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Left Side Pain?

mommyof4

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mommyof4 Apprentice
mommyof4
Posted

Does anyone deal with left side pain/pressure/bloated feeling? I am 9 months post-diagnosis & have had so many tests done. I am feeling so much better, but I still deal with this left side pain. It feels like there is something under my left ribs pushing up. I have gallbladder issues...HIDA scan showed it functioning at only 15%, but my doctor at Mayo wants to give that time to heal due to the small intestine damage. Maybe it is all related? All I know is it's driving me crazy & it often keeps me up for a few hours in the night. I am on probiotics & digestive enzymes.

Has anyone else dealt with this?

Thanks...

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GFreeMO Proficient
GFreeMO
Posted

When I get glutened, or corned, for some reason I feel most of the bloating and pain on the left side. I have read other posts about left sided pain..I think it's just part of celiac and healing. Corn really makes me feel like that. Do you have corn issues?

Looking for answers Contributor
Looking for answers
Posted

Yes, if I eat something I'm intolerant to, the pain can get really bad. For a long time I was eating avocado, almonds and coconut and all three through trial and error cause this. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack and took me years to figure out it was yet other intolerances. I also have a hiatal hernia, which also I'm sure leads to increase inflammation in that area. Hope you are able to figure it out soon!

Skittles Enthusiast
Skittles
Posted

It sounds like gas pain to me.. peppermint tea helps me with this issue!

CarolinaKip Community Regular
CarolinaKip
Posted

I was in pain for 11 months after going gluten free. I broke my diet down to whole foods, dairy free, nightshade free, and no grains at all. I was desperate to feel okay again. I kept a food diary and that helped. I found out certain fruits my body could not digest well. I was food allergy tested and that helped, but I still had the bloating etc. I found out that soy was a problem for me. I realized one day, after lunch, I still felt okay! Soybean oil was in the lip balm I was wearing and I had forgotten it that day. I would look at corn, dairy, soy and nuts. Look at the top allergens as perhaps a problem for you. Hugs! I know what it's like to keep being in pain. I'm gluten-free for two years and I still have good and bad days. hang in there!

mommyof4 Apprentice
mommyof4
Posted
  • Author

Thanks for the replies...I appreciate the input as I piece this journey together. I guess something I am having a tough time wrapping my brain around is this...for 40 years of my life I felt pretty great, worked out regularly & ate anything. Now, 9 months ago, that all changed. I got really sick & found out I am Celiac. So, can other food intolerances trigger at the same time the Celiac triggered(although I could of been Celiac for years & not known it)? It has been a slow road of recovery...I am not used to that in my body & it frustrates me.

I have been watching my food & I will keep doing that...

Thanks for the input!!

GFreeMO Proficient
GFreeMO
Posted

Thanks for the replies...I appreciate the input as I piece this journey together. I guess something I am having a tough time wrapping my brain around is this...for 40 years of my life I felt pretty great, worked out regularly & ate anything. Now, 9 months ago, that all changed. I got really sick & found out I am Celiac. So, can other food intolerances trigger at the same time the Celiac triggered(although I could of been Celiac for years & not known it)? It has been a slow road of recovery...I am not used to that in my body & it frustrates me.

I have been watching my food & I will keep doing that...

Thanks for the input!!

My story is the same as yours. We are about the same age as well. Yes, other food intolerances can make you feel glutened and cause very similar symptoms. I can't have corn at all. Which is really hard because it's in everything. I am down to meat, fruit and veg. Nothing packaged. It's the only way that I can feel good.

Hang in there and try eliminating some things like dairy and corn.

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mommyof4 Apprentice
mommyof4
Posted
  • Author

My story is the same as yours. We are about the same age as well. Yes, other food intolerances can make you feel glutened and cause very similar symptoms. I can't have corn at all. Which is really hard because it's in everything. I am down to meat, fruit and veg. Nothing packaged. It's the only way that I can feel good.

Hang in there and try eliminating some things like dairy and corn.

How many months/years post-diagnosis are you? Do you also have fatigue?

GFreeMO Proficient
GFreeMO
Posted

How many months/years post-diagnosis are you? Do you also have fatigue?

I've been gluten free for 3 years. The corn is within the last year.

I have fatigue when glutened.

  • 4 weeks later...
cavernio Enthusiast
cavernio
Posted

The only abdominal pain I've ever had is very specific on my left side only.

I diagnosed with IBS because of it.

Mine wasn't always in the same place, but tended to stay upper left.

When I got a colonoscopy I remember it hurt quite a bit, the same feeling, on the left.

It has gotten much, much better since January. I was gluten-free for 2-3 months back then, and it initially went away after I took some pysllium fibre only a couple of times back then. It came back, however, when I got a long-lasting cold or flu or whatever it was (it was going around last winter). After my sickness went away, that pain eventually went away again too, even when I was eating gluten and dairy for my biopsy.

I occassionally get pain there still, but it's a world of difference with it. I have also not been nearly as bloated, although I'm unsure if the two are really related; the pain was often worst when I hadn't eaten much and I didn't feel particularly bloated.

Sometimes it would hurt in time to my breathing, sometimes when I breathed out but other times when I breathed in. But the sensation of pain was always the same, and is like nothing else I've ever really experienced.

I honestly don't even know if it's my bowels, despite doctors seeming to think that it must be. It could have been (be) ovary or kidney issues. Even having it hurt during the colonscopy doesn't mean much about that since our organs aren't nicely spread apart such that I know where the pain is coming from.

Really? Newbie
Really?
Posted

I have complained of pain in my left side as well. Right behind my rib cage and right below. Its just one of the very many symptoms I still have. Have only been gluten free since June. Diagnoised by blood panel and biopsy in June 2012.

mommyof4 Apprentice
mommyof4
Posted
  • Author

Thank you for all your replies...I find it interesting how many others with Celiac deal with many of the same issues.

For the past month I have been taking 2 digestive enzymes with each meal(my dr recommended) & it seems to help. I still have a night about once a week or once every 2 weeks that I am up with that left side pain. My energy level is getting better...granted that may be because I am 10 months post-diagnosis. I still lie down for a little nap in the afternoon, but it's not the complete exhaustion that I had.

I have eliminated most dairy. I also am really careful on slow digesting foods or non-digesting foods...for example, I notice when I eat red meats like hamburger, steak or roast I have that left side pain worse. I also don't eat popcorn or corn on cob as neither digest well.

I guess so much of this is "trial & error"...hopefully when the gut is totally healed I won't have to avoid so much besides the obvious gluten.

It's great to have a place to share support & ideas!

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