Gall bladder/gall stones

[andannabegins]

Are gall stones always agony? I have a sore liver/gallbladder which is sore and can take my breath away sometimes, it is painful if poked by the doctor but isn't agony. My friend has said that it can't possibly be gall stones because it isn't sore enough so I don't know. I am waiting for an ultrasound appointment and have had blood tests that showed raised liver enzymes which is being repeated on Friday. Any ideas?!

They can just be uncomfortable, wait for your scan and ignore your friends xray vision.

I had permanent mid level pain with mine, although I avoided the worse attacks by avoiding fat. Your friend is talking bollocks.

If it is gall stones and the pain isn't too bad does that mean they are just left alone?

I had gallstones and it was horrendous when it flared up. But if it wasn't flared up, it wouldn't be sore. It wasn't fatty foods that set mine off either - it was totally random. They will do some more tests and decide whether you can pee them out eventually or whether you require surgery. The surgery isn't too bad. I was in and out in the same day.

In my case I had very few symptoms until the last 6months before gallbladder was removed when I started having biliary colic attacks and they are the worst pain..far worse than childbirth!

I did find it difficult to lie on my right side for a couple of years until I couldn't lie on that side at all for a few months before surgery.
Then I had a feeling of something being stuck under my right rib and could not bear anything around my waist that was a snug fit for more than a few hours.
Anyway it turned out I had a ping pong ball sized hard gallstone plus a few small ones.
The whole of my abdomen was tender especially when I went to the loo, this disappeared almost immediately after surgery.
But I would not say that the area was very sore or painful leading up to the surgery...it was the full on biliary colic attacks that were the worst and I had about 4 over a period of 6months.

Also some people have "sludge" in the gall bladder with or without stones and some people will have lots of pain and some have few symptoms.

The problem is because the gallbladder operation is the most common operation Consultants will often not do the operation unless it's causing a lot of problems.

My friend has gallstones but does not suffer a lot of pain just mild discomfort in upper right abdomen and no biliary colic episodes so she has opted to delay surgery for the time being.

Oh and just to add you cannot pee out gallstones because the stones would come through the bile duct into the intestines. This is where the biliary colic episodes start as stones get stuck and block the duct or if tiny can make their through the duct into the intestines.
One thing to look out for if you do have any issues is clay coloured stools which are an indication that the bile from the gallbladder is not getting into the intestine and something is blocking the bile duct. This happened to me and I was 99% sure it was gallstones at that point which was confirmed by an ultrasound scan.

How can you possibly wee out a gallstone, how could it get into your bladder, maybe getting confused with kidney stones

Ooh yes I'm definitely getting confused with kidney stones.

Thanks for all the info, I will wait and see what the blood tests etc show. I am actually really impressed with how my docs are dealing with it. You hear so many nightmare gp/nhs stories!