lower left abdominal discomfort

by Jeremy
(Brigham City, Ut, USA)

A week and a half to two weeks ago I performed an exercise on my stomach where I arched my back to perform a back exercise. I then noticed a day or two later that I had pain directly underneath my left pectoral muscle, kind of where the rib cage is left of the stermum. The pain was weird and I didn't know what it was other than maybe I was stressed or maybe it was the exercise that I performed that caused some trauma. I stopped the exercise after a minute because it kind of hurt my back a bit but I didn't notice anything up front. Well....after about 5-7 days the pain in my ribs slowly went away but some pain down further to the left of my belly button (lower left abdomen) was being weird. Discomfort is still there after more than a week. It's not like agonizing pain, but still...annoying and I don't like it. I went to doctor yesterday and the blood and urine tests came back all normal. My back doesn't hurt. My stool has been a tad strange for a week or two but maybe it's just what I was eating. Doc said that he really thinks it may be a strained muscle because I haven't been nausea or dizzy or no blood in stool etc...

What is your take on this. I have read up on oblique muscle pain and they say it can last quite awhile. Have you ever read upon anything trying to find your problem based off of symptoms and not found really anything directly related to how you are feeling? I hate that....or rather maybe I'm a weak male that hates being sick. It's just tender when I touch my abdomen on left side. NOt tender like sore from exercise, but tender to the touch of underneath by the stomach, but I don't have stomach ache or really anything related to that. I have anti inflamatory meds now to work with. I iced it last night, but it didn't really take away the dull pain at all.
Thoughts....

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Dear Jeremy,

Thanks for contacting us and I think you are someone who takes responsibility for your health, thus the research and consequent post here. I can also associate with your frustration of not finding what you are looking for online, regarding signs and symptoms of pulled muscles - after all, that is why we have created this site to help discuss causes of abdominal pain, including symptoms of pulled abdominal muscle, causing abdominal pain.

I completely agree with you. It sounds very much like muscle pull and this could take up to 6 weeks to go away. This is even more so after all the tests you've had done, all of which came back to be normal.
I think if you can tolerate the side effects of the anti-inflammatory medication, continue to take them with food - please never on an empty stomach, and hopefully, use the ice for 10 to 15 minutes a few times a day for the first few days, do gentle exercises, and hopefully, you will get better by the day.

I hope this helps.

Please do not hesitate to come back, should you have any other query.

Thanks for using our free online consultation services here at abdopain.com.

Dr Edema
Abdopain.com