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??

Gallbladder pain on a scale of 1 to 10 is around 100 then you add attacks when a stone goes through the system takes it to around 500. Unbelievable till you experience it, I would try for NO FAT and work out if you have other trigger foods - mine was coffee for e.g. so avoid caffeine as that is another common one. I was even told whilst hospitalised only one banana a day as they have fat in too!!!! I got a stone stuck at 24 weeks pregnant and went into liver and kidney failure and rapidly went down hill over a couple of days, they operated under local....THE most horrendous time of my life. I lost around 4 stone in 4 months and was trying to handle gestational diabetes as well. Be warned removal of the GB doesn't always completely resolve issues as your body has to adjust to no GB and releasing bile, so for eg. I can't skip meals as my body autoreleases bile - so I end up with a v dodgy tummy and the runs for around 12 hrs when I am late or miss a meal. My sister also still has trigger foods she has to avoid such as olive oil.

should say local was for stone removal as it was blocking tubes, the GB was removed after baby delivery by caesarean, by keyhole but they have the same advice for both - ie nothing much for 8 weeks and no driving unless passed fit by GP

I know during my op they had a good look round for escaped stones while I was under. So they do try and check. I echo everything everyone said about the relief you feel aftwrwards. I also found carrying heavy bags could trigger an attack as it seemed to squeeze every thing down inside

I was diagnosed with gallstones last year after an attack which lasted four hours. It happened once before, about two years ago. I had no idea what it was at the time and went to the GP. He gave me indigestion tablets! When it happened again last year I went to A&E. The pain was excruciating, in the exact place described in the OP. It was very similar to the pain I felt when pregnant with DS and unknowingly had pre-eclampsia and HELLP. So I was really scared when I experienced a similar pain last year, which is why I went to A&E. I had a scan and the woman said it looked like a bag of sweets

I haven't had the surgery though. The only op I've had is a cesaerean and I find the idea of operations really scary. I know in most cases it's keyhole surgery but because I've only had the pain twice, I feel like surgery isn't needed ASAP. I know I shouldn't wait for another gallstone attack though. I guess I'm just putting it off for as long as possible!

Gallstone pain for me felt like I was having a heart attack (disclaimer: have never actually had a heart attack to compare it to).

Mine were misdiagnosed as reflux for 15 years until the day when I passed a gallstone and contracted pancreatitis as a result.

Passing a gallstone is the most painful thing I have ever experienced - worse than childbirth - and I was in hospital for a week.

Had keyhole surgery last year and no problems so far.

Good luck OP.

To be fair, I was fair, fat and 40 :)

Such bad pain it's unbelievable - I was on Tramadol for mine. Nearly 10 years since I had my gall bladder removed now.

Admittedly 10 years on if I do eat a lot of crap I do pay for it with stomach cramps - you would think I would have learnt my lesson by now!

I was hospitalised and put on morphine from the pain, I was vomiting bile :(. I decided not to have it removed though, after consulting "Dr Google" like FoxyRox did and read all the negatives. So I just watch my diet. If it happens again i'll have little choice but to go for surgery. Weirdly I found strawberries helped when I felt sick.

Choosing not to have the surgery? Blimey! I can't imagine it. May I ask what it was that put you off?

Just to add I was 25 when I had mine, and was told my pregnancy with DS2 caused it.

Was also told the shoulder pain afterwards was because of when they inflate your stomach to do the op.

Pain pain pain pain and a bit more pain.

1 large stone - aged 31

No pain after op - more real side effects after first few months

Pain free.

Bliss

I thought I had an ulcer. Consultant said - the pain for gallstones was very distinctive and nothing worked to ease it, so he was checking for gallstones first.

He was right

I had mine out years ago. not too many attacks luckily and my diet before or after wasn't affected at all

Never known pain like gallstones and I have given vurth 4times. Where you describe them located sound like mine too.

One afternoon out of no where I got this really bad pain under my ribs, not quite in the centre but a bit to my right. I thought it was indigestion first but the pain kept getting worse. It spread to my back and shoulder and was worse when I breathed in or moved. It lasted 2 hours at which point I had made an appt for the out of hours doc. As suddenly as it came on, it disappeared. I suffered with ibs and cramps and bloating for years but this was really different. I was convinced after googling it that it was a gallstone passing but no one (in my family) would believe me :(

Non-fatty stuff didn't work for me - made no difference it was always at night and consultants theory was that lying down shifted the stone. Pain went on for hours and hours and hours.

If pain is gallstones then omeprazole will make zero difference, buscopan is presumably for IBS but I don't think it will touch gallstone pain.

I remember going through two pregnancies with gall stones and not being able to take anything, in the days before multi channels and sky I used to watch the sumo wrestling in the early hours to try and take my mind off of the agony

Yes to kneeling down bum in the air, and I used to have little tan,eats that went under the tongue, they used to knock me out and sleep which was a god send to be honest.

Yes sounds exactly like gallstones, they are very painful. I've had my gallbladder out now too

MamaLazourou

I researched into gallblader function in the body, it's not like an appendix and stores bile so without it there is a constant drip of bile into the intestine, sometimes it affects or reacts with diet like dairy or fat - I was willing to take the risk and not have surgery and manage my diet but if I get sick again it'll have to go. I'm rather attached to my body parts :)

I think thats ok if you can manage it with diet. Mine did not respond to diet changes at all and the pain could start at 10pm and not ease off until 7am. It was debilitating. I did suffer some mild IBS type symptoms afterwards for about a year I suspect from the constant drip of bile. But still easier to manage than the pain. Symptoms eased off after about a year. This was nearly 20 years ago. 20 years of blessed relief!

Mine was much too far gone to opt for anything but surgery. Also went private because we have insurance and I too was presented with a tube containing two marbles of hideousness! I don't know why but I kept them in a drawer until DH told me it was just too weird and they had to go! I am on Omeprazole pretty much until I drop dead now although I don't take it every day. I probably should .

I heard recently that a low fat diet is just as bad for this as high fat intake. also heard that drinking a modest amount of alcohol is helpful