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What Causes Pulsating Lower Left Abdominal Pain?
Question: I have pulsating pain in my left lower abdomen. I am a 27 year old male. The pain came on quickly about 4 days ago and I could hardly stand it. It turned up for about 5 hours and now it is just pulsating pain. I have hardly eaten anything in the past few days. I have been drinking water and gatorade. I don't have a fever and feel fine other than the pain.
Brief Answer:
Posssible kidney stone
Detailed Answer:
Hi, thank you for using Healthcare Magic. I am not sure what you mean by a pulsating pain- do you mean like intermittent pain that comes like periodic cramping? This would go along with a kidney stone. The pain from a stone can be very severe, like you experienced it 4 days ago. You may or may not have urinary symptoms or blood in the urine- stones can occur without these problems.
To diagnose this, best to go to emergency. They can do a urine test to look for microscopic blood, but ultimately if they think it's a stone, they will probably do some kind of imaging study. One concern about a stone that is not passing is that it can cause obstruction of the urinary tract on that side with swelling of the kidney. Another potential risk is developing a kidney infection.
This could also be a gastrointestinal problem with intestinal cramping. although I would expect you to have more bowel problems. However, a bowel obstruction might initially present with just pain and appetite loss. This would be considered an emergency, so another reason to get seen at ER.
Those would be the 2 primary problems I would be considering. There could be something more unusual going on, but that would also be identifiable by an exam and testing at emergency.
Hope this answers your query. If you have further questions, I would be happy to answer them.
Posssible kidney stone
Detailed Answer:
Hi, thank you for using Healthcare Magic. I am not sure what you mean by a pulsating pain- do you mean like intermittent pain that comes like periodic cramping? This would go along with a kidney stone. The pain from a stone can be very severe, like you experienced it 4 days ago. You may or may not have urinary symptoms or blood in the urine- stones can occur without these problems.
To diagnose this, best to go to emergency. They can do a urine test to look for microscopic blood, but ultimately if they think it's a stone, they will probably do some kind of imaging study. One concern about a stone that is not passing is that it can cause obstruction of the urinary tract on that side with swelling of the kidney. Another potential risk is developing a kidney infection.
This could also be a gastrointestinal problem with intestinal cramping. although I would expect you to have more bowel problems. However, a bowel obstruction might initially present with just pain and appetite loss. This would be considered an emergency, so another reason to get seen at ER.
Those would be the 2 primary problems I would be considering. There could be something more unusual going on, but that would also be identifiable by an exam and testing at emergency.
Hope this answers your query. If you have further questions, I would be happy to answer them.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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