For 5 years now i have dealt with a dull pain just below my left rib. Its not a constant pain.It hurts then goes away, then hurts then goes away.Like a pulse. But it gets worse when i am active. It doesn't bother me when i sleep or sit,just when i am standing or moving around.And when i take a deep breath in sometimes it hurts.
I had problems with this back in '99 and had to quit my job do to the pain and series of tests my doctor was running on me. I had ultrasounds,bariums,CT's, stool samples,and bloodwork done. Everything came back normal, so my doctor just diagnosed me with IBS becasue i was having problems with diareaha. After 3 months the pain went away and flared up every once in a awhile but just for short periods of time.
Thurs. morning it startung hurting again and now 4 days later is still hurting me. Its not a horrible pain, but more of a dull pain that comes and goes like a pulse.When i am active, it seems to hurt more.
I have problems with constipation and Diareaha off and on and often get bad stomach aches afetr eating certain foods. But i can't figure out what might be causing this pain under my left rib!I am scared to death.
Any ideas what this might be? Does it sound like a symptom of IBS?

Hi

I am new to the board as well and have posted some of my symptoms and surprisingly enough that is one of them. It is directly under the rib cage and when I asked about it to several Dr's, some say it was my bowels over there and I needed to become regular cause my bm's were having a hard time moving over there. Then I was told there is nothing over there but my spleen and I didn't have a problem with that. so then my gastro said that it is in fact an injury to the muscle. When you go to the bathroom sometimes you pull the muscle then it heals and then you can reinjure the muscle(even when you excersie). His answer set best with me cause I started to notice when I went to the bathroom and when the pain came on. I am not a Dr. but that sounds just like my case. If anyone does have a better answer I would love to hear it. I could use the right answer myself!

Hi guys,

I can't give you an answer myself - but sometimes the pain you feel under the left rib cage is because the pain is radiating from your left side of your large intestines, although sometimes it is not.

I've had similar pains where for a while it was related to the intestinal pain and evacuation, but later on it was independent of that. It does sound like IBS to me.

Cheers, Raju.

I have been having this for a long time! I just had an ultra sound of my tummy and stuff and everything looked normal, had a blood test, looked good. I have also had x rays in the past. who knows!!!!!!! I guess it is related to ibs. :angel:
Carly

Hi,

I had similar symptoms and every test known to man, most of which you have mentioned. Eventually I had an endoscopy and they found that I had a ulcer and an inflamed small intestine.

It is worth going for further tests to check it out because these types of problems need to be addressed.

Cheers
Karen

You can have certain spots of the bowel that are worse to inflame than others. My wife has adhesions from a surgery several years ago, a when she gets constipated it's always that spot that hurts the worst, due to the stool trying to make it's way through the trouble spot.