Pain Under Left Side of Rib Cage

Hi redhead39,
i am a 30 year old female, I have got a bladder disease interstitail cystitis.
I have got a terrible pain on my left side around the waste height front and back, and sometimes feels like its under my rib but I always get the pain front and back ( left side).
I have had kidney infections and so on but knowone has even thought about it being something to do with my bowels. I have had this pain for a bout a year. I am due to go back and see my urologist next month but everyone just puts this pain down to my bladder and kidney, but I feel it has nothing to do with them.

The pain is there 24/7, I have had to give up my job and everything, I am on really strong medication everyday.

I am convienced it has something to do with my bowels. I have been looking on ibs sites thats how I came across these posts and they all say ibs causes tummy pain and mine isnt there.

I do sometimes have a bit of mucus with a b.M. But the pain is no better or worse after it.

This pain is really bad and is stopping me living my life. I cant exercise as the pain is so bad but it isnt musle pain as it doesnt hurt any more to bend and stretch.

Is there anyone out there who has left side pain in the same area as me and the pain is at a 7/8 most of the time? Or if there is anyone who can help me. I was intrested to read the post about splenik flexure syndrome. Does that cause really bad pain all of the time and what helps to get rid of it. If anyone with bowel conditions has this sort of pain I would love to hear from you. Any advise would be great.
Thanks for reading

Searched on google and found this. I have in most instances the exact pain as all the posts. I can lean right in my chair and lift my left arm over my head and cannot breath do to the pain. My girlfriend so much as bumps it and I cannot help but to double over till it stops.

It hurts everyday. More so when I wake up in the morning. Started maybe a month ago. I donot drink milk. My girlfriend made me drink like a whole glass 2 months ago.

I am not to active for being 20. I do not excerise. My only phisical activity is riding my street bike. And I eat fast food and bad foods everyday.

When the pain first came on, I was sick from an infection. Had a bad cough with tons of fluid out of my lungs. I still have this cough yet no fluid. It feels like something is just sitting in there. But if I run my fingers under my rib cage where it hurts it kinda feels like a muscle strain. Like it is tightened up and wont stretch. Should I go get an x-ray?

Adam p.

My doctor was the one that suggested that it may be splenic flexure syndrome. I've never been diagnosed with anything. My pain comes and goes, and when I have it, it's not terrible pain. It's more like a gnawing or aching pain that's more annoying than anything. It gets worse when i'm under a lot of stress and that's what makes me think it's gastrointestinal. People get gas when they're stressed out. Mine just feels like trapped gas or air and that's what causes the pressure. If you have severe pain, I would recommend an x-ray or an upper gi just to ease your mind because it's probably stress related. Good luck.

I began having pain in this area when returning from a beach vacation in june of this year. Thought i'd cracked a rib but soon after returning home I started to break out in a rash in that area and around the left side of waist which was later diagnosed as shingles. The pain associated with shingles is sometimes near unbearable. I'd always thought those that complained with shingles pain was complaining because of discomfort of the rash. Not the case. The pain of shingles is internal and feels much like a cramp you have in your leg that won't go away. It took two months to get over this. Now i'm having pain again in the same area. It's not the same type pain, not like a cracked rib but a dull pain. One odd thing is that my heart seems to skip a beat during these episodes. It feels as if there some kind of flip-flop thing going on and it wakes me sometimes at night. I've recently had ekg's and a heart cath with negative report. I've read the posts here many of which sound much like my own complaint but I haven't seen anything mentioning the heart
thing. I also considered the "splenic flexure syndrome" which I read about here and researched but saw nothing there that mentioned irregular or skipped heartbeat associated with it.
Interested in comments on this.

Just found this topic somehow as I was googling sharp back pain. I had gastric bypass surgery 3 years ago..I was having the sharp pains under my left ribcage also, and it turned out I have a fistula that has caused a peptic ulcer. I have been taking prilosec for about 4 months now, twice a day which helps somewhat with the pain. I'm having surgery oct 25 for the fistula, which should also help the ulcer. The fistula is a rather rare occurance in gastric bypass patients..About 2%

I had a cat scan done. No masses or anything wrong. Luckily my sister did the scan and can read them. Deeper under what the scan could pick up she saw the "pocket" that i've been feeling. The radiologist sent my family doctor a report that everything was "normal". I pointed out to my doctor that I could literally feel this pocket or bubble. She now thinks I have a hiatal hernia. She is 95% sure. To make her 100% sure, I need an endoscopy.
I think she's right, and there really isn't a treatment other than surgery. Speaking with other people who have hiatal hernias, a person should be able to live with it.

I have a lot of these symptoms a boney lump that gets bigger and smaller moves position is sore and tender and nagging pain coming from around the lump. I have had this for a few months and have seen a physio who has given me excersises that have improved the size of the lump. He said it was inflamation of muscle but can also feel damaged cartilage. I too have pains across my stomach and a lot of gas, suffered anxiety/panic attacks for last two years since my son was born and pain in my rectun for the last four years since the birth of my first child. Not sure if any of these are linked but they sound similar to every one else here. My son has also been extremely ill since I started weaning him and we now susspect coeliac disease which he is currently being tested for. It causes all sorts of problems with the gut and digestive system as well as painful joints and weakening of the bones and many more underlyin conditions/problems. It is caused by a gene in the family and can occur at any age not just from birth. I wonder if this could be linked to my problems, it probably isn't but it is worth a try as I cannot think how I could have damaged my cartilage!!! My physio asked me if I had a severe blow to the area but I can't think of anything.

Does anyone here know if any of their problems could be linked to this or of any cases in their families with gluten intollerences/problems.

I have had simular pain for about a month.I feel a achey pain all the time right under my left breast and ribs.Also I feel pain in my upper back on the same side. It gets worse when I move or try to bend my upper body or neck.I had several test done and every thing looks fine. I am so worried. It hurrts really bad in the morning when I get up. I feel alot of stiffness and I can hardly get out of bed. My doctor said is muscular/skeletor. Any ideas? Does anyone else have this kind of pain.Any info would help.....Jaime

Well after reading these posts I am a little worried, mariejb I am having the same exact symptoms, and I really don't know what to do. I do have a slight curve in my spine, but I don't think that has anything to do with the pain on my left side. I have been having this pain for about a month now and when I went to the doctor(i didn't go for that pain in particular so it really wasn't a concern of his) he said it was the spleen. I'm thinking that it is trapped gas. I'm going to try taking some zantac like someone said and see if that eleviates the pain if not I will seek medical help. I have recently stopped smoking i've been smoke free for about two months now so I am really proud of myself for that, I do have alot of stress in my life and I really don't workout like I should. I recently started to workout and thought that the pain could have been because I pulled a muscle, but I really don't know.

I have this pain also. It is triggered off each time I cough hard. Its a very sharp pain.

But when I ly down for a hour hour or so I disapears.

Does anyone know what this pain is?

Please tell me if this sounds normal. :cry: I am really scared. I am a 23 year old female. I have been having a pain under my ribcage since january of this year. It's right on my side where my waist line is, then it extends to my back. It's definitely worse when I wake up in the morning. It will be like a dull ache, and if I turn to the left, it hurts significantly worse. I started eating really well in august and september and I didn't notice it for a long time. Well, I got really stressed out about some stuff and went back to my ways of crappy eating. :roll: now the pain is back and it's worse. It's like sharp, stabbing pains. It comes and goes. What is it? Should I be worried? :( does this sound like what any of you are experiencing?

I see many people here have the same symptoms I have. This pain
is under the lowest left rib, a sharp pain focussed in one area. Feels
like its from the stomach. Eating acid foods increase this pain.
Has anyone found out what this is? One person reported bacteria.
Was it h pylori?

Did you have mesh fitted over your stomach?
H pylori is a peptic ulcer

Hello and wow, so many with the same or similar problem. I just started having it pretty severely today. But a bit different than some of you in that the pain was around the whole rib cage and wrapped around to the back. I could lay down for a while and it would go away but then come back. I go along with the trapped gas idea on this. I don't know about the pain under the rib cage because mine wasn't that far down. And I just had a big meal and stuffed myself at mcdonalds, which I don't often do, then laid around on the couch and watched a movie. That's when I really had this ache and pain start up. Very similar to my back being out or something. I came across this site when searching google, which I always do when there is some unidentified pain or something I have. Well, thinking about the trapped gas idea, I thought perhaps bread would absorb any gastric juices in my system (don't know where I got that idea, but seems sort of common sense) so I ate some bread and drank some water because it made me thirsty -- and the pain totally went away. So... I can say, if you have the same pain as I described, eat some wheat bread (or white bread -- who knows) and see if it doesn't help. Crazy maybe, but it certainly can't hurt!! Much better than drugs!! I do think it was trapped gas and probably not moving through my system because of all the fats in the foods I just ate. I ususally have a lot of gas and particularly when a bit stressed. Been stressed a lot because my mother is currently ill. But seems you can take some sort of action to alliviate problems and then stress is less! Good luck.

For a while now I have been gttn pain jst under the left side of my ribs. It has been getting worse and when I wake up my ribs are flat and then after 15 minutes they begin to protrude and stay that way till next morning. (so lying down must help) after seeking chiropractic help, my chiro got me to have some xrays done and it appeared that I have this gas bubble from large intestine heading up under my left side of my ribs. This would explain the weird pain and funny movements I feel around here (like when I push under my ribs it makes funny gurgling noise and I can sumtimes feel it moving down or up) if anyone has any knowledge of how this got here or how to treat it please get bak to me. Im only 17! This shouldnt be happening to me! Lol!

The pains that I am having seem to move. There is a large marble sized lump on the left lower rib area. I see a chiropractor, as well as a massage therapist (who believes that it is adhesions).
Sometimes the pain is in the same place, but on my right side.
I lost my mother to mesothelioma the beginning of this year, and the pains seemed to worsen following this.
I have had ekgs, bloodwork and chest x-rays (which they said there was "nothing to be concerned with") and they concluded it was "stress related".
I have noticed lately that the pain is worse when I smoke a cigarette (so I am trying really hard to quit, to see if it subsides.) it definitely isn't as "noticible" when I am not smoking, but still there, nonetheless.
After my last massage, it seemed about 50% better, but I still feel the one lump on the left side, as opposed to the "ropey" feeling that was there before.
I was given stretch excercizes, etc. To help.
The only thing (besides not smoking) that seems to help is taking a hot therapy bath (the best one I have found is: village naturals, therapy for the bath, aches and pains with eucalyptus, chammomile, and rosehips - though the one with echinacea, ginsing and tea tree also helps)
the pain is most intense when I first get up in the morning, and just before bed (as well as late in the day).
Due to what happened w/ my mother, i'm sure alot of this is "in my head" and the stress from thinking about that is making it worse.
Anyone else agree? Or have any other ideas?? It's making me crazy!!!!!
I'm only 35 - and have always been in excellent health (other than needing to lose a few pounds and to quit smoking). I am rarely sick.