OK...here's an odd ball case...after simple gall bladder surgery, the patient had worse symptoms post surgery, but was told it was "just" because the surgery....be patient and a few weeks will feel better.
But the patient kept complaining and months later, nothing helped relieve her pain.
She was seen by numerous gastro doc's who performed ERCP's looking for the cause of this "pain"
but nothing could be found that would cause such pain she describes as a sharp "knife" cutting into the gall bladder area, and the pain radiates in the back to a small specific spot.
The patient can point out the exact spot on her back each and every time.
During one ERCP she woke up screaming and struggling, pulling out the scope,
She told the Dr that he'd touched the spot that was causing the pain...
he'd simply blown in a puff of air into the bile duct.
But that caused pain so severe it woke her up, causing her to scream and struggle even while sedated..
The doctors now convinced she was telling the truth.
This pain was just about to drive her crazy and she frantically kept seeking opinions from numerous gastro docs.
But all there findings proved negative and couldn't find the cause for this pain and was then
referred to a "Bile Duct" specialist.
He performed exploratory surgery during which he removed 3 of the 4 staples placed during original GB surgery.
But his finding also negative as nothing out of ordinary and advised her to seek a pain clinic.
A pain management specialist performed 12 spinal blocks in hopes of "quieting"
the nerve that fed the GB. When that didn't help, she was then given pain meds.
It's been well over 6 yrs now and her "phantom" GB pain is the same.
It remains the same, and is No worse or No better, just is exactly the same.
She found much relief in "opiod pain meds" and made this pain a little more tolerable.
But after a few years of being on paid meds she wanted to see if the pain was tolerable without them.
So she went off the opiod pain meds, but after 3 or 4 months this pain was too intolerable
and found it impossible to "handle" as it just wore her down to where she began entertaining ending her life
as way of ending her pain...do we blame her?
It must have taken several months of the pain meds to dissipate out of her body completely and when this happened
then the Phantom pain increased back to being sharp and knife like feeling.
She began taking the opiod pain meds that gave her some quality of life back to where this pain
was at least somewhat tolerable.
This pain is very sharp and "grabbing"...is always triggered with certain movement.
So when she stretches or turns her head the pain increases to where she is compelled to gasp out in pain, is that bad!
But is usual just a dull pain until she moves or stretches, turns her head either side, up or down, arching her back even slightly causes the knife like pain to increase.
Its ruined her sex life as when she goes to reach orgasm, the pain increases and grabs her and she must stop any and all muscle contractions or movements. She can also feel it when she drinks or eats anything hot/warm.
Or whenever she lays flat on her back, causing muscles to be stretched out and causes the pain to grab...
keeping her legs bent, knee's up, the pain isn't as bad but still painful.
in order to keep the muscle or pain from grabbing when she does lay back, she must do so in slow increments
as she "rearranges" the stomach muscles as she lays back
Her theory: is that during the laparoscopic surgery and staples placed where the GB was removed, then
one of the nerves or muscles/viscera or what ever got entrapped in the staple.
She has sought surgeons advice but they fear removing this last staple will damage the bile duct even further.
When this first happened, doctors at first skeptical, perhaps was "drug seeking"...
but she refused them when first offered and had refused pain meds during her other surgeries she'd had years earlier.
She has never been addicted to anything stronger than having a daily can of Dr Pepper.
All her life she never enjoyed drinking and being under the influence of anything and found pain meds made her "stupid" and hated the way they made her feel, loss of control over her emotions and every day functioning.
But now that this pain "hit her" is her only way "out" of the sharpness of this phantom GB pain is just too overwhelming.
She has no other options and continues her search in seeking the cause.
She's even willing to take the risk of death in having the last staple removed if there is even one small chance of stopping this pain.
If you really think about it...the staple having entrapped or caught either a nerve or part of a muscle/viscera
and perhaps if this last staple is removed this could possibly be the end of her pain.
When this first happened she began searching on the internet and found a few others with similar complaints.
So she's not the only person suffering this debilitating condition.
She kept close contact with one of the gals but this woman kept writing about taking her own life
as a solution/end of the continuous and on going pain and suffering.
She kept encouraging her to "hang on"...perhaps a solution could be found in near future.
But these communications came to a sudden stop and hasn't heard from her ever again.
She's assumed she carried out her suicide plan as she wrote of this in every single email.
This woman was no dummy, well educated with Masters degree, was director of human resources for large corporation.
But what a wasted life, but can't blame her as this pain is very debilitating, especially when she's been standing or sitting for long lengths of time. Because of this fact, gives all more reason to believe in "caught" nerve/viscera theory....as when she has been in bed for long periods of time, laying flat on her back, then this pain is nearly gone. But at end of a busy day and on her feet, the pain is more than debilitating and must be medicated in order to keep from "loosing it".
So if anyone has something to add here, would be much appreciated.
No matter how small or insignificant you think...please don't hesitate to add your thought
for you never know what solution may turn up....could be simple, but then could be complicated'
but doesn't matter as long as we find a solution...the sooner, the better!
Thanks for reading this and please, don't hesitate to add your thoughts.
Its becoming a "life or death situation as this patient is being taken off opiod pain meds...her pain management dr claims the DEA is down all pain med dr and says she must learn to just buck up and deal with this pain....WHAT?
THAT is no way to treat someone suffering such debilitating pain....IMHO!...(in my humble opinion)
But the patient kept complaining and months later, nothing helped relieve her pain.
She was seen by numerous gastro doc's who performed ERCP's looking for the cause of this "pain"
but nothing could be found that would cause such pain she describes as a sharp "knife" cutting into the gall bladder area, and the pain radiates in the back to a small specific spot.
The patient can point out the exact spot on her back each and every time.
During one ERCP she woke up screaming and struggling, pulling out the scope,
She told the Dr that he'd touched the spot that was causing the pain...
he'd simply blown in a puff of air into the bile duct.
But that caused pain so severe it woke her up, causing her to scream and struggle even while sedated..
The doctors now convinced she was telling the truth.
This pain was just about to drive her crazy and she frantically kept seeking opinions from numerous gastro docs.
But all there findings proved negative and couldn't find the cause for this pain and was then
referred to a "Bile Duct" specialist.
He performed exploratory surgery during which he removed 3 of the 4 staples placed during original GB surgery.
But his finding also negative as nothing out of ordinary and advised her to seek a pain clinic.
A pain management specialist performed 12 spinal blocks in hopes of "quieting"
the nerve that fed the GB. When that didn't help, she was then given pain meds.
It's been well over 6 yrs now and her "phantom" GB pain is the same.
It remains the same, and is No worse or No better, just is exactly the same.
She found much relief in "opiod pain meds" and made this pain a little more tolerable.
But after a few years of being on paid meds she wanted to see if the pain was tolerable without them.
So she went off the opiod pain meds, but after 3 or 4 months this pain was too intolerable
and found it impossible to "handle" as it just wore her down to where she began entertaining ending her life
as way of ending her pain...do we blame her?
It must have taken several months of the pain meds to dissipate out of her body completely and when this happened
then the Phantom pain increased back to being sharp and knife like feeling.
She began taking the opiod pain meds that gave her some quality of life back to where this pain
was at least somewhat tolerable.
This pain is very sharp and "grabbing"...is always triggered with certain movement.
So when she stretches or turns her head the pain increases to where she is compelled to gasp out in pain, is that bad!
But is usual just a dull pain until she moves or stretches, turns her head either side, up or down, arching her back even slightly causes the knife like pain to increase.
Its ruined her sex life as when she goes to reach orgasm, the pain increases and grabs her and she must stop any and all muscle contractions or movements. She can also feel it when she drinks or eats anything hot/warm.
Or whenever she lays flat on her back, causing muscles to be stretched out and causes the pain to grab...
keeping her legs bent, knee's up, the pain isn't as bad but still painful.
in order to keep the muscle or pain from grabbing when she does lay back, she must do so in slow increments
as she "rearranges" the stomach muscles as she lays back
Her theory: is that during the laparoscopic surgery and staples placed where the GB was removed, then
one of the nerves or muscles/viscera or what ever got entrapped in the staple.
She has sought surgeons advice but they fear removing this last staple will damage the bile duct even further.
When this first happened, doctors at first skeptical, perhaps was "drug seeking"...
but she refused them when first offered and had refused pain meds during her other surgeries she'd had years earlier.
She has never been addicted to anything stronger than having a daily can of Dr Pepper.
All her life she never enjoyed drinking and being under the influence of anything and found pain meds made her "stupid" and hated the way they made her feel, loss of control over her emotions and every day functioning.
But now that this pain "hit her" is her only way "out" of the sharpness of this phantom GB pain is just too overwhelming.
She has no other options and continues her search in seeking the cause.
She's even willing to take the risk of death in having the last staple removed if there is even one small chance of stopping this pain.
If you really think about it...the staple having entrapped or caught either a nerve or part of a muscle/viscera
and perhaps if this last staple is removed this could possibly be the end of her pain.
When this first happened she began searching on the internet and found a few others with similar complaints.
So she's not the only person suffering this debilitating condition.
She kept close contact with one of the gals but this woman kept writing about taking her own life
as a solution/end of the continuous and on going pain and suffering.
She kept encouraging her to "hang on"...perhaps a solution could be found in near future.
But these communications came to a sudden stop and hasn't heard from her ever again.
She's assumed she carried out her suicide plan as she wrote of this in every single email.
This woman was no dummy, well educated with Masters degree, was director of human resources for large corporation.
But what a wasted life, but can't blame her as this pain is very debilitating, especially when she's been standing or sitting for long lengths of time. Because of this fact, gives all more reason to believe in "caught" nerve/viscera theory....as when she has been in bed for long periods of time, laying flat on her back, then this pain is nearly gone. But at end of a busy day and on her feet, the pain is more than debilitating and must be medicated in order to keep from "loosing it".
So if anyone has something to add here, would be much appreciated.
No matter how small or insignificant you think...please don't hesitate to add your thought
for you never know what solution may turn up....could be simple, but then could be complicated'
but doesn't matter as long as we find a solution...the sooner, the better!
Thanks for reading this and please, don't hesitate to add your thoughts.
Its becoming a "life or death situation as this patient is being taken off opiod pain meds...her pain management dr claims the DEA is down all pain med dr and says she must learn to just buck up and deal with this pain....WHAT?
THAT is no way to treat someone suffering such debilitating pain....IMHO!...(in my humble opinion)
Your experience sounds exactly like mine excepting I don't take pain medications. I complained over and over again, and kept being told it was phantom pain. However I moved states and a new doctor had another scan done which showed a gallbladder holding a stone. Since I had already had my gallbladder removed (and seven large stones) they called it a large cyst in the gallbladder region. Once referred to a new surgeon, he did an MRI and discovered a pocket of old gallbladder stones had a formed an abcess and were floating around in side, so every time a moved in a particular way or laid on my back I would be in sereve pain. The original surgery had been difficult and my gallbladder had broken spilling the stones, part of the original gallbladder had been left behind and reformed. The original surgery had had many complications, in that the staples applied to the gallbaldder stump didn't close and I had a continuous bile leak. which the repaired with a stent. After the stent was removed the leak opened up again and a second stent was inserted (this time for 3months) over a I have had over 11 surgerical procedures and now have had four hernia operationd to repair incisional hernias. The regrown gallbladder has been removed but I still suffer a lot of pain in the gallbladder region and across my back. My new doctor believes this to be from scaring due to all the surgeries. The pain is less servere since the removal of the gallstone abcess but it took 7 years to discover what they should have found out at the time of the surgery.
Good luck with finding a way to deal with the pain, but suggest someone does a MRI because you could have something floating around inside that just doesn't show up on a normal scan.
I have had many surgeries including gall bladder. I had never been ill enough to be in a hospital before having my children at age 30. I have severe sharp pain once in a while where my surgery was done to remove my adrenal gland on the left side of my back. It feels like an electrical shock, a knife stab, and a bullet shot into the area where my rib was removed and my scar is. I don't get it everyday thank God. I get it most of the time when I am laying down. I always scream and it takes my breath away then tingles and usually returns minutes later. I never know when it will come or what to do to calm it down. I rarely get more than about three to five attacks at a time and only every couple of days or even weeks. I usually forget all about it in between the days it is calm. I always feel a strange sensation where my scar is and I avoid pressure on it sometimes it itches and feels like tiny pricks like when you sit on your foot to long and it "falls asleep" and you move it after discovering that it "fell asleep" . I am always aware that the area in my back near my left side is super sensitive so I live in a bit of fear of these stabbing pains. I was wondering if someone knew what causes this and how to treat it. I have thought about applying heat, or ice to the area but a don't dare try it for fear it might make it worse. I also have wondered if it is my muscles or my nerves. I have actually lived with it since l995 and I am just now ready to mention it to my doctor.
I the same symptoms, after gallbladder surgery . I was finally diagnosed with GERD,it is her esphogaous contracting that mimics the gallbadder pain. No more caffeine, soda, spices or alcohol! And antacids and meds to move the food through the stomach faster have worked for me.
i had GB surgery last august and two weeks after surgery all my symptoms returned (pain, indigestion, diarhea) doctors also told me that it would go away after a few weeks which it did not. i had to go 2 hours away to see a specialist and he said i have IBS. since i don't like taking prescription meds i've been trying to take care of my symptoms on my own and surprisingly it's helping, i now take daily a fiber supplement (like metamucil or benefiber), a probiotic pill and a mutivitamin. i've also started running 2-3 times a week and exercise at home on an elliptical for 40 minutes 1-2 times a week. i get a lot of pain when i exercise but afterwards i feel fantastic, i have no pain at all for days afterwards. i hope this information helps. i don't think i have IBS but that is what the doctors say when they have no idea what else it is i guess.