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What Causes Loose Bowels And Painful Spine With Normal Colonoscopy?
Posted on
Sun, 7 Dec 2014
Medically reviewed by
Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team
Sun, 7 Dec 2014
Answered on
Fri, 2 Jan 2015
Last reviewed on
Question : Please can you help me, I have been suffering from various pains and symptoms. End of August had change in bowel habits, very loose motions. Had a Colonoscopy, all was clear and normal, Had nasty pain over my right kidney area and in left groin, Dr. thought i should have cat scan, that again was normal. Pain continued so i was told it could be coming from my spine, saw a Mr. Aylott who gave me a MRI scan, apart from normal wear and tear all was well. Still had very nasty groin pain on left side and sometimes in the right one. Had two urine tests that proved i dad blood, protein and leucocytes in urine. I then saw a urologist ( on a painfree three days who said unless i saw blood myself i wasn't to worry. I have been a month without pain until last Wednesday,Dec.3rd 2014, i had an ultra sound scan of pelvis and left groin, but was told yet again all was well. Please, please tell me what to do next. The pain can be so severe that is agony to walk at times. I must stress that i feel very well and have no worries, a good husband and happy home life. I feel a fraud at times because i feel so well most of the time. My very sincere thanks. XXXXXXX XXXXX
Brief Answer:
Very unusual not to find a cause for the pain.
Detailed Answer:
Hello Mrs XXXXXX
Welcome to healthcaremagic.com and thank you very much for posting your question here.
I must admit that you have had the right approach to diagnose the problem yet it has remained elusive. That said, blood, protein and leukocytes in the urine are significant in my opinion.
To better understand your problem I request you to describe the pain in detail, so if you don't mid, could you please answer these questions.,
1. What is the type of pain? Is it colicky, that is, does it come and go, like a sudden spasm?
2. Do you get any other symptoms while you get this pain, such as fever, vomiting, nausea, loose stools, burning sensation while passing urine?
3. Is the location of the pain constant? If yes, can you describe the location precisely?
4. Does the pain start off in the loin and then descend down to the labia or the inner thigh region?
5. Have you ever had any difficulty passing urine, or increased urge to pass urine when you get the pain?
It would help me greatly if you could also attach all the reports with the query.
I await your response.
Best regards
Very unusual not to find a cause for the pain.
Detailed Answer:
Hello Mrs XXXXXX
Welcome to healthcaremagic.com and thank you very much for posting your question here.
I must admit that you have had the right approach to diagnose the problem yet it has remained elusive. That said, blood, protein and leukocytes in the urine are significant in my opinion.
To better understand your problem I request you to describe the pain in detail, so if you don't mid, could you please answer these questions.,
1. What is the type of pain? Is it colicky, that is, does it come and go, like a sudden spasm?
2. Do you get any other symptoms while you get this pain, such as fever, vomiting, nausea, loose stools, burning sensation while passing urine?
3. Is the location of the pain constant? If yes, can you describe the location precisely?
4. Does the pain start off in the loin and then descend down to the labia or the inner thigh region?
5. Have you ever had any difficulty passing urine, or increased urge to pass urine when you get the pain?
It would help me greatly if you could also attach all the reports with the query.
I await your response.
Best regards
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Thank you for your reply. i now answer your questions.
1. Sharp knife like pain in left groin, which can be spasmodic, however the pain on rising from a sitting position can be sheer agony, although depth /strengh of pain can vary.
2. No nausea,fever,vomiting or burning sensation when passing urine.
3.Position of pain is not constant, in can sometimes be in the right groin but not as often as in the left groin area.
4.No it is static whenever and where the pain occurs.
5.Sometimes i feel i haven't passed much urine, but i never get pain when urinating.As i mentioned when i first visited your site and asked for help.I have had pain in my right kidney area over the years and more recently, hence the Trimethoprim i had recently. In the year 2005 i was diagnosed with a Duplex kidney on the left side, but never ever had pain over that kidney area. The scan also showed up a slight thickening of the bowel, however after further test was told all was well, as i said this was in 2005.
I can't begin to express my gratitude for your help. Thank You.XXXXX
1. Sharp knife like pain in left groin, which can be spasmodic, however the pain on rising from a sitting position can be sheer agony, although depth /strengh of pain can vary.
2. No nausea,fever,vomiting or burning sensation when passing urine.
3.Position of pain is not constant, in can sometimes be in the right groin but not as often as in the left groin area.
4.No it is static whenever and where the pain occurs.
5.Sometimes i feel i haven't passed much urine, but i never get pain when urinating.As i mentioned when i first visited your site and asked for help.I have had pain in my right kidney area over the years and more recently, hence the Trimethoprim i had recently. In the year 2005 i was diagnosed with a Duplex kidney on the left side, but never ever had pain over that kidney area. The scan also showed up a slight thickening of the bowel, however after further test was told all was well, as i said this was in 2005.
I can't begin to express my gratitude for your help. Thank You.XXXXX
Brief Answer:
Your symptoms suggest a probability of muscular spasm.
Detailed Answer:
Hello Mrs. XXXXXX,
Thanks you for writing back with the details.
I have gone through these details carefully and I have a few probabilities.
1. You mentioned that the pain is worse when you get up from sitting position, this is typically seen if there is muscular spasm, and the culprit muscle could be a deep muscle in the posterior abdominal wall called Psoas Major. However, a spasm of this muscle is very unlikely without any other condition such as an infection around the muscle, it is usually seen in tuberculosis or psoas abscess.
Even though I mention this, I do not think this is likely in your case.
2. Duplex kidney on the left side and presence of blood and leukocytes in the urine points to a probable propensity for small stone formation in the kidney that pass down the ureter occasionally.
Since you have a congenital abnormality in the kidney in the form of duplex kidney, it also means that there are two ureters, and in such cases, other abnormalities such as an abnormal kinking or narrowing of these double ureters can be expected, and this can cause the stones to be lodged in the bent portion of the ureter leading to pain, and blood in the urine.
Bowel thickening may not be very significant in your cases, however, considering you symptoms, it could indicate some amount of long standing inflammation in the area (probably due to repeated stones in the ureters), and this inflammation could be irritating the psoas muscle, which would fit the pattern of pain you describe.
The gold standard investigation for kidney stones is an intravenous pyelogram.
This test would also show the kidneys and their functioning clearly and would guide in further management.
Along with pyelogram, I would suggest you to also get a urine culture and sensitivity done to rule out any chronic low grade infection.
Other possibility is of adhesions in the abdominal wall, these can develop if you had had a surgery in the past, or if you have had any overt infection in the peritoneum. This would also cause similar symptoms.
At this time these are possibilities I can think of that fit the description, It may be possible to help you further if you could upload the scan reports and other blood investigation reports, so I request you to kindly upload them along with this question if you need further information.
I hope this information will be of use to you.
Wishing you good health.
Warm regards
Your symptoms suggest a probability of muscular spasm.
Detailed Answer:
Hello Mrs. XXXXXX,
Thanks you for writing back with the details.
I have gone through these details carefully and I have a few probabilities.
1. You mentioned that the pain is worse when you get up from sitting position, this is typically seen if there is muscular spasm, and the culprit muscle could be a deep muscle in the posterior abdominal wall called Psoas Major. However, a spasm of this muscle is very unlikely without any other condition such as an infection around the muscle, it is usually seen in tuberculosis or psoas abscess.
Even though I mention this, I do not think this is likely in your case.
2. Duplex kidney on the left side and presence of blood and leukocytes in the urine points to a probable propensity for small stone formation in the kidney that pass down the ureter occasionally.
Since you have a congenital abnormality in the kidney in the form of duplex kidney, it also means that there are two ureters, and in such cases, other abnormalities such as an abnormal kinking or narrowing of these double ureters can be expected, and this can cause the stones to be lodged in the bent portion of the ureter leading to pain, and blood in the urine.
Bowel thickening may not be very significant in your cases, however, considering you symptoms, it could indicate some amount of long standing inflammation in the area (probably due to repeated stones in the ureters), and this inflammation could be irritating the psoas muscle, which would fit the pattern of pain you describe.
The gold standard investigation for kidney stones is an intravenous pyelogram.
This test would also show the kidneys and their functioning clearly and would guide in further management.
Along with pyelogram, I would suggest you to also get a urine culture and sensitivity done to rule out any chronic low grade infection.
Other possibility is of adhesions in the abdominal wall, these can develop if you had had a surgery in the past, or if you have had any overt infection in the peritoneum. This would also cause similar symptoms.
At this time these are possibilities I can think of that fit the description, It may be possible to help you further if you could upload the scan reports and other blood investigation reports, so I request you to kindly upload them along with this question if you need further information.
I hope this information will be of use to you.
Wishing you good health.
Warm regards
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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