Weird Bowel Movements And Pain In Right Side

For the past 3-4 months I have had pain in my right side that wraps around to my lower back. Sometimes the pain seems to radiate from my right hip bone and at other times the pain is located in my lower rib area on the right side or in the right abdominal area (belly button and a few inches lower). If I bend forward or reach for something above my head it can make the pain worse, but that’s not the only time the pain is there (it’s mostly constant, but it has spells of being virtually non-existent). A few weeks before this pain started I had pain in my pubic hair area only while having a bowel movement. The pain during bowel movements went away after a few weeks and hasn't returned.

Sometimes when I have a bowel movement it's basically diarrhea with another substance floating on top (as if you mixed oil and water). At other times my bowel movements are loose and look like hundreds of small particles (gravel?) that never solidly formed into a single piece. At times there will be some “solid” bowel movements mixed with the “gravel”, but if I try to poke one of the “solid” pieces with a wooden chopstick (yeah, I know that’s gross, but I am improvising here) it will easily fall apart and look like the aforementioned “gravel”. Then there are times when my bowel movements are sort of normal except that they look “rough” on the outside surface. All of my bowel movements pass easily and I don’t have to strain.

I drink plenty of water each day (around ½ gallon) and I eat whole grain bread (3 grams fiber per slice), bagels (8 grams fiber each), bananas, and apples. I estimate that I am getting around 25 grams of fiber each day.

I went to my regular doctor when this first started and he put me on fibercon for a couple of weeks and tested for blood in my stool by using one of those pieces of paper in his office -- the results of that test was negative. I have been to a gastroenterologist and he has ordered a ct scan of my abdominal and pelvic regions. He says that none of what I described makes him want to go into my colon to have a look at this time. He thinks that the pain in my right side could be attributed to a new exercise program I started a while back that involves a lot of kicking, etc. He has placed me on 1800 mgs of ibuprofen a day for 2 weeks to see if that helps.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated?