Enlarged Spleen and pain

[Bambie_babe]

It started with a burning sensation When I peed and a dull pain in my back (both sides). I went to the doctors and they found I had a water infection (bacteria Ecoli). I went away with tablets but it didn't seem to go away with the first bout of antibiotics that I took for 4 days. The burning sensation went away but my bladder began to hurt and the pain in my back turned to agony.

I was given new antibiotics and told to take them for a week but wasn't happy with the way the doctor didn't even check me over considering how much pain I was in and didn't offer any pain killer other than the ones you can buy over the counter.
I went back to a different doctor who checked me over and decided to give me an ultra sound scan. She gave me strong pain killers and advised me to continue with the new tablets the previous doc have given me. She felt I might have a kidney infection.

Week later, I'm still in pain on my left side- I've finished my antibiotics and presume the water/kidney infection is gone. The ultra sound scan revealed no immediate issues with my kidneys etc. but did show an enlarged spleen. The doctor failed to reveal how enlarged but the lady who scanned me mentioned it being 12.7 cm (in length I presume) and my height is 5'3.

Quizzed my doc on it and she couldn't confirm if it was enlarged or just big. She was basically saying it was both and yet neither!! Very unhelpful and Vague. She sent me off for blood tests but they came back normal.


I'm very, very tired. Find it hard to concentrate (writing this was a blast!) and I ache and feel pain towards my lower back and lower ribs. I've lost my appetite, feel sick after I've eaten and find it really uncomfortable to lay on my poorly side.

Anyone know what's going on with my body??

[mkh9]

You are welcome Let me know how it goes
Mkh9

[Bambie_babe]

It's tough to feel your own spleen when your not 100% on where to feel, but my mum had a feel and it was extremely painful where she touched- very tender around the ribs and below on the left side!!

[Bambie_babe]

I don't have the symptoms of mono and I have had blood tests for the liver, among other blood tests that can indicate most causes of enlarged spleen.

I think you are right about the infection, and it's reassuring you think my spleen was just enlarged from the E-Coli infection. Maybe it is still there, I'm going back to doctors today to double check i still haven't got the infection.

Thanks to both of you for your comments!

[mkh9]

I agree with the other post in that the spleen is part of the immune system and can become enlarged with some infections. Also, did they check you for kidney stones with the ultrasound? Other symptoms of acute Mono would be sore throat, fever and swollen lymph nodes. If you don't have these symptoms it probably isn't mono. If you do then you can get the EBV test for mono. But with what you have said so far I don't think you have it. You do sound like you had a urinary tract infection and that the E.coli was resistant to the first antibiotic . It can have multiple resistance factors these days. It sounds like it got up into your kidneys. It sounds like the infection with E.coli may have caused the enlarged spleen. So after the antibiotics you are still having pain? It may be that the enlarged spleen is still causing discomfort. It takes time for it to go down once it is enlarge. Like lymph nodes they  and the spleen can take a month to go down. But, you may want to go back into the doctor to get retested to make sure your urinary tract infection is gone and that there isn't anything else going on. Are you running a fever? If so that would indicate you still have an infection.

[amealer]

Upper limits of normal spleen size = 11-13 cm.

Is your spleen palpable? (meaning, can you feel it below the bottom left rib - to know if you can feel it, press down firmly starting at the bottom edge of the lowest rib, and slide your fingers down, in the direction of your belly-button - keeping firm pressure this whole time .... if you can feel a spot where something kind of slips out from under your fingertips, that is your spleen ..... measure how many centimeters down from the rib it is ---- the spleen normally should not be palpable)

Symptoms can include abdominal or chest pain (especially when the bladder or bowels are full), bruising, anemia (which can make you very tired/fatigued)

Your spleen can become enlarged just when you have an infectious illness (because the spleen is part of the immune system), although usually the only illness that causes your spleen to get significantly enlarged is infectious mononucleosis (mono).  Do you have any signs of mono?  A lab test for EBV would show whether you have it.

The next most common cause of splenomegaly is liver disease.  Do you have cirrhosis or any liver problems?  Do you look jaundiced (yellow skin, yellow eyes)?  Did you have liver function tests performed in your blood work?

I assume you have had a CBC as part of the blood work - you want to make sure that none of your counts are low (RBC-anemia; WBC-leukopenia; platelets-thrombocytopenia).