Left Flank Pain

@bhinsley Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect! We're glad you found your way here.

Pain in your left flank plus the finding of a slightly enlarged spleen might be an indication of some sort of damage to that organ. Did your doctor followup with you on that? Have you had any trauma to that area from late February on, a rough game of touch football, auto accident, off-roading over extreme terrain, etc.? Just a thought...

I hope you get some answers soon that will alleviate your concern, and let me know what you find out.
Ginger

@gingerw Thank you for responding. I am glad to be here. I am at a loss because every specialist I've gone to besides the GI specialist has told me they can't do anything for me and brush me aside. My PCP has been amazing. As for the injury or trauma to the area the answer is no. I have an office job and go to school so I don't much of anything besides work and school. I am wondering if it is not internal to any organ, which the imaging shows, if maybe something outside my kidneys or colon could be the cause. Maybe some sort of tissue growth such as scar tissue, though I don't know why I would have scar tissue. But maybe it could be my spleen causing my pain. I have also considered it being some sort of blockage in my circulatory system in that area. I found something called Nutcracker Syndrome that matches a lot of my symptoms but I don't know.

@bhinsley If you are near a large hospital, or a teaching hospital [usually associated with a university, ask to get referred there to an internal medicine doctor. Of course, if you are near a Mayo Clinic campus, or the likes of that [John Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic, Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, Sloan Kettering in New York, for example] can you see about getting in to one of those places?

No patient deserves to not feel heard, nor taken care of!
Ginger

@bhinsley hello and allow me to welcome you to Connect along with @gingerw.

I thought you may be interested in the following information.

- 25-Year-Old Man With Flank Pain, Hematuria, and Proteinuria:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2664573/
"Can traces of blood in urine be normal? It is normal for urine to have very small amounts of blood in it. However there are standards that can, either in a laboratory or in the doctor's office with a dipstick, distinguish between a normal number of blood cells and an abnormal number of blood cells."

MICROHEMATURIA - Mount Sinai Medical Center - UROLOGY: https://www.msmc.com/urology/microhematuria/

Does anything ring a bell with your symptoms in these articles?

Thank you for the response @amandajro ! There are a few things that ring a bell especially with the first article. The reason for my kidney biopsy was the fact last year I started having protein in urine along with blood in urine (both microscopic and macroscopic). They were thinking IgA Nephropathy but the biopsy came back negative. They then put me on blood pressure medication for 3 weeks but that did not help either. They were also thinking a form of Lupus but they is now off the table.

The only lead we have right now is the 4 herniated disks and pinch nerve from my Thoracic MRI. That being said they told me it is "normal wear and tear" which doesn't make me too confident with accepting the referral to the spine specialist. These dead ends are costly and with them saying that it has lead me to explore a second opinion or just giving up and making this my new normal.

I had been trying desperately to find out what was causing severe pain after sitting or standing or bending down on my left side for the last 20 years, I’ve seen many specialist in Seattle and had a really good PCP till a few years ago, and a Gynecologist, Gastroenterologist, Endocrinologist Cardiologist and Orthopedic. In 2017 I got a CT w Contrast that I was shown to have congested pelvic syndrome and something about the Venous Plexus, and endoscopic exam my GI performed saw that I had SMA, I didn’t have a clue what any of this meant. Then last year I had further problems with a nerve pain on my right leg coming down from my groin all down inside of my leg, scary 😟 I got a MRI that showed I have IFI ( a rare type of hip impingement, so I was seen by a Orthopedic that gave me a guided injection to calm down the nerve pain but the pain got worse with my labrum and hamstring on the left leg and my ischium bone was very painful. More images showed me to have partial tears to labrum and my hamstring and tendenosis of my left side, but I got another guided injection to calm that down so that I could get some PT to strengthen my hips because I am atrophy from waist down, then pain got even worse over Christmas and I had to call an EMT and went to the ER, they discharged me after EMT told them I must have sciatica pain from the back? I was discharged without any exam and told to follow up with my PCP. I then did more research on my own after not getting better and saw something call Nutcracker’s Syndrome, I told my PCP about the awful experience at the ER, then he told me that It was unlikely I could have congested pelvic syndrome because of my age and being in menopause, but I insisted to see a specialist doctor who could prove to him this was not all in my head. I just got confirmation that I have Nutcrackers Syndrome and possible DVT in left leg causing pain

I am going to be see ya Vascular doctor for the Nutcrackers, IDK if I have blood clots because both the ultrasound and the other imaging said lump on image appears to be a Lipoma but if pain persist more images would be needed to rule out DVT, but now I can’t hardly stand so this has set my physical therapy back again sadly, I hope the Vascular doctor I’m going to see can help me because my QOL is destroyed over this

I also want to mention that from the information I read the Nutcrackers Syndrome probably caused my heart ❤️ to go crazy, I have had both tachycardia and bradycardia and been in a fib mysteriously

The doctor assistant that went over my image this week confirmed Nutcracker’s said that I will be needing more testing and possible imaging to rule out other things, I’m so sick this and scared 😱, if anyone else is going through this pain please let me know what helped you

Also if you were diagnosed with Nutcrackers syndrome did you have several other problems going on? I am wondering now if something is wrong with one of my kidneys, because I have double on one side and 1 regular kidney on the other side. I also have a ground glass lung nodule they have been watching now for 5 years