Blunt Force Trauma Induced IBS

[CCNZ]

Not sure if there is such a thing, but here goes for my problems and symptoms.

Background: 10 months ago fell off my mountain bike, 2.5 metres and impacted directly on a hard rock ledge edge on my left side exactly between my lowest rib and hip. Result was several grade 4 lacerations of my left kidney and 5 days in hospital. Was lucky to not lose the kidney. Structural injuries not functional was what I was told.

The kidney injury over-shadowed any symptoms, both pain wise and medical professional focus, that may have indicated additional injuries that did not show up on the CT scans (4 scan so far). Everyone, including myself, was surprised that there were "no other injuries" considering how badly injured the kidney was.

Fast forward 9 months; the kidney has fully healed (CT scan verified) with no known, expected or obvious ongoing ill-effects. Thanks goodness for that.

However, throughout my recovery I have had difficulty and pain in bending over, crouching down, engaging in certain activities and exercise (at various levels of effort), and it has been quite obvious that there is a lump of some description, 2" below my left kidney close to the point of impact in my mid-left frontal abdomen area.

Symptoms I have: Almost constant loose stools; pain in that specific area on passing stools; undigested food / mucus; all of which are enhanced with various levels of activity, especially running, cycling, gardening, etc.

Symptoms I do not have: No nausea; no lack of appetite; normal bowel movement frequency (no urgency, just constant mush); no non-specific abdominal cramps; no fevers; no blood.

I've had a colonoscopy beyond the liver corner, all clear. I do have trauma induced high blood pressure which seems to get elevated when my abdomen feels aggravated and inflamed.

If I over do anything it feels like I'm being painfully poked, which then feels aggravated, inflamed, becomes very sore, almost constantly. I'm concerned that if something sudden was to happen then it will go bad quickly, but so far I've avoided this.

Current thinking is scar tissue, adhesion's; however I'm concerned it may be an explicit small bowel injury. No-one yet is ready to dive in and have a look, but I'd be keen to have it fixed before it becomes a serious medical emergency, etc.

So, not sure what is wrong or what I should push my Drs for.

Any ideas or advice?

[Fruitandnutcase]

Can see why you want this fixed sooner rather than later. Have you had that area scanned or x-rayed or whatever to let your doctors see the lump you are talking about? Perhaps they are so fixated they can’t see further than your kidney.

I had a barium enema and associated tests years ago and that let them see the small bowel - it wasn’t the most fun experience but it might let your doctors see a bit more about what things look like in that area.

It could be the shock to your body. I fell off my bike years ago, I didn’t do the damage you did but I ended up lying on a wet road, in the rain in France with traffic coming straight for me - I must have been really shocked because I slept for days on end. Then I fell as I was getting off a bus a couple of weeks ago and landed on my knees on the pavement and I’ve felt tired and ill ever since which I think must have been the shock of that - so your trauma induced high blood pressure makes sense. It still doesn’t explain the lump though. So good luck getting it checked out - hopefully someone will come along on here with more ideas.

[CCNZ]

Thanks for the reply. I’ve had 2 follow up CT scans but they were KUB focused and only that was written up in the report, it only got the detail it could for my bowels.

Suspect as it’s not officially diagnosed as an injury at the time a different CT scan setup & focus would be at my cost. Will chase that angle next visit to drs.

[Hidden]

Hi there,

I just wanted to put this article past you. It may not sound relevant but I think it could be. It's essentially about neuro-muscular reactions to stress/trauma triggers. sickofibs.com/ibs-triggers/...

Hope this helps,

Alison