Question:
gallbladder SYMPTOMS???
Has anyone had problems with their gallbladder postop? I am 3 years post op and for the past 3-4 weeks I have had severe pain in my upper right abdomen - under my ribcage, kind of directly under my right breast. It sometimes is sharp but it is constantly a dull pain. It radiates into my shoulder and also feels like its is in my sternum area like someone is standing on my chest. Any advise or comments please! I need to know I am not crazy or imagining these symptoms. — Marni R. (posted on June 30, 2004)
June 30, 2004
I had my gall bladder removed almost 1 year post-op. The symptoms I had
when I had attacks were pain under the right ribcage radiating to the back,
cold sweats at times, pain, sometimes diarrhea and stomach cramps. Just
go to your PCP and tell them your symptoms and you'll probably be sent for
an ultra sound. I did that and within a week they took it out. Gall
bladder disease is very common among WLS patients due to the rapid weight
loss.
— Cathy S.
June 30, 2004
Sounds like gallbladder to me. Request an ultrasound. That'll tell you
for sure. If it is gallstones, then just have the gallbladder removed.
It's (usually) done lap, no problem to go through at all. Day surgery.
Don't worry.
Good luck!
— KelBurt
June 30, 2004
Sounds like the syptoms I had too. Hurry, get an ultra sound just as soon
as possible. Push it. The gallbladder pain will increase if that's it. Get
the test and push for surgery as soon as possible.
— Danmark
June 30, 2004
Marni, it sounds like gallbladder to me too. I started having the same
pain a few months ago. They did a gallbladder u/s and it came back
negative. My surgeons office gave me the option of having the next test
(Hida scan) or waiting to see if it got better. I chose to wait and now I
get sick (not vomit but very upset, extremely lethargic, intestinaly pain,
horrid gas, etc.) everytime I eat, no matter what I eat. I finally went it
for the Hida scan today, I wont get the official results until Monday but
we are all positive my gallbladder must go.
The u/s only looks for stones or masses in the gallbladder, the Hida Scan
checks the actual gallbladder fnction. So get the u/s but if it comes back
negative go ahead and get the Hida scan to know for sure, before it gets
worse. The Hida scan is a long test, 2-2 1/2 hours (for me it was over
3hrs) but is an easy test you just lay there on the table while they give
you some medicines through an IV and the machine take pictures, I napped
off and on to pass the time.
Good Luck
— Tricia S.
June 30, 2004
Don't let it go too long or it can turn into pancreatitis, and that's very
serious. I spent a week in the hospital with gallbladder pancreatitis a
couple of years ago. That was far worse than the surgery to remove the
gallbladder.
— Jim F
June 30, 2004
Marni...the symptoms definitely sound like GB symptoms. I was an
ultrasound technologist for over 20 years before retiring. But, there is
also another problem that has a lot of the same symptoms. There is no
nausea, but there is extreme pain in the chest radiating into the back.
The condition is called "costochondritis" which is an
inflammation of the cartilage that attaches the ribs to the breastbone and
to the spine in the back. This is most common in women with large breasts.
So, if you take your fingers and find your mid sternum (breastbone) area
and go out about 1-2 inches from the middle of the sternum and press,
starting at the top where you have the little notch just below your adam's
apple and work your way down, if it's really sore, you may have the
costochondritis. I have actually been hospitalized twice with this
condition when they thought I may be having a heart attack. So, ever since
then, whenever the chest pain would hit, I'd check my chest by pressing and
see if I'm sore. Either way, you need to check with your surgeon or PCP to
describe your symptoms and let him/her order any testing necessary. Hope
this helps.
— Katherine F.
June 30, 2004
I had these same pains. I also sometimes had nausea. You should get it
checked out. More then likely, you will have to have it removed. I was a
little over 2 years post-op when I had mine done.
— Patty H.
July 1, 2004
Thank you all so much for your advise. I have some nausea but no vomit
(well, I can't really do that much anymore!) LOL. My ribcage hurt last
night really badly. The sternum is kind of sore but mostly where I push
down on because i push on it when I get an "attack". Right now I
feel like I have heartburn but I haven't had that in 3 years since they
fixed my hiatal hernia - weird, huh?
— Marni R.
July 3, 2004
Sounds to me like it definately is the gall bladder. When I had a gall
bladder attack, I laid on my bed for 5 hours straight crying like a baby,
that is how bad the pain was. I also vomited alot. Made labor seem like a
walk in the park. Before the attack, I was getting the pains like you
described. Do yourself a favor and get it checked out before you have a
full fledged attack. That is one pain I would not wish on anyone. I'm
surprised that your surgeon did not remove the gall bladder when you had
your WLS. Most do anymore.
— Kelley
July 6, 2004
I just had mine out on 6/28 by my WLS surgeon, done LAP. I had similar
symptoms, occurring for around 4 hours on one evening, except not the
shoulder part. I am back to work as of today, teaching summer school. The
recovery is, at least for me, much easier than my LAP RNY. I had one bad
attack in April, and thought it might be a bowel obstruction, but I was
able to go to the bathroom, or dumping from a little Passover wine. I did
some reading on OH, and saw a few responses to a question like this one.
They all suggested gall bladder, so I called my WLS surgeon and asked her
opinion. I went for a sonogram and gall stones were confirmed. I kept my
fingers crossed until my surgery date and made it w/o another attack. The
post op discomfort is FAR less serious than the attacks. I was told by my
surgeon, that as post ops, we can not be treated for gall bladder problems
as non post ops are,and we are more likely to have cointinuing gall bladder
problems as post ops, so it was better to remove it.
— Fixnmyself
July 9, 2004
Marnie,
I had a gallbladder attack a year before I had my RNY that sent me to the
emergency room at 3 in the morning. I was 300 pounds at that time and I
kept saying to my husband, "Please don't let me be one of those fat
women who don't know they're pregnant and all of the sudden deliver a
baby!" I have two young children and to tell you the truth, it felt
like contractions. However, the ultrasound showed no stones or
calcification. I was symptom-free until after my by-pass, which I had Jan.
29, 2003. In the spring that year, I started having that pain again --
enough to curl your toes. They ordered the u/s and still no stones. My
surgeon told me to have a HIDA scan with the synthetic hormone that makes
the gallbladder do what it does. If there's pain during the HIDA scan, it's
a sure sign the organ isn't functioning. Well, I had pain, but my PCP still
wasn't convinced it was gallbladder. The pain went away for a few months
and in the fall it hit with a vengence (this is fall 2003). It came back
more frequently and severely. They gave me all kinds of concoctions to take
thinking it was stomach-related, all to no avail. I was finally referred to
a gastroenterologist who ordered another HIDA scan, diagnosed me with
bilary disconesia (sp?) and said, "You can live with the uncertainty
of the pain coming back or have the darn thing out. Why live like
that?" I agreed, and so did my surgeon, who was seeing me for my year
check up later that month. He scheduled my lap procedure for the
gallbladder a week later and I've had no pain at all since. I know this is
a long response, but I suffered so long for nothing. Good luck, God bless
and "have the darn thing out." Gerianne
— Gerianne D.
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