What do gallstones feel like

[Kalei87]

for a few weeks I have had indigestion starting In the usual normal place for heartburn, centrally in the sternum, I feel like I need to burp, but can’t, then keep getting painful hiccups.

I’ve been taking nexium and gaviscon. This does help with the heartburn but then sometimes it travels down and turns into this pain relentlessly nagging and burning kind of gnawing pain for hours and hours that is more on the right hand side where my rib cage ends. No pain in my back. It feels like I have lots of trapped gas, but I don’t, as nothing is happening other than just having this pain. I have to lie down for ages and eventually it might go away of its own accord but nothing I do helps the pain to go apart from time. I’m not sick otherwise in any other way just this pain is ruining my life! It does hurt if I press on the area a bit

Earlier I felt ok a little bit of indigestion. I ate a normal healthy breakfast but then I was at a kids party and the only food was a slice of pizza, I was hungry, couldn’t leave and no other options so I ate one slice and since then I have been lying down for 5 hours with this pain. Regret regret.

I have nothing to compare this to so just wondered if this sounds like an ulcer or something. I will go see a doctor but just wondered if the 2 things might be related in anyone else’s experience

My grandmother who had an extremely high pain threshold said it was a pain worse than childbirth.

I am slightly.more wimpy and actually.passed out from the pain.

That describes my experience of gallstones.

Oh they are dreadful. I had a sharp pain and what felt like a band tightening around my back and front. I felt sick ..just awful. The treatment back then was an injection in my bum to stop the spasms. I had the gallbladder removed and i swear I was a totally different person with a new lease on life. I sympathise with anyone suffering its awful.

No this doesn't sound like gallstones at all.

It could be hiatus hernia but equally heart trouble in women often presents as 'indigestion' please see your GP.

It sounds like it could be gallstones/fatty liver.

I had gallstones and I'd honestly rather give birth any day. It was the most intense, unrelenting, horrific pain.
I was regular in hospital for pain relief (IV morphine, paracetamol, codeine and buscopan all given one after the other was the only thing that curbed it.)
I lost 3 stone in as many months and was borderline addicted to morphine. I had to have emergency surgery and it was honestly the best thing.

Gallstones are just horrific.

Oh dear ok I will certainly talk to my doctor about this then. I do have a high pain threshold I am getting frustrated with how long it lasts as it means I can’t do anything as I have to lie down and it is so uncomfortable. I’m not writhing around in total agony and I think I assumed that’s what it would be like.

I feel like I have all this trapped gas spasms inside of me but nothing happens it just goes on and on TMI sorry but nothing is coming out of me either end 😂. I’m starving now as just had one slice of pizza since 2pm but I am too scared to eat in case it gets worse!

It’s 100% related to what I eat, I will get this after eating but not always sure what sets it off. Cheesy pizza is now on the list.

I had normal blood tests in August last year but it was not a liver function test. I don’t eat a bad diet, it’s mostly healthy, I am not overweight and I don’t usually drink too much apart from it was recently Xmas and I did drink more than usual. I don’t have high cholesterol or anything. I’m not yellow, jaundiced or swollen up or anything.

@User457788 I wear a smartwatch nothing much of any concerns with my heart rate or anything and it’s related to food. I don’t have any other heart related symptoms I’m not out of breath or anything also it’s kind of lower down by the bottom of my rib cage on the right side and is tender if I press it so I think it’s localised to that area

This was my experience of gallstones too. It wasn't the excruciating pain that some people describe, although it did wake me up sometimes. I had a lump under my right rib cage. Sent for a scan and a big stone was blocking the bile duct (or blocking something in there! I can't remember exactly!). Anyway, it was removed and all was well!

My gallstones started with symptoms like this OP. I thought it was indigestion too for about 12 months. I would get a pain in my abdomen to the right hand side, just under my rib cage. The pain was gnawing. The pain would radiate through to my back and it felt like I needed someone to hit me in the back. I even had to kids walk on my back on occasion lol.
I ended up with cholecystitis and that was really really painful. I could not keep still at all as the pain was unbearable (so much worse than childbirth). It would make me vomit after eating anything and I would be dripping with sweat and have a fever.
Definitely go and speak to your GP hopefully they can arrange a scan to see if there are any stones.
I found it really helped to stick to a diet of white fish, chicken and veg. Not very inspiring but it minimised the gallbladder attacks until I had my gallbladder removed.

The location suggests it's your gallbladder. Mine presented as a pretty permanent feeling of a moderate stitch, or a bad bruise that was healing, on my right under my ribs. It didn't hurt badly but I was increasingly aware of it. Then every 6 months or so I'd get a vice like pain around my torso followed by vomiting for between 2 and 12 hours.
Definitely talk to your doctor. Whether it's your gallbladder or not it sounds like it needs investigating.

My experience was absolute agony.
I hadn’t long had a caesarean and I thought at one stage that maybe it was rupturing the pain was so bad.
I was almost delusional at one stage and could remember whether our baby was a girl or boy or what her name was.
I remember being home alone with an attack, collapsing on the kitchen floor and not being able to move. It was the worst pain I’ve ever had.

That sounds like gallstones to me, too. I thought I just had indigestion or intolerance to white bread then ended up in a&e and had surgery to remove my gallbladder. So don't be like me and ignore it, not recommended and definitely the worst pain I'd ever had.

Sounds like gallstones/fatty liver to me too sorry. Pizza aggravating it is convincing me even more. I had very similar experiences to what you're describing and it was indeed fatty liver and gallstones. I'm waiting for gallbladder removal but I have lost around 7 stone since initial diagnosis in October 2023. I have also managed to massively reduce the pain and attacks by cutting out all bread, pizza, pasta, crisps, cake, chocolate, cheese, most dairy and anything highly sugary/spicy etc. It sounds extreme I know but it has been the only way for me to manage it, and I am feeling so much healthier now! I get twinges occasionally but that's about it. Speak with your GP and see if some dietary adjustments in the meantime help lessen the pain. Good luck it's not a nice experience at all.

The pain is horrific. Much worse than childbirth. Made worse after fatty foods.

PS it's a scan that diagnosed my fatty liver, it was performing fine in liver function tests!

It’s like a stitch yes, but also the feelings you get when you are full of air and want to burp. I would like to take a pin and stick it in me to let this air feeling out, but I am not bloated or swollen and there is no air it’s just like a big spasm/stuck feeling. I used a minty mouth spray earlier and got the hiccups for about 20 mins and this made the pain even more gnawing. I’ve not even drunk water for hours as just don’t want it to get worse. Lying on my front stretched out really far relieves the pain a little bit

It felt to me like being winded but a very intense dull ache, excruciating pain that literally took my breath away at the top of my abdomen.

@spackleplumb I barely ever eat those kinds of foods, I am a chicken and rice girl day to day. Give me sushi all day I am happy. The pizza was just lack of choice 😭

I had the most excruciating middle back pain. I would be pouring with sweat one minute and freezing the next. Utter agony. Eventually passed them. Not reccomended.

My experience of gallstones was excruciating pain for 3-4hrs. Sadly mine never properly went away as one stone damaged my pancreatic duct giving me a pancreas disease (acute pancreatitis even more painful). But some people have different experiences so do get checked out. Thanks to my experience I always say get it out asap as you don’t know the damage a little stone can do, I ended up with half my pancreas removed too, which was one massive, long surgery

Does sound a bit like gallstones @Kalei87 - like you, I had a gnawing, annoying and persistent stitch pain which was sucking all the pleasure out of my life, but whilst really horribly uncomfortable I'd had worse pain with a kidney infection /stone. Funnily enough it was full fat yoghurt that used to trigger it the most.

It was indeed gallstones, This was my thread at the time. I didn't mention it on the thread I don't think, but my bloods were completely normal - the scan showed a gallbladder jam-packed with stones, but when the surgeon got in there it was one big one. He had to break it into 4 pieces to get it out through the keyhole (along with the gallbladder obvs).

Mine felt like yours. Got sent to a&e by GP who found gall sludge but not stones.

I have only had one attack that improved after taking omeprazole so they haven't put me on the removal list, but I'm entitled to get referred immediately if it happens again.

My conclusion was that it was gastritis and as a result they happened to find the sludge. But I'm obviously keeping an eye on it.

I thought I was having a heart attack when my gallstones flared

For me it was an awful pain from the centre below my rib cage right through to my back. Nothing relieved it, pouring with sweat and I just didn't know where to put myself.

Ok this will jinx it but after over 5 hours it’s finally subsiding a bit. I laid out on my front for ages stretching out as far as I could and something seems to have become relieved and less spasm-y. I read the other thread I am off to try buscopan