Turns out it wasn't an uncler...but a gall stone! ACK!
Hey all,
You might remember back in very late November I put a post on the board asking for advice on my medication schedule for the suspected ulcer. I was about to leave for my vacation to Florida and the doctor was on vacation, so we decided I would do an EGD when I got back from Florida. In the meantime, they put me on a double dose of Nexium and Carafate four times a day (yuck, that stuff is nasty). Well, nothing was working! It nearly ruined my vacation, I'm sad to say. I was in terrible pain all day for 3 weeks straight (nothing at night, which should have been a tip-off that it was something else). At the end of 3 weeks, I'm just praying for my EGD to find out what the heck is wrong with me. We were all expecting a giant hole in my pouch.
Well, the EGD turns up NOTHING. In fact, it showed my pouch to be in great shape, shiny and pink and NOT stretched out (yey). So I go for a CT scan to see if maybe it's a bowel obstruction or a hernia. Nothing. Just abnormal liver function shows up and extremely elevated liver phosphates. That was scary. So the surgeon schedules me for an MRI. While I'm waiting the few days for the scheduled MRI, the pain just stops. Suddenly. I had a terrible night and then just as quickly as it came, it went. The MRI results showed a dilated bile duct and after some follow-up blood testing, my liver levels were normalizing.
So, turns out I passed one or more gall stones straight from my liver through my bile duct! I cannot tell you how much this hurt. I thought I was losing my mind. I don't have a gallbladder, so they wouldn't have been able to see a stone, except with an MRI. I feel so blessed that I passed this stone without surgery or infection, but OMG did that hurt! I felt like was eating broken glass! Drama queen, I know. ;)
Anyway, just an update for you all. I guess the moral of my story is: If you have pain, something is not right. Call your surgeon. I was feeling SO GOOD for months...better than I have since I was 21 years old. So when pain struck, I did the right thing by calling the surgeon. HOWEVER, we all shouldn't have assumed it was an ulcer. If you have pain and you don't get relief within a reasonable time frame...push to find out what's wrong. There has to be some logic in there somewhere. I wish I had pushed harder or that maybe I had not gone on vacation until I knew what was wrong. It's crazy to think of not going on my vacation, but I didn't need to spend 3 weeks in terrible pain.
Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday! I know I am...pain free and now under 200 pounds! YEY!
You might remember back in very late November I put a post on the board asking for advice on my medication schedule for the suspected ulcer. I was about to leave for my vacation to Florida and the doctor was on vacation, so we decided I would do an EGD when I got back from Florida. In the meantime, they put me on a double dose of Nexium and Carafate four times a day (yuck, that stuff is nasty). Well, nothing was working! It nearly ruined my vacation, I'm sad to say. I was in terrible pain all day for 3 weeks straight (nothing at night, which should have been a tip-off that it was something else). At the end of 3 weeks, I'm just praying for my EGD to find out what the heck is wrong with me. We were all expecting a giant hole in my pouch.
Well, the EGD turns up NOTHING. In fact, it showed my pouch to be in great shape, shiny and pink and NOT stretched out (yey). So I go for a CT scan to see if maybe it's a bowel obstruction or a hernia. Nothing. Just abnormal liver function shows up and extremely elevated liver phosphates. That was scary. So the surgeon schedules me for an MRI. While I'm waiting the few days for the scheduled MRI, the pain just stops. Suddenly. I had a terrible night and then just as quickly as it came, it went. The MRI results showed a dilated bile duct and after some follow-up blood testing, my liver levels were normalizing.
So, turns out I passed one or more gall stones straight from my liver through my bile duct! I cannot tell you how much this hurt. I thought I was losing my mind. I don't have a gallbladder, so they wouldn't have been able to see a stone, except with an MRI. I feel so blessed that I passed this stone without surgery or infection, but OMG did that hurt! I felt like was eating broken glass! Drama queen, I know. ;)
Anyway, just an update for you all. I guess the moral of my story is: If you have pain, something is not right. Call your surgeon. I was feeling SO GOOD for months...better than I have since I was 21 years old. So when pain struck, I did the right thing by calling the surgeon. HOWEVER, we all shouldn't have assumed it was an ulcer. If you have pain and you don't get relief within a reasonable time frame...push to find out what's wrong. There has to be some logic in there somewhere. I wish I had pushed harder or that maybe I had not gone on vacation until I knew what was wrong. It's crazy to think of not going on my vacation, but I didn't need to spend 3 weeks in terrible pain.
Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday! I know I am...pain free and now under 200 pounds! YEY!
Laura 
Wow Laura I am so sorry you went through all that. But glad that you are doing better now.
Congratulations in reaching to ONEDERLAND!!!! Yay!!!
I hope you had a wonderful New Year!
Congratulations in reaching to ONEDERLAND!!!! Yay!!!
I hope you had a wonderful New Year!
I am who I am and accept my feelings wholeheartedly.
Those that mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind.
Cira 249/144.0 current/goal 154/ 5'3" 10 lbs below my Dr's goal
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