Question:
my pain is severe and lasts for hours on my upper right side. It feels like Dumping
but it lasts for hours not 30min or 1hr I've gone to ER 6 times and they keep doing CT Scans but not finding anything. Something is wrong. Has this happen to anyone? If so what was the diagnosis? — ldevine-jones (posted on November 13, 2008)
November 13, 2008
Also I no longer have a Gallbladder so that is not it but I am scared help
anyone I go see my surgeon next week on wed. don't know what to say to him?
— ldevine-jones
November 13, 2008
Pain is not normal, it is the body's way of telling us that something is
wrong. Perhaps your surgeon could refer you to a GI specialist for a
workup? Sounds like since the exterior scans are not showing anything, you
might need some "scoping".... either upper or lower or both.
Does this pain happen after you eat or anytime? What makes it worse? What
makes it better? Is it accompanied by diarrhea? The c-t should have shown
if you had kidney stones or something like that so... I don't know. My
sister has had this type of pain and it turned out to be that her liver
enzymes were elevated (she had already had her gallbladder out years prior
to this), her GI doc did an ERCP on her and found that she had sludge in
her bile duct and it was causing spasms and pain. They then had to do a
papillotomy (dilation of the bile duct) so that the duct was open again.
When this pain comes, she now knows exactly what it is and they have to go
back and dilate it again. Has happened a few times in the past 10 years.
No one is able to diagnose you except your surgeon/GI doc, we can only give
you advice here and wish you well as we are not qualified to do so. I hope
you contact your surgeon tomorrow and make an appointment to see him asap.
Remember, pain is not normal.
Best of luck,
Dawn Vickers
— DawnVic
November 13, 2008
I also have the same pain and believe it is what Dawn is describing. It is
a spasm in the shincter of oddi and can happen in people who have had their
gallbladder removed. The bile does not excrete as it should due to a
stricture in the sphincter. This causes pressure and spasm...and severe
pain. I have had this happen when I have used opioid pain killers. Happened
even at the hospital when I was given morphine for bad ulcer pain. I have
had it happen when I have eaten anything with mineral oil in it, like gummy
bears or gummy life savers...lol, serves me right since I shouldn't be
eating those things anyway. The way it can be discover is the test Dawn is
describing as well. Edoscopy with a die injected that shows how the gi
tract is working and shows the sphinter of oddi is not working correctly.
The can actually snip it to open it up while they are in there (If they see
the dysfunction). I would request having one done when you see your
surgeon. Good luck!
— rjh729
November 13, 2008
Sorry for the errors in spelling above, I was typing too quickly.
— rjh729
November 13, 2008
See a doc asap. If you still have your gall bladder it may be causing the
problem. And the other things should also be addressed ONLY by a DOCTOR.
Don't let other professionals that aren't qualified try to find the cause
of your problem.
vinnigirl
— vinnigirl
November 13, 2008
Your pain is in the perfect spot for it to gallbladder related. go to your
family doctor and have them check you out.
— vrshoemaker
November 14, 2008
I had periodic pain for over a year and all the tests came up with nothing.
It would come and go every month or two and last for hours, excruciating
pain that wold eventually ease up. Last Sept. it came one afternoon and
did not go away, I finally went to the ER and the contrast CT showed things
were really messed up intestinally, they could only tell something wasn't
right not get enough info. to know what was wrong exactly. They did an
emergency exploratory laparotomy and found an internal hernia. My
transverese colon had flipped over and was being drawn backward through the
hernia, strangulating it. There was also a large band of scar tissue
across all my digestive organs. Serious stuff, major surgery, sepsis was
setting in, but thank God all turned out fine, they fixed me up, spent 11
days in the hospital and I have not had problems since. Apparently the
internal hernia had been there and periodically my intestines would slip
into it causing the episodes of pain, then it would slip back out after
hours of the most awful pain, until the day it finally didn't slip back
out. It is not easy to diagnose via tests and really only will show up
when you are in the midst of the terrible pain. The Dr. said the best bet
was to get a contrast CT scan during the worst of the pain but even then
there was no guarantee the internal hernia would show. Exploratory surgery
is the best way to find it. Good luck and I hope they find the source of
it. This happened at 7 years post-op for me although I also had surgery
for a small bowel obstruction at 18 mos. post-op. I hope I am all done
with abdominal surgeries, I am not sure I could take another one.
Blessings,
— ALF
November 14, 2008
ER docs are usually not used to the aches and pains and problems that
happen to WLS people! I'm assuming you had GB...but even if not...GO SEE
YOUR SURGEON or talk to another bariatric surgeon if yours is not
available.
One other thing, on the "not so scary side", you mentioned that
it feels like dumping...If you are eating sugar or a high simple carb food
(not necessarily sugar), it could be dumping as you mentioned. Once in a
while I will over do my simple carbs and end up on the couch sleeping off
some wicked pain I caused myself...It lasts 1-2 hours and is usually high
in my abdomen...and slowly moves out as gas after a long while. I usually
have to lie down and sleep it off....This happens to me (once in a blue
moon) when I eat a good dinner, maybe ate some grains or bread...then have
a snack too soon that contains some sugar...Or I flat out just indulge in
something I shouldn't and don't check the sugar content until it's too
late! That's something to look at. It hurts pretty bad, enough to scare
the pee outta someone who's never experienced that before. I try to keep my
sugar down to 14 g's a day MAX (including fruits)! One of my fav protein
bars has 14 g's of sugar and I cannot eat anything w/carbs within two hours
of it or I will get a pouch ache either mild or full
blown-lay-me-on-the-floor! ... It happens when I am not being careful or in
one of my "I don't care what this is made of...I am eating this thing
cause it looks GOOOOD!" mode....STOOPID! I'm not perfect! That
dumping is NOT worth it to me ever! So far, I have found NOTHING that
GOOOOD that is worth that kinda pain! Still, please see/speak to a
bariatric surgeon about your pain just to be certain it is not a major
problem!
— .Anita R.
November 14, 2008
Thank you for your suggestions so far. I had the Roux-en-y oct 2002---I
had my Gallbladder removed jul 2003....so I know it is not either one of
those things..I go see my surgeon on Wed nov. 19th any suggestions or
questions you can give for me to ask him to check out would be
helpful....Thank you all again!!!!
— ldevine-jones
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