I went to the doctor today to get results of a pelvic ultrasound. When I had the u/s, the tech spent a lot of time looking at my upper left abdomen, and asked me if I have pain there. I told her no, that usually my pain is in the lower left. Anyway, the results of the u/s showed that I have "evidence of hardening of the bowel wall in the upper left abdomen". Has anyone ever heard of this? She has referred me to a general surgeon, so hopefully it will lead to some relief finally after almost 6 years of suffering.

From what I have learned in school, it is the descending bowel that you are having problems with. That can be caused by alot of things including crash diets, and medications. With all the meds that IBS sufferers are put on, it is no wonder more of us don't deal with this. I hope that you are able to overcome it, as if it goes on too long, can be excruciatingly painful. Did it say lateral or medial abdomen? It makes a difference, because the abdomen is separated into right and left quadrants, as well as upper and lower, with sections in each that are named differently. I hope you find the surgeon is not a necessity.

I always thought that the descending bowel was my problem too, but I have had a colonoscopy and it showed nothing wrong. As far as what it said on the u/s report, it just said "upper left quadrant", and during the test she was just under my ribcage. I haven't ever used much medication for IBS, in fact I am very paranoid about pills. All I've ever tried is liquid Bentylol, which only lasted for about 2 weeks because it made me feel drunk all the time, and Dicetel whic lasted about 2 weeks as well because after taking it I was in the bathroom within an hour with doubling over pain. I have never dieted in my life because I am very thin. Actually right now, at 5'6" and 128 pounds, I am the heaviest I have ever been. As far as surgery goes, after 6 years of suffering, if surgery will fix it I will gladly polish the scalpel for the surgeon!