severe ulq pain, eases when sitting or laying

by Linda Darby
(United Kingdom)

Got worse after colonoscopy 5 years ago, benign polyp removed, nothing else found.no meds except occasional laxatives.had anurysm coiled and endoscopic third ventriculostomy, hystrectomy (partial) calcaneal osteotomy all in past 7 years.constipation a daily problem, eat fibre, drink water etc, nothing works, once a week take laxatives.pain every day of my life.


Dear Linda Darby,

You clearly have had more than a fair share of health related challenges. Don't you deserve sincere commendation for soldiering on? Well done!

I can see why perhaps you are having intermittent severe pain on the upper left quadrant of your abdomen since after your colonoscopy 5 years ago.

You described the pain as one that eases when you are sitting or lying down, but certainly worse on standing up.

It seems very much to me that originally, the polyp you had would have been somewhere around the part of the large intestine or colon we call the splenic flexure (you can take a look at the diagram here at The Process Of Digestion Page - will open in a new browser). There you can see the pink coloured colon or large bowel, starting from the right lower abdomen, continuing up to the right upper abdomen, then swings across the top of the abdomen and continues horizontally to the left side. There it twists downward and continue on the left side as the descending colon, sigmoid colon and down to the rectum and anus.

If you had a polyp at the splenic flexure area, it could cause irritation on and off and perhaps some slowing down of bowel content leading to abdominal pain and constipation respectively. Significant constipation could also cause severe
pain from the distention and stretching of the lumen and wall of the bowel by the accumulating bowel content.

After colonoscopy and removal of the polyp, you might have developed post surgical adhesions and that can cause severe pain and constipation too.

Standing up could cause stretching of the bowels compared to when lying down or sitting. This could be the cause of this pain.

I think regular use of laxatives like Fybogel a few times a week depending on your bowel's response and the consistency of your bowel motions and the use of simple pain killers like paracetamol plus exercise will give some relief.

You may want to read more around adhesions.

You could discuss these issues with your own GP too and get his or her opinion. Many people with adhesions as a cause of their abdominal pain do not expect a cure. Repeated surgery could worsen things.


I wonder if this helps in any way.

Thank you again Linda, for stopping by and using our online resource here at abdopain.com. Please do not hesitate to contact us again, should you require any further information or help. We are always happy to help where we can.

Good Health To You.


Dr O Edema MD MRCGP CCFP MSc DRCOG
Family Physician, Emergency Medicine Practitioner and WebMD
Abdopain.com