to ask about your gallstone symptoms

[foxyrox79]

I have been diagnosed with gallstones (had a scan to confirm) and need to have my gallbladder removed. I have an appointment with a surgeon soon. But I am genuinely scared that gallstones are not the real issue, instead something really awful.

My symptoms are: pain (impossible to describe but not sharp, stabby pain) in the centre of my stomach, just below breastbone that radiates to my upper back/shoulders and sometimes to the left or right of my stomach.
I am on a very low fat diet to control and can be pain free for the odd day, sometimes a week but am usually uncomfortable to some degree for part of every day.
I find I naturally curl into a very tight ball when the pain is bad. This helps a little -sometimes. Paracetamol/nurofen do nothing.

I am finding it increasingly difficult to lead a normal life because of the pain. It can't just be gallstones, can it??

I sympathise.. It's the worst pain I've felt and the most uncomfortable I've been. Mine was all over my chest and stomach area.. I used to writhe around sweating as staying still hurt too much! I went yellow as bile backed into my liver It was triggered by a very low fat diet (for a year) followed by a massive takeaway binge.
I was offered surgery but said I'd rather cut the fat and see what happens.. I'd heard things about having to rush to the loo when you don't have a gallbladder, as there is nothing to help digest the fat. I didn't have anymore (8 years ago) I eat fat now but no attacks so the stones must have passed?
I hope you get pain free soon!

Put Dr Google DOWN!! It won't help and it's all alarmist bullshit anyway!

fourcornered I have lost 21 lbs in the 5 weeks since my diagnosis and start of my gallstone diet

I think it took two years for my system to settle down fully. I used to feel queasy quite easily after a meal and to this day cream, ice cream and egg yolks make me feel a bit sickly. But I can now eat anything with no pain. The only thing i've really noticed is that I can't drink much anymore - I have a much lower threshold before I vomit (I know, TMI) and when I do vomit it goes to green bile pretty quickly.

My pain with gallstones was a nightmare and they took a while to diagnose them. Ask your doctor for an antacid type tablet if you're not on them now. I was on something like Lanzoprazole (sp) and it helped a lot along with the low fat diet.

When I had my gallstone flare up that put me in a&e, I honestly thought I was in labour again. Now I've had it whipped out, I have no more problems. Get the thing out, surgery takes less than an hour, it's done keyhole in the morning, your back home by dinner time and recovery was within a week.

I had gallstones for 10 yrs for various reasons I could t have the op sooner, they reckon that the pain is as bad as a heart attack
When I was really bad they would last for 2/3 days coupled with vomiting and copious amounts of saliva sorry tmi it was truly awful

The pains in your stomach just below the rib cage is the stones getting stuck in your tubes/intestines and then them spasms I think

How many gallstones do you have to have to get this?

I have ibs, I also had a double hernia (from childbirth) repaired 2 years ago, have been having "attacks" which imo were not like ibs but Dr kept saying they were, I had ultrasound recently which showed 2 gallstones and endoscopy that showed inflammation in stomach so wonder if this is due to the gallstones - the last attack lasted a few weeks and I was in pain if I ate anything - was able to manage weetabix and the odd tomato soup with mild discomfort and lost weight due to that and tonight am in pain after dinner. Tbh with the hernia and ibs it is hard to work out what is wrong but could it be gallstones with only 2 of them in there?

I have also had total exhaustion and sweating a couple of times?

I think it only takes one gallstone sat in the wrong place to cause pain.

Yes, gallstone pain can be horrific. The op to remove changed my life not only from the pain but the fear of another attack. I've never looked back.

Not sure how many you need to cause pain mad I assume 1 in the wrong place is enough? My scan showed multiple stones, the nurse told me my gallbladder was pretty full and the stones looked well compacted........

I had to go private in the end because I was waiting to long they Presented me with a small plastic bottle of what looked like gravel couldn't believe such small things caused so much trouble

Garlic was my main problem and spices or rd meat

A friend had 2 almost the size of walnuts

Sympathies OP. I found once the pain killers were starting to work (and i could unfurl from the heat pads) if I went for a really fast, hard walk it would encourage the (small and numerous for me) stones to move along into the stomach.
Best wishes for your operation

That sounds very similar to the pain I had with my gallstones too. It felt as though someone was reaching underneath my right ribs and trying to pull outwards. It starts with backache between my shoulders, then awful heartburn followed by that heavy, painful ache under my rib. I was sick, had massive man-burns and nothing but codeine helped.

I had my gallbladder out on Tuesday last week in a keyhole op (known as a laparoscopic cholesystectomy) that took about an hour. In & out the same day. A week on, I feel ok. I still have that dull ache but it's not as bad as a gallbladder attack and I have had (tmi) a couple of episodes of painful cramps followed by diarrhoea but I was told that that should get better after a few weeks. Yesterday I took a couple of buscopan tablets to try and ease it and it seems to have helped.

I had my gall bladder removed about 18 years ago. It took a few months of agonising pain for it to be discovered. There were points during the "attacks" where I genuinely considered suicide just to stop hurting. The worst pain I have ever experienced. The operation was done keyhole style, I left hospital the day after, and was back at work 2 weeks later. I did keep an enormous stone, the size of an almond (which subsequently got lost in a house move several years later - I often wonder what happened to him!), but was told it was the much smaller granular stones that were causing me all the pain.

You're describing typical gallstone pain. Horrible pain worse than labour (after not making a sound during my labour I found myself bellowing and groaning throughout gallstone attacks). Warm baths and cocodamol as soon as you feel onset helped me too.

I was misdiagnosed and then on a waiting list for the op so had attacks every couple of weeks for 18 months. Was horrible. I had my gallbladder out 2 years ago, have had absolutely no pain since. So the upside is it's absolutely treatable!

I still have nightmares about the pain 11 years after the op. Next time you get an attack, get on your hands and knees, rest your head on a pillow and stick your backside in the air. This is supposed to help the stone pass quicker.

The pain from my gallbladder was excruciating. I found taking omeprazole really helped. My doctor was really sympathetic and prescribed them for me. I had my gallbladder removed a year ago and suddenly I got my life back!

Yes it can.
I would rather have another baby than go through gallstone pain again.

I agree. The relief from pain is overwhelming. Although I had severe shoulder pain after surgery (i genuinely thought I'd been dropped during surgery). It was worth it. I do occasionally get the rumblings of pain I got before the severe pain hit me but it never comes to anything.

I had shoulder pain afterwards too. I think it's to do with miscommunication between nerves. I found lots of mint tea and peppermint cordial helped dislodge all the air that accompanies keyhole surgery.

I have been diagnosed with gallstones since having some investigations due to a burning feeling at sternum, aches and pains in upper abdomen and upper back, nausea, palpitations and a stabbing pain in my back just to the left of my spine. It's bad maybe once a month then gradually tails off to be constant low level discomfort the rest of the time. Rarely do I feel well.

Bloods, ultrasound and endoscopy have shown nothing else wrong so I hope it is the gallstones causing all this, even if I don't have excruciating pain it's pretty debilitating. I don't fit the usual gallstones profile and was already underweight so I am struggling to keep weight on and eat a low fat diet! lansoprazole is helping with nausea and heartburn. I am looking forward to seeing the consultant next week!

I think the Fat, Fair, Female and Forty mantra needs to be scrapped. There's no rhyme or reason to who they attack. I was 26. Ok I was still am fat but the ward I was on had ladies of various ages, races, sizes etc. the man I spoke to outside in the smoking area was black, thin and awaiting gallbladder surgery. It was almost missed as his doctor told him black people and men don't suffer with it. Can be red herring is all I'm saying.

My gallstone pain made me feel like I wanted to DIE, and I have a relatively high pain threshold. So yes, it is that bad! I used to get attacks every couple of months and they'd last for a good 4-5 days of not being able to sleep/eat/get comfortable and unrelenting, crushing, agonising pain. No pain relief would even touch it; the only thing that did work was on one occasion when I'd had enough and insisted my husband drive me to A&E where they hooked me up to a morphine drip so I could get a couple of hours sleep.

The worst thing was, there was no hard or fast rule as to what would set them off. It wasn't necessarily the 'typical' fatty foods either; I remember I was getting ready for work one morning and had a bowl of Golden Grahams for breakfast...I ate about three mouthfuls and BOOM. Full on attack. I haven't been able to touch them since, even post-op!

I am now 18 weeks pregnant and the only thing preparing me for the pain of childbirth is that I've been told it's not as bad as the pain associated with gallstones.

I really had to push for a diagnosis; because I am overweight the doctor kept putting the pain down to reflux and prescribing Omeprazole (which did nothing) so I asked to see a different GP who immediately referred me for an ultrasound where they found a 2cm diameter gallstone. You may have to nag repeatedly to get a diagnosis.

I had my gallbladder removed via keyhole surgery about 2 years ago. It was touch and go as to whether they'd have to open me up as the gallstone had essentially ripped my gallbladder to shreds where it had tried to pass and there were bits of it sticking to my other organs (possible TMI but I thought it was cool! The surgeon said it was one of the worst ones she'd ever seen) but I recovered well and was back at work within a month- normally recovery takes a couple of weeks max if there aren't any complications.

It was seriously the best thing I've ever done. I would push hard for surgery.