Had Fever Due To Flu. Experiencing Lower Abdominal Pain With No Diarrhea And Vomiting. Worrisome

Posted on Sat, 2 Mar 2013

Question: Hello, my husband was experiencing left abdominal pain for the past couple weeks. It started with a dull more like discomfort on the lower left side and was relieved when he eats. But now even if he eats it becomes more painful. It is more painful at night, he wakes up in pain. He has to lie down on his left side and put pressure on his abdomen to feel comfort. Last night was the worst night, it was persistent and his abdomen is making gurgling sounds. He had fever couple nights ago because of the flu as well. I don't know if the flu had to do with abdominal pain but he had abdominal pain a week ago before he had the flu. Also, no diarrhea or vomiting associated.
Please help!

Answered by Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (43 minutes later)

Hello!

Thank you for the query.

Lower left abdominal pain can be caused by diverticulitis, urinary tract infection/stones or inguinal hernia.
Diverticulitis is strictly associated with constipations, so if your husband has had such, this is quite probable.
Urinary tract infection/stones gives also frequent urinating, pain while urinating. The pain can radiate to the back or to the groin.
Hernia gives pain more in the groin area, the pain aggravates while coughing, and the lump can be visible while standing.
If there is any blood in stool or mucus in stool some other large intestine diseases should be also considered (like Crohns disease).
I suggest you to have some diagnostics. He should start with full blood work, CRP, urine analysis and abdominal ultrasound (groin ultrasound if hernia is possible).
If CRP and WBC will be elevated and no changes in the urine, diverticulitis it is.

Hope this will help. Feel free to ask further questions.
Regards.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar