Left sided muscle pain under ribs- gallbladder related?

[AmalFish]

Hello!
Im wondering if anyone can help me as this is really starting to bring me down. I initially went to the GP after an incident of severe abdominal pain and vomiting which lasted a few hours and landed me in a+e, it was assumed to be gastritis and acid related. I went to the GP following this because I was getting continuous dull aches on my left side under my ribs. The GP did the tests for h.pylori (negative) and even a HIP test (negative) and referred me to a gastroenterologist. Following an endoscopic ultrasound last week they discovered I had 10 small stones in my gallbladder, when I asked the doctor who gave me the results why the pain is on my left side and not right side (where the gallbladder is) he just dismissed it and said ‘pain can radiate’.

This was fine and I left planning to get a referral for a gallbladder removal. Since then (the last week) i’ve had pain on my left upper back between the ribs, as if i pulled a muscle there. It’s worse when i take a deep breath. I’m wondering if this can still be gallbladder pain or something more serious. Could it be something muscular and unrelated to gallbladder/digestive issues? I have 1 year old twins and carry them around all the time so initially i thought i pulled a muscle but it’s been over a week now and the pain seems linked to the front left pain under my rib (i feel them together if i take a very deep breath).

Does anyone have any experience with something similar? I obviously will follow up with a doctor, although i’m not sure who to see now, i guess back to the Gp. I thought it could be pancreatic pain but the pancreas was seen in the ultrasound last week and was fine apparently. could it be kidney related?

any advice/help would be appreciated.
Thank you!

Small stones, especially, can cause lots of seemingly random pain. There's a hard & fast list for gallstones symptoms (for diagnostic purposes I guess) but anecdotally ppl can feel pain anywhere in their back/abdomen.

HOWEVER things like gastritis can cause left side pain which in itself can be exacerbated by gallstones.

Also yes, carrying around small ppl.

Ultimately - back to the Dr & see if they'll put you in for a gastroscopy to check your stomach etc.

In the meantime, cut out fat as much as possible (even healthy fats like avocado's & eggs). Coffee can be a trigger for petulant gallbladders - just pay attention to any discomfort you have after eating & cut the food out of your diet. NHS waiting list for removal is loooong pretty much everywhere.

But do go back - & talk specifically about the left side pain. They'll probably try with you with a ppi (acid suppression meds) like omeprazole or lanzisomethingorother. Get some peppermint tea & some buscopan in along with a hot water bottle in case you feel a gallbladder attack coming on, that combo can help some ppl fend it off to a degree.

Thank you for your response. I’m already on omeprazole as i’ve struggled with acid in the past and this has flared up again since the agonising pain incident which landed me in a+e.
Is the gastroscopy not the same as an endoscopy? I had an endoscopic ultrasound around a week ago and they didn’t mention anything about gastritis, only the gallstones. Would they be able to diagnose gastritis from an endoscopic ultrasound?

I’m suffering with gallstones at the moment and absolutely suffering same pains as you. When the pain first started happening I was also very anaemic so I’d lost some weight and got the whole kit and caboodle of testing. Nothing underlying wrong just a slightly dilated bile duct and a bunch of gall stones. I do get these terrible burning pains just under breastbone and it’s like a muscle spasm which leads me gasping for breath. This gets worse if I eat too much or delay a meal or eat the wrong thing. Little and often low fat meals. In addition to the Stomach acid drug I’m taking buscopan (anti spasmodic) which relaxes the muscle and naproxen (anti inflammatory in the ibuprofen family) which have really helped.

I'm suffering from intercostalitis at the moment..the pain you describe sounds similar..

I had pleurisy over Christmas and although the pain was almost in the same place it hurt terribly when I leant forward..

I got that coughing virus in October but it got so bad mid February and by the beginning of March I was coughing lots..that caused the rib pain and eventually the intercostalitis..
Have you had a cough?