Lopsided Bloated Abdomen?

[sahm-i-am]

I have been gluten-free for 5 months now and symptoms are getting worse. Bloating and tiredness and my edema in my feet is coming back like before diagnosis. I am not getting CC or eating gluten. My GI dr. doesn't want to do the follow up MRI or antibodies blood test check to see if my lymph nodes and left intestinal wall thickening has gone down. ????? I am getting another opinion on that, but wanted to ask others: is it normal for your abdomen to swell more on the left side than the right? Do you think it relates to the left side intestinal wall thickening? Just wondering if bloating is always symmetrical!

[cassP]

i really dont know??? but if you had issues in your descending colon- that could make your left side swell more than the rest of the abdomen.

but idk. make sure your doc is ruling out everything and checking you're ok ?? ask him if you should have a colonoscopy to check the area...

idk, best of luck to you:)

[ravenwoodglass]

If your GI doctor is not doing follow up bloodwork go to your GP for it. You may have gluten sneaking in somewhere you don't expect. Look at what may have changed when you started getting symptoms again. Are you on any generic meds? They can change binders at will and should be checked with each refill. New cosmetic or toiletries? New arts and crafts or remodeling projects at home? Gluten can be sneaky and not all companies tell us about CC risk on the packages. One example is Lay's products, they do now tell us about CC risk on the website but it is not on the packages.

As to the one sided bloating if your GI doctor doesn't want to figure out if anything else could be wrong it might be time to look for a different GI doctor. Be aware that we can develop other intolerances also. Soy and dairy are the most common. I was fine with soy for quite some time but within a couple years I began to react to it.

For me the one sided more than the other bloat is from adhesions. An ultrasound showed that my intestines were pulled to that side. Since I have a history of adhesions they surmised that was the cause. It may of course not be the case for you.

[aderifield]

In recent years, I've always had this! At one point, it got even worse and turned out I had kidney stones and an infection on that side. After treatment, it went back down to its normal just slightly inflated elevation. I haven't had a endoscopy, yet, but am anxious to see what they have to say about this next month.

[bluebonnet]

for me its my right side. at the beginning of the summer i had the colonscopy and endoscopy but it didnt reveal anything about being "lopsided" so hopefully it will be something that improves with time. my own theory is that maybe because i have mild scoliosis the slight curve naturally crunches everything together?? who knows ... but it kinda makes sense.

[TrillumHunter]

Adhesions from previous surgeries caused that for me.