Help me through a gallstones flare please ?

[Liverly]

I’m in tears in the bath. GP sent me to an and e. A and e GP has got me a consultant appointment for a few days time but the pain is blood horrible. Luckily I’ve got some codeine from a bad back earlier in the year but it’s not touching it. I think food flared it. Half a bloody sandwich earlier and it wasn’t even a very nice sandwich. Amy tips / magic or just healing thoughts for me ? It’s so horrible. Only just got diagnosed November after going with suspected reflux pain and finding my liver was out of whack. I haven’t drunk much this Christmas at all. Always the way. Too busy hosting to actually relax. I did however eat califlower cheese which seems to have set me off. I just can’t get comfy. Please help. Silly stories, anecdotes , anything. Talk me away from this pain. Please

Codiene can make the pain worse! Something to do with it causing sphincter of oddi dysfunction. Stick to Naproxen and Paracetamol but most importantly Buscopan.

I found taking all the meds at the very first sign of a twinge and lying on my left side helped a lot.

You can't have mayonnaise. It's literally oil and eggs

I ate a lot of homemade soup (and cuppa soups!) Pittabreads with salad, roast chickpeas, baked sweetpotato and beetroot mixed in with green salads or cous cous/ rice salads

Prawns are really low fat surprisingly and I ate a lot of smoked haddock and new potatoes.

I used vegetable stock to cook things like potatoes to give them a bit of flavour instead of using butter, and I used plenty of herbs.

I used 0% fat yoghurt to make some lovely dressings - it's one habit I will definitely keep.

I was absolutely fine with alcohol, spice, tomatoes, onions caffeine and fizzy drinks.

Chocolate, cheese, cream, butter, mayo any oil, red meat or anything not 'green' on the fat content on the packaging 'traffic lights' were an absolute no.

What does gallstones pain feel like?

Bless you. It’s a familiar road for me - had gall bladder out in 2008, but have developed a condition we think is sphincter of Oddi dysfunction. It’s the same pain as gallstones (and that is agonising enough!) but times a hundred and over the last 6 days I’ve had 26 hours of unrelenting pain, including a lovely stay in A&E where they gave me oramorph which made it insanely worse. Saw a lovely GP yesterday who is pulling strings and pushing buttons to try and hurry referral to gastro and in the meantime has prescribed buscapan and omeprazole which did reduce today’s attack to 3 hours of manageable pain. But I’m seriously starting to lose weight - I’m eating about 300 kcals and even that is setting it off! I did have an endoscopy on the 22nd with biopsies taken so I suspect it’s because of that a bit.
you have my every sympathy. It’s brutal and horrific. Try and get some buscapan in and ask for omeprazole to be prescribed too, and have it whipped out ASAP!

Excruciating, agonising pain located in upper stomach region sometimes radiating through to the back. It comes and goes in waves, I couldn’t straighten up with it and it feels like someone has hold of your insides and is squeezing and ripping you apart.
to be honest most of the time for me it resolved with truly impressive vomiting which immediately stopped it.

Like you are dying - immense pain with no relief that comes in waves. Like the end phases of giving birth where the contractions are intense and all you can focus on is the pain. But worse.

For me the pain was everywhere in my back, stomach, under my ribs and in my chest. Before I had buscopan and pain meds ready to go the pain would be so intense it would make me vomit. The last attack I had before removal it was so bad I passed out for an unknown amount of time on the hallway floor trying to reach the phone to call an ambulance.

It's like someone is trying to squeeze your insides out.

I'm someone who has given birth 3 times without any pain relief and would never dream of ringing an ambulance for anything normally. It's so much worse than childbirth.

Sometimes the pain just stops as quickly as it started and sometimes it rumbles on for days. I had around 20 attacks in total beforr removal and the fear of having them and their unpredictability was as bad as the attacks themselves

I'd suffered for years with pain under my right ribs which I now know was the early signs of gallbladder issues..

@Clartzillathe pain (and now the SOD pain) genuinely scares me. I’ve always wondered how much pain a person can actually cope with before it kills you, I worry about having a heart attack.

How are you feeling today @Liverly?

Pain wise I’m so much better. But also confused as my friend said it didn’t sound like gallstone pain as it wasn’t stabbing ?! It felt crushing and gnawing and just not getting comfortable. Who knows. Have had pperodge with water and banana and low fat veg soup at lunch and it’s a bit grumbly but ok. I however feel starving ! And won’t be able to eat any of the desserts I have made for later. Hospital on Friday for a consultation so will see what they say. I’m not tempting it by eating fat just to see what happens in between times. Off to buy some brown rice not in a pouch as they do indeed have fat in them!

My pain wasn’t stabbing, it was like the whole of my upper abdomen was in spasm, then would ease and then start again - a bit like contractions. Pain is often described differently by different people.

Spoke too soon. Back pain is back wotj rumbles at the front. I’m off to take my tablets and hope for a reprieve while I’m out tonight and not drinking ! Family party or I’d duck out

Mine wasn’t stabbing either. Mine was crushing too, it absolutely felt like I was having a heart attack, like someone was tightening a metal band around my chest, breathless agony, just awful. Any possibility you could go private to get this sorted?

Private is about £8000 for removal.

I was willing to pay it through sheer desperation (monthly installments) but when the consultant that I paid for a pre-op with privately after spending 6 months on the NHS list found out I was paying rather than it being covered by health insurance he put me on his NHS list. It was still a 2 month wait after that but I was so grateful.

If I'd been at the mercy of the NHS though I'd still be waiting for my pre-op 10 months after being referred. I know this because I'm still on the NHS waiting list as it's a different trust to the one I ended up having it removed under, I'll obviously remove myself when someone gets in touch to offer the pre-op but I am interested to see how long that ends up being.

I am contemplating forking out but I had 6 months where it was totally dormant after a couple of hospitalisations, and it’s just started grumbling again so trying to hold out for the NHS. If it doesn’t go dormant again soon though I will pay. I was quoted £8000 for it too.

I’ve been living with gallstones for 2 years now. I was supposed to get it out but they scheduled surgery for when I had a newborn so had to get kicked off list and rejoin it, so I’m still waiting.

things that help- buscopan and coedine. A hot bath can be helpful. Following an attack I eat as little as possible and just stick to things like banana, plain chicken, apples. I’ve found things like eggs and onions are awful triggers as well at fatty foods.

If it doesn’t settle/gets worse, you notice dark pee or pale stools then seek advice asap. I had this and ended up admitted to hospital for a few days with a blocked bile duct.

Please don't take codiene. Ask for something like Naproxen if you can take it. Codiene can make gallbladder issues worse both before and after removal.

It took a Polish locum GP having an absolute horror when I went in after a bad attack and slightly turning yellow to tell me that the codiene the previous GP had given me 4 months earlier may be making things worse. He also tried (and failed) to get me considered for surgery that week but I will forever remember how much he cared about how much pain I was in.

Buscopan on the other hand is fab. Same GP also told me I could take it more often than the packet said if it helped and I needed it.

I'm sorry you're going through this . I know that the pain is absolutely agonising , I was always doubled over and couldn't breath deeply. I had mine removed a few years ago by keyhole . It was an easy ,not too painful operation and I was back to normal after a couple of weeks . I can eat anything I like now . You may find you're OK tomorrow, but unfortunately it will probably happen again before you have the op . Xxx

I was in and out of hospital with “chest pain” for more than 5 years. Not one NHS Dr realised what it was. I was too young and too thin. I went private, saw a gastroenterologist, he diagnosed me within 5 minutes, straight down for a scan, gall bladder out a week later, no problems since. I had private health through my work but back then the cost was around £5k and I would have begged, borrowed or stolen to get it out!

I have got health insurance so will see what is said on Friday and then seek that route if it looks like it will be a wait. I had very dark pee earlier but it lightened after a pint of water. Also got weird tummy now. TMI but sort of sludgy foul smelling poop. I’m examining my eyes every time I go to the loo to see if they’re yellow. Had brown rice and veggies for food earlier and they went down ok. Bit of soy sauce and it was actually nice. I forget that I like healthy food sometimes! I’ve ended up not going to the NYE party and will be off to bed soon. I’m so grateful for all this help. Also feel less of a fraud now others have described it as crushing pain. Mine was like a squeezing band and breathing was horrible.

Weirdly gaviscon helped me immensely. When an attack came on I would’ve taken co-codamol but it does take an hour to kick in. Liquid gaviscon helped while I waited

Dh had his gallbladder out this year after being admitted to hospital last year with an infected gallbladder. He was so poorly, never seen him in so much pain, I had to call an ambulance, they gave him double the dose of morphine because he’s a big bloke and it didn’t touch him!

You poor soul. I walked the floor with it in circles bent over in agony.

I read on a US website that pear juice can help head off an attack. I bought quantities of M&S apple and pear juice and it did seem to help me.

I was told local hospital wouldn’t prescribe anything strong unless you were admitted so no point heading to A&E. GP was no help. After attack so bad I wanted to die and had to call friend to get kids to school as husband away, I paid for private gp who actually prescribed effective painkiller. (“You poor soul” he said, “I had my own gallbladder out last year after excruciating pain”!)

I think it was tramadol he gave me. I only had to take it once and had to go to bed when I’d taken it as was so woozy, but knowing I could take something if it got too bad made life bearable until I got my gallbladder out.

I ate little but chicken and salad or carefully cooked veg the whole time. I was losing weight which the private gp was very grim about - makes things much worse apparently - so a nutritionist friend made me buy those weight maintaining shakes you can buy in pharmacies for older people to try to maintain weight - not easy when you spend six weekends in a row vomiting 🤮!

Good luck. It’s almost instant relief after the gall bladder removal despite - in my case - spectacular bruising.

Make sure you ask if they’d prescribe pain relief to a man in similar pain if they’re reluctant. There’s lots of evidence unfortunately that medics under-prescribe pain relief to women.

I just want rid now. I’m fed up

Sending you sympathy. Wishing I could send send pain relief. X

It is awful, I think only kidney stone pain is worse. When I had gallstones gp prescribed diclofenac (suppository unfortunately 😬) it was really good at stopping the pain within minutes. Nothing else came close to being as effective. I would have done anything to stop it sooooo bad!