Does this sound like gallstones?

[TheHappyHerbivore]

Hi all.

I woke up in the night with bad abdominal pain, up at the top of my abdomen. I went to the loo and the pain got worse, to the point where it was the most severe pain I’ve ever experienced. I was crying out from it, struggling to breathe etc, and couldn’t find any position which relieved it. I was absolutely pouring sweat. My husband was on the point of calling an ambulance when I suddenly rushed to the bathroom and projectile vomited about 8 times, still in screaming pain. Once I had stopped being sick, the pain gradually reduced over a period of about 20 minutes until it was all but gone. I was then able to get some sleep.

This morning I have a similar type of pain but much less severe - it’s only a discomfort now.

I’m 24 weeks at the moment. The baby has been kicking away so my midwife (who I called this morning) isn’t worried about them. She just said to go into hospital if the pain goes back to being as severe as it was.

Does anyone have any experience of anything like this? I’ve truly never known pain like it, even when I had appendicitis. I don’t think it can have been food poisoning because I didn’t eat anything dodgy and my husband ate exactly what I ate and was fine. It could be a bug, but I wouldn’t have expected it to pass so quickly if so. That led me to thinking gallstones and I wondered if anyone had any experience?

Ive got gallstones and it sounds similar. It depends where your abdo pain in. Top right hand side is definitely gallbladder pain, you can feel it in your back and shoulder aswell. Its one of the worst pains ive had in my life and it usually wakes me up middle of the night. Its horrific. I ended up in a&e a few weeks ago and they said it gets worse in pregnancy, especially if youve had gallbladder problems prior and to expect a painful pregnancy and they wont do anything about it unless a stone obstructs the bile ducts and i become jaundiced.

Definitely see your gp as if it is gallstones your going to need some decent painkillers to get you through it x

Agree. Poor advice from your midwife - get things checked, GP is the best start. They can do some liver tests and arrange an ultrasound scan (and think through other possible causes).

Thanks both, that’s really helpful.

My midwife has been amazing, no complaints about her at all. When I spoke to her the pain had almost completely gone, and she was basically just saying that it was better to wait and see if it flared up again because if it was actually a bug the last place I should be is at the GP or in hospital. But she was very clear that I should see someone if I felt like I wasn’t improving or got worse, and she talked me through who I should call etc.

Thankfully I’ve been fine today, just some discomfort but nothing worse than that. But if I feel it getting bad again I’ll definitely arrange to speak to my GP.

Under rib pain can be pre-eclampsia. I would strongly suggest getting it checked out. If you really don't want to bother the doctor you might see if you can borrow a blood pressure cuff from someone as if your blood pressure is normal pre-eclampsia is unlikely.

Makes sense - if all resolved then for sure leave things be but any other worries get things checked. Glad you have a good relationship with your midwife, I retract my previous comment!! :)

I’ve had gallstones pre-pregnancy and had my gallbladder removed the pain does sound as you have described... however in pregnancy I’ve also had trapped wind which mirrored the gallbladder pain!! To the point I said to my husband, if I hadn’t already had my gallbladder removed I would think I was having an attack!!
Have your bowel movements been as normal?

I had this and took nearly 2 years to diagnose and had my gallbladder removed in March. My pain was all across bottom of ribs (not just one sided) across my back and shoulders and it made me projectile vomit too! I found getting on all fours ( leaning over sofa) and having my back massaged helped the pain ease of a lot faster. I would rather have labour pains than gallstone pains 100% xx

@kim160790 you poor thing! I said similar to my husband - there’s no way labour could be a worse pain than that!

I’ve felt absolutely fine since it happened, which makes me think gallstones is maybe more likely, because I would expect a bug to last longer. I’m just keeping a careful eye out for it happening again, but luckily I’ve been totally fine so far.

@Milkshake54 I’ve been a bit constipated, but that seems to be easing too thankfully. I’m keeping up my fibre intake religiously in case that’s a cause!