QuestionI am a 34 year old female. In the past couple of months I have had on/off cramping or pinching like pain in my right side about waist level and last for about 10 -15 per episode. My most recent OB visit was in March 04 where everything was normal. More of a come and go pain that is not unbearable but uncomfortable. I have most always had fairly frequent and loose stools. I feel like this pain is to high to be gyno related and am wondering if possibly IBS? Please advise.
AnswerWith chronic pelvic/abd pain like that, we set up a list of possibilities and then work thru them. My list would be:
pregnancy
ovarian cyst
uterus/tube infection- PID-pelvic inflammatory disease
urinary tract infection
kidney stone
chronic appendicitis- symptoms can come and go, unlikely,tho
gall bladder stones, gall bladder disease
irritable bowel syndrome or
inflammatory bowel disease- ulcerative colitis or crohn's dx
endometriosis
colon polyp- villous adenoma
food intolerance- such as lactose (milk cheese butter) intol
Given the loose stool symptoms, it makes a bowel problem more likely. I would try a food avoidance plan, start with eliminating milk products for a week to see if it helps. Then you will have to work with your doc to start eliminating things on the list until you find the problem. The easy way is to start with blood tests and a urine test. One thing that is important is the sed rate, or ESR or sedimentation rate. That is an inflammationm marker in the blood. It won't tell you what the problem is, but it would tell you that there is a significant inflammation problem, which would suggest an infection or the inflammatory bowel disease like Crohn's. In any event, start out with your family doc and get the testing started so you can get rid of it.
Hope this helps...
