okay i am not sure if this is what i had but i used to get these pains and such you are all talking about and recently i donated part of my liver to my brother and while doing that they needed to take out my gall bladder because it was in the way.... well... no gall bladder and no more symptoms. I have to wonder if there was an issue with my gall bladder to begin with.
Getting my gallbladder removed on Tuesday for right side/back pain and an Ejection fraction of 95%. Has been 6 weeks since my pain flared up and stayed and have had every test imaginable to try and figure out what's going on because GP and 1st surgeon I talked to said 95% EF was good. My GI thought it was a gallbladder problem but sent me for a CT and then MRI and bloodwork on top of the Ultrasound and HIDA scan I'd already had. I went and saw a different surgeon yesterday and he say hi ejection fraction is a hyperactive gallbladder and can cause the pain I'm describing. He says he see's 2 or 3 patients a year with this issue and in every case where he's removed their gallbladders their pain has resolved. I'm very optimistic and relieved that I finally found someone to cut my gallbladder out. My pain lives under my right shoulder blade and radiates from my right side and gallbladder area. Some days the pain goes all the way up to my right ear and my teeth on the right side even ache. I have also had days in the past 6 weeks where the pain goes south to my hip and groin and even feels like I'm having lower back pain or spasms. The pain tends to travel around my right side, but the back pain under shoulder blade is constant and the pressure under my right rib cage is constant. I can even feel my gallbladder squeezing and spasming at times. Oh, and every time I eat anything I get pain and pressure from my gallbladder area and an increase in pain on my right side about 15 minutes after I eat. I also had pain with the CCK injection that exactly duplicated my right side pain. It took 10-15 minutes for the pain to come on after the CCK, but when it did it was bad and even gave me an earache for the next couple hours. I will post back with my results after my GB is removed.
wow, you and me alike... everything you've said I have been living for the past 16 months...I've had 2 CT Scans, HidaScan, US, Blood Work, Xrays, Endoscopy, GI thought my symptoms were Acid Reflux, then ruled it out after Endoscopy, I've been given 4 different diagnostics... ... back to my symptoms, these last 3 weeks, symptoms have been worsening ... my EF was 99%, My GI said I should be happy that I had such a healthy GB, in my head I was like, effer I would like to see you with a Hyper Active GB... I have pressure that seems like there is a golf ball or baseball lodged in my RUQ... I sometimes feel my GB flutter, scary at first cuz I thought it could be my heart, but 2 different EKG's months apart say my heart is healthy as can be... also my BP is within a healthy range... most of the day I'm laying in bed, sick feeling, feel almost like I'm wiped out ... used to be very active, played hockey, multiple trips to the gym per day, school, work... well anyways... keep us updated on your progress... I'm getting ready to demand to be referred to a surgeon very soon... I've just been waiting for symptoms to worsen ... GI is hesitant because I don't have classic GB symptoms... he said he first wants to see at least one symptom... blah, blah, blah... :)
Do you have right side back and side pain? All my doctors say those are classic gallbladder symptoms. I also feel my GB flutter and gurgle especially in the morning on an empty stomach. Just this morning I started thinking about food while laying in bed and my GB went nuts and my pain started. My GI was on my side with this because he was with me the last 8 years while I tried to treat my acid reflux disease. I had 3 scopes in that time and he never found anything yet I still had massive problems with food getting stuck and acid reflux pain. I now think maybe that pain was related to my GB. I spent 7 years on PPI meds for the acid and they never worked very well and had side effects that I didn't like. I finally decided a year ago that I was tired of feeling like c**p and my body was either going to heal itself or I was just going to get esophageal cancer so that maybe someone would help me. It took 1 month of pain and suffering to get off the PPI meds, but after that my stomach has been rock solid with almost no reflux for the last year. 6 weeks ago though I started getting the constant right side and back pain and now it just wont go away. Anyway, my GP doctor said my ultrasound and HIDA scan were normal and he thought my stomach was causing the pain. He never told me anything about the EF being so high. I called my GI office to make an appointment to talk to him and he immediately referred me to a surgeon without seeing me due to my 95% EF. Due to insurance I had to go to a different but supposedly good surgeon and that was pretty much the worst experience I've ever had with a doctor. He said he couldn't find any reason in my tests to take a knife to me. I asked him about the high EF and he said he normally likes to see them around 80 or 90. He then started talking about liability and I'd have to sign a lot of papers to get him to take out my GB. I then went back to my GI and had a good discussion with him and he said that high EF is controversial, but the fact that the HIDA scan exactly reproduced my pain was the main thing that made him think my problem is GB related. He ordered blood tests and a CT scan just to rule everything else out and when those came back normal (other than a few benign liver cysts) he referred me to another surgeon who he said I would get along with better. Saw that surgeon yesterday and he said my symptoms are classic for hyper gallbladder and said we should take it out. If I were you, I think I'd look for a different GI or just demand that someone take out your GB. I think the hard part is trying to get them to understand that you know you don't have stones but there is still something wrong with your GB. I've known for a fact that there's something wrong with mine for the last 4 weeks, but finding someone to agree was difficult. I felt like a huge weight was lifted yesterday when I asked the surgeon if he believed in hyper gallbladder problems and he yes and that every one he's taken out has resolved the patients issues. He aslo said they typically find that the GB's have chronic inflamation. He also told me that his wife had her GB out (not for high EF) and she was one of the unfortunate who's symptoms didn't resolve from the surgery. This makes me feel like he wouldn't just take it Vout of me if he didn't think it would help. I hope you get someone to listen soon and I hope we are both pain free soon.
Yes, I do... My pain though, at its worst hasn't gone past a 7 .... GI wants me doubled over in pain, puking my guts out.... I had the endoscopy done because of trouble swallowing, felt like food was getting stuck in my throat, I would have to drink a cup of water to free it up..... Now that problem has gotten worse.... There are now times I can't swallow my own saliva and have to drink water and if it happens wild eating, I need to drink at least 2 cups of water to slowly free it up..... My pain, pressure, and discomfort radiates to my LUQ as well, on my right side recently has been traveling downward and also upward into my armpit.... 3 weeks ago, I had leftover pizza, lumpia, and McDonalds, throughout the day....2 hours after McDonalds I thought I was going to die.... Was about to head on over to the ER, but just like that about an hour later started feeling better.... One other symptom that my GI thinks is unrelated is Tachycardia, never in my life have I had a problem until this RUQ nuisance showed itself... The last 4 episodes have been after eating greasy foods...I've read that tachycardia can be a symptom of a GB attack.... At this point, I'm thinking I may have had my first symptoms of GB disease present themselves at least 10 years ago....
So yeah, you're symptoms sound almost exactly like mine. I went through several episodes of not being able to swallow food in the past 8 years due to what I thought was acid reflux. One tip I can give you for the stuck food is drink sugar free carbonated soda or soda water if you get food stuck. The carbonation breaks it up and helps you swallow it. Like you, my pain hasn't gone past a 7 or 8. It's because we don't have a blockage, we have a hyper gallbladder that is contracting so hard it cramps and spasms and inflames all the tissue and nerves around it. I also think it affects the vagus nerve which I also think is partially why out stomachs and esophogus and every other nerve on our right sides seem to be affected. When I explain to the doctors how I get a burning headache over and around my right eye and ear they just look at me funny. I call it my acid migraine because it feels like somehow stomach acid got into my arteries and its trying to eat a hole through the side of my head. These acid migraines last about 5 to 6 hours normally and are so bad I can't sleep or do anything but lay there in pain staring at the ceiling. I would get one every few months and I thought they were related to my stomach but I now know they are related to my gallbladder having a massive attack. The last 2 times it happened I ate fried chicken a few hours before the attack. Usually severe pain in my right chest and shoulder accompany those acid headaches and the main reason I think they are GB related now is because 6 weeks ago when my GB problems really flared up and stayed I had that same headache on and off for 3 days. I ate tons of ibuprophen and eventually got rid of the headache but then the pain in my back and side stayed. I have now settled into a pattern of contact pain the size of a baseball under my right shoulder blade directly behind my GB, and horrible aching burning pain in my GB area and side/back/shoulder 10-15 minutes after I eat something. It's like clockwork now and my pain never gets above a 7 or 8 and is very rarely sharp. It feels more like someone squeezing my insides. I'll post back here after my surgery on Tuesday and let you know how it goes. I'm optimistic that getting that GB out of there will resolve my problems and I really think they will find at a minimum that my GB is chronically inflamed. I would really suggest you try to get in to see a different GI if you can. Maybe even call around and ask if their office believes in hypergallbladders with a high EF. I can tell you from experience that if a doctor doesn't believe or hasn't read anything about it they aren't going to help you or they are going to make you run a million more expensive tests first.
Looking forward to hearing your outcome.....
Had the surgery Tuesday afternoon so I'm about 36 hours post op now. Had more pain than I expected immediately after surgery but it was mostly in my rib cage on both sides that I suspect was caused either by the CO2 they use to blow you up or it was from the pain meds. The meds they gave me (norco) made me super nauseous and I couldn't think of anything worse than vomiting after having holes cut in your abdoment, so I quit the pain pills altogether. Currently I don't have too much pain except for when I sit or stand from a sitting or laying position due to the one cut they made under my sternum that went through the muscle tissue. Pain is not too bad at all at this point. I'm still pretty sensitive and my right side still aches, but really both sides ache so I think it's too early to tell if the surgery helped my right side pain. I am eating OK now but my stomach does get upset and I get extra pain if I overdo it. Pretty much on soup and bread at this point. Will report back when I know for sure whether or not the surgery helped.
Good to hear the surgery went well...
Wanted to update my progress after surgery 6 days ago. As of yesterday I was eating fine and had minimal pain from the surgery. I did however have significant acid reflux and pain under my right shoulder blade and around my right side. The pain from pretty much the same as the pain I had before surgery except that I didn't really have too much pain in my GB area. As of last night I was convinced that the surgery didn't help me and I started cruising the internets again looking for more explainations. I even took a handfull of Tums at one point just to see if that would squash the reflux and pain under my right shoulder blade. It didn't do anything for me except give me a headache which is a common reaction for me with acid blockers. Anyway, I went to bed last night dejected and hurting. I woke up this morning feeling better, and by noon today I had barely eaten and felt great. I then started to eat expecting the pain to come back full force but it really didn't. The bloating in my stomach was done significantly today and I all around felt better and had less pain on my right side and back. I'm cautiously optimistic that my body may just still be healing from months of billiary inflamation and hoping I'll get completely better now that my GB is gone. Will report back in a few days. Incidentally, I have eaten everything from fried chicken to sushi these past couple days and haven't had any issues with nausea or diarrhea. Stools are still a little soft, but not too bad at this point. Sitting here drinking a beer right now and feel fine.
From what I've read, the post op pain may have been from the gas that's used to inflate your abdomen....
Well it's been 2 weeks since my surgery now and while some of my right side pain symptoms are better, I still have a lot of pain. I believe I'm mostly healed from the surgery and I really don't know if I'm going to get much better than I am right now. I have pretty much constant pain under my right shoulder blade, especially when I take a deep breath, and I still get strange twinges of pain all over my right side. My right hip still hurts at times and my right ear and teeth still get inflamed at times. The cramping and pain I was getting in my gallbladder area 10-15 minutes after I ate a meal is now gone but like I said I still have pretty much constant pain higher up under my shoulder blade. By the end of the day I still pretty much feel like I've been hit by a truck and I've even woken up for sore the last couple of mornings.
I had my follow up appointment with the surgeon yesterday and the pathology on my gallbladder came back with chronic inflamation. I specifically asked if my gallbladder was normal or abnormal and he said definitely abnormal. There were no stones but I didn't expect there to be any. I do feel better knowing that my gallbladder was inflamed, but I wish it would have eliminated more of my pain. He said they don't see very many cases like mine but he would expect that there may still be some billiary inflamation that will heal with time.
I've decided that I'm going to give it 2 more weeks and then will put a call back into my gastro doc and see if I can get him to scope me and see if I have any ulcers or if my hiatal hernia is worse or if he can figure out what is going on.
Do you know why your hiatal hernia wasn't repaired along with your GB removal?
The surgeon didn't know about it and I honestly didn't think about it until after the surgery. Stupid I know, but my gastro never brought it up and I don't really think about it because I've always been told that my hiatal hernia is small and not a big deal.
You should request an upper GI series and see how that hernia looks now....