Help for a rare and odd (and painful****urence

I'm nine months post d.s. surgery and have had good results and no complications...except:

Two weeks after my surgery I developed severe nausea, severe pain (in my stomach), a racing heart, and became hot and sweaty. The ER said I had an enlarged spleen. I was feeling swell (pun intended) by the next day point and was released.

Six weeks ago I had the same excruciating symptoms and went to the ER where they said I had "sludge" in my gallbladder and removed my gallbladder.

Tonight I had the same attack but, now familiar with it, and tired of expensive hospital bills, despite wanting to die from the pain, waited it out and voila! I'm back to good.

In each case I've felt pressure and have tried to force myself to have a bowel movement or vomit. Neither is successful, but it does help. Especially when I vomit (or even just unproductively heave, without expelling vomit). This makes me wonder if it's some sort of bowel obstruction.

However, I'd like to have a direction for my doctor to head. Anyone have any insight?

That sounded like when my gall bladder needed to be removed, but you say they did that already. Hope you find an answer and good luck. Hope you feel better soon.

First, I am not a doctor, and nothing I say should be taken as medical advice. Obviously check with your doctor.

That being said, I had something very similar to what you described when I had a blocked bile duct. Severe pain, nausea, heart thumping and sweating like a pig with the air turned down to 65.

It required a procedure called an ERCP which they do using a scope down your throat.

Mine occured a couple months before my DS, and I don't know if any of that anatomy changed when the DS was done.

Hope that helps.

A blocked bile duct is certainly something worth mentioning to my doctor. As Melissa pointed out, my gallbladder can't be the culprit anymore. Thanks to you both.

I agree with docputer.  Both my husband and I had the blocked bile duct problem.  Mine occurred in conjunction with gallbladder and was fixed when I had it removed.  My husband's happened after his gallbladder surgery, so he had to have the extra procedure to fix it.  Definitely go see your regular doctor!

I had similar symptoms, except my pain, etc. only lasted a few minutes each time. Which turned out to be VERY fortunate, since mine was caused by an incarcerated bowel. That's a fancy way of saying that I had a hernia just big enough for my bowel to occasionally get stuck in it. Fortunately for me, it slipped loose on its own each time. Ask your doc to check you for a hernia.

How do they check you for a hernia like that? Just wondering.

Mine was an incisional hernia, and he just felt around on my belly. (*grin*) It's harder to check for internal hernias, and I don't really know how it's done.

I had another attack today. It lasted about an hour with all the same symptoms. So yes, my appointment with my doctor has been scheduled and will post an update here if I'm able to get to the bottom of this. Thanks again for the suggestions.

Just an addendum: Besides having excruciating stomach pains and becoming blazing hot and sweaty, an additional symptom is that the pain seems to be precipitated with a lower back ache -- as if I've strained it. That symptom seems to give way after the stomach pain starts and does not return after the attack.