horrible stomach pain...upper back

I have been having pain for the last week in my upper back...it is the place I would have pain when food used to get stuck.

It does not seem that food gets stuck any more. But I do have constant pain in that place. Upper back, slightly to the right side, just below the shoulder baldes.

Does anyone know what this might be?

I had a Lap Rny oct 7/2008

I'm not a doctor, but that sounds like the gall bladder pains my sister had which lead up to surgery.

Get thee to a doctor!

I have an appointment with my surgeon"s nurse practitioner tomorrow. I will bring it up with him.

Is the gall blader that high up in the back?

No, its under the right side of your ribcage, off of the pancreas and near your liver...

its called referred pain.  Usually gallbladder pain is referred pain to the right shoulder and back and also epigastric areas, (stomach).

You may feel you have food poisioning, and then realize that everyone else ate the same foods and are not sick.  It can also present like a heart attack in women, and men will think a baby is trying to bust out of their stomachs and will crave Rolaids, Baking Sodas and other home remedies.

Stay away from those.

If you have referred pain, usually to the right side of the back, shoulder area, and epigastric areas, go to the doctor, and have blood tests done.  They may order an ultrasound looking for stones, but sometimes you can have gallbladder disease without stones, and that is where your gallbladder cannot work any longer and will cause the same type of pain, usually at night after a meal, heavy greasy foods, chocolate, fried foods, all those things we used to eat prior to WLS.

After WLS the problems are due to processing all the fats and enzymes, salts that come from losing weight, the liver is our filter, and most things, especially fats, filter through the liver, and when its been filtering out "old fat" for lack of better explaination, you will then get to a place where the bile is being overproduced, and the gallbladder cannot store anymore bile, and the salts build up and that creates stones, and they look like little pebbles and rocks, literally, and you cannot break them up (some of the time) just by crushing them in your hands.

A surgeon has to remove it because these stones will bock the bile duct which is connected to the gallbladder, and that is where your pain comes from....the bile backing up and is not "dripping" into the common bile duct going down to the pancreas, which you do not want to get pancreatitis due to the severe problems that can stem from that alone.  Pancreatitis is a severe and serious complication that can lead to death.

I am not here to scare anyone, nor am I trying to diagnose anyone, but if you have any pains that are constant, like everyday, and you are nauseated, cannot eat, and cannot tolerate food, you need to get to your doctor and get yourself checked out.

Please go to the doctor if you have pain.

:)

Feel better

Deborah

do you still have your gallbladder?   If so, sounds like a good trip to the internist/surgeon is necessary.   It is so easy nowawdays....I had mine out in 94, only overnight in the hospital, and it was done laproscopically.

Our bodies make gallstones as we lose weight regardless of how we lose it.  Its one of the those pesky things they told us might result from weight loss/surgery.  

Other things to look for after losing weight , and especially after WLS

Bile stones.....gallstones if you have a gallbladder, you can still have stones if you don't have a gallbladder, so if you are one of those "I would swear I was having gallbladder attacks if I knew I didn't have a gallbladder" people, go get some liver enzyme tests and CT with contrast....

I did, and had to have the lap assisted ERCP done exactly a year apart due to stones in the bile duct, which are deadly or can become deadly if you do not have your gallbladder.  I had the surgery exactly a year apart in 06/07 and have done great since.

Your body can't get enough fluids and so forth, so stone building is easier after WLS and loss.

Kidney Stones.....never had them until a 9 months post op, now have them at least 1-2x a year.

DRINK tons of fluids...its so hard, and I had to cut my vitamins in half, Ca is the reason, and oxyilates sp?   nuts, grapes, caffiene and chocolate, things we don't eat, well the last 2 we don't eat.

Kidney stones and bile stones are our enemy after WLS, so be aware, don't be scared...just inform your other WLS buddies so you are not blindsided with pain.

I thought I was going to die at my first kidney stone, had major pain, to the point I took an ambulance to the hospital because I thought I had an intestinal blockage, and it was a 3mm stone.  Not big, but it felt worse than labor and delivery because at least when we have babies, contractions are not constant.......kidney stone pain is constant and constantly moving down unless it gets stuck, then its like you are trying to pee a watermelon the size of an eraser or less.

The pain is caused by spike like projections, crystals, that bounce off the ureters, the tubes leading from the renal pelvis of the kidney, where most are formed, and going down to the bladder, they can bounce around like jagged pebbles, like the movie Armageddon, they look like those huge spikey stagnytes sp?  and will rip and hurt your ureter, and cause spasms and swelling that feel like a watermelon is moving through your ureters.

Fun stuff huh?   bleh, painful, painful, and painful, did I mention painful??   You will also feel the need to sit on the toilet non stop and try to "push" it out, and then you end of thinking you are constipated, you may be that as well too, but avoid enemas and other constipation remedies as it will only exacerbate the stone problem if that is what it is.

My suggestion at first pain??   GO TO THE DOCTOR and request scans, blood tests, and tell them WHAT YOU WANT!!  that is key.   If you ask them to figure it out, you suffer silently, you have to be proactive about your health.

Now, getting back to this poster, sorry to use your post as general information, but hopefully we can all share this at support groups.

I am currently in school to be a First Assistant in Surgery, passing instruments, holding retractors, suturing, and assisting the surgeon, so I have been on both sides of the "knife".

Its not a terrible surgery, there is more danger for the Surgeon and Assistant in the room with the Xrays than for the patient.

The pain after a cholesystectomy is negligible and you will feel great after a day or so.

:)

Hope you get yourself sorted out and feel better really soon!

God Bless

PS ,  you are doing great in your weight loss!


deb