Back again- bowel pain

[Chris1985]

Hi all,

I have been on here a few times in the past with various worries. My last was 3 years ago when I had come back from India (after being very ill while there) with pains in my lower left hand side and feeling like my colon was hard in that area.

I've been on setraline a couple of times which really helped but my HA seems to come around every few years in the winter months.

Fast forward 3 years until now and I'm still getting the pain in that area. It's not constant but comes and goes. If I'm playing around with my son and he sits on my stomach area it feels tender there. I've got the nagging bowel cancer fear that I had 3 years ago still lingering. I did a home fecal blood test and it was negative. Made a doctors app for next week mainly to get back on setraline for a bit. Not sure if I'm being justified in worrying or not!

[Chris1985]

Managed to get back on to Setraline so started that yesterday. I got a phone appointment before an actual doctors appointment next week.

Hopefully that helps settle me a bit and sleep better. My nagging thought that I can't shake is that I've been having these pains in the same place on and off for 3 years - which must meen its serious. But on the other hand if it was serious and if it was what I'm worried about then it would have surely created a lot of other problems by now too...

[Chris1985]

Fast forward a year and I'm back with the same worries about bowel cancer due to lower left sided pain. It's on off but every day I feel it at various points through the day.

I went to the doctor about it 5 weeks ago and he said it doesn't present like this as it usually aggravates the bowel and causes loose stools - which I've got the opposite of. I asked to go back on sertraline again and have been now for that time. This last week I've been really tired although getting good sleep which adds to my worries. I thought it could be the sert but I've never felt tired with it before.

Trying not to spiral. I did 3 at home bowel blood tests that were negative so I know I'm being stupid about this!

That's 4 years of having these pains now, surely I'd be very ill if it was something more serious?!

[.Poppy.]

I don't have any real advice, I just wanted to say I'm going through a very similar thing right now. Lower left side pain. I don't really have any other symptoms that are worrying (maybe some minor things but I'm not sure they're related) and I've had two ultrasounds and the doctor basically told me she wasn't sure what else I wanted her to do. So I have an appointment Friday to see a new doctor (I need a new GP anyway) and ask them what they think. If they told me it was just muscular I could live with that, but like you I just want to know it's not something that needs to be addressed. Plus, it's annoying at best.

I would think that after 4 years you would certainly have worsening symptoms if it were something serious. Did your doctor have any ideas on next steps?

[Chris1985]

Sorry to hear you are going through this now too.

No next steps really, try to improve my diet and I've taken some fibre supplements to help. He thought I was constipated and this was where my pain is coming from. I'm not so sure thats it though as it's still there and I'm not constipated. I'm back at the doctor next week as I've recently moved and need a repeat prescription for setraline so I'll get another opinion

[.Poppy.]

I hope you get some good answers from the doctor.

I saw a new nurse practitioner today; I won't be able to see my new doctor for a few months as she's on maternity leave. She said the pain was odd, but said there is a muscle there that can get aggravated and take a really long time to heal. I had another doctor suggest endometriosis (likely not your issue if you are male, ha) so she said to bring that up at my annual women's exam and we'll see what they say. She didn't seem overly concerned by it. So I suppose I'll just wait and see. If it were just a muscular thing that would be wonderful; it's just hard with HA to know if this is a normal human thing or something that needs to be followed up on.