My son had a similar experience. In the end as an academic researcher I put my foot down and showed the causal reasoning as to why they were wrong about it being to do with food (son is underweight so they couldn't tell him to lose weight!).

There is a narrative right now in medicine to blame the patient for everything they can because it is easier than actually finding out what the root causes of symptoms are.