Gallbladder Symptoms With Negative Tests

I have the same thing and all they give me is percocets. Since all the blood test are normal, they just try and control the pain.

My story sounds a lot like everyone else's - pain & nausea since January of this year but negative x-ray, CT scan (2 - with and without contrast), ultrasound (2 again!), and negative HIDA scan. Fortunately (?) the ultrasounds did find a tiny polyp on my gallbladder that 2 doctors decided were nothing and shouldn't be causing these symptoms BUT the surgeon, after getting my negative HIDA scan, decided that it *might* be the problem after all and offered surgery as an option. After reading all these stories, I'm thinking maybe they polyp isn't the problem but just might be my ticket to getting the surgery sooner rather than later. So tired of being worried about eating or having a flare-up of pain, and crying in frustration!

My story sounds so much the same. I have been sick on and off for years but this last year starting last october has been the worst. Pain in my mid upper abdomen mostly and not long after i eat and lasts for days..sometimes all the way thru to the back. I had upper endoscopy and cat scan with barium and dye, utrasound and all were normal..then finally the pain started to travel to the right under the rib cage..bloated with gas pains and EXTREME belching after eating or drinking anything..I took prilosec just in case for months but never helped..got to the point where i could not eat any type of fats..went from 124 pounds to 98 lbs. My doctor finally did a hida scan because the pain had started hurting my right side, and it showed ejection fraction at 37 percent.. some doctors say this is in the normal range but my doctor said it was borderline low and sent me to a surgeon who agreed. My grandmother suffered for years and had her gallbladder removed only after years of suffering and no tests like they have now, but after it was removed she could eat again and gained the weight back..well lucky for me i am scheduled to have my gallbladder removed on the 24th..in three days..i am excited to get my life back..i'll let you know how it goes.

Jenny, or anyone else who has had the same symptoms and procedures done.  Did you have your gall bladder out?  Did anyone find a solution? If so, what was it and how are you now?  I am only 2 weeks into what you all have gone through. Please advise. Thank you, Sheri

Hi your not alone its getting a little better but every test is negative they take thier sweet time to schedule test it's been almost I month since it hit me full blown. I had spells that last an hour or so but it started to be all the time, I had to take off from work too week from not eating throwing up most what I ate hurting constant right side under ribs dizzy spells and all test neg I feel crazy it's getting a little better but I forced myself to eat and would get so sick but it got me able to eat a little more I 4 days away from my wedding I feel so bad for my fiancé putting up with this I stopped all the meds they make it worse just hurt now not as tired as before I cAn deal with the pain as long As I can eat some still feel like I am going to throw up and get light headed a lot I am so tired of the run around tlc

I went through many of them same tests 5 years ago (HIDA Scan, CTs, ultrasounds, endoscopies, colonoscopies, the works).  Since I have a family history of gall bladder issues (grandmother, mother and brother), that's what my original thought was.  My symptoms weren't severe pain but nausea, vomiting, severe gas, constipation, diarrhea, bloating, etc.  I threw up just about everything I ate (my teeth were getting to be pretty bad after 2 years of this, my dentist was concerned) but my weirdest thing was I was gaining weight!  I logged all my food in Excel with <1200 calories a day, vomiting, and still put on about 35 lbs.  Because of this no doctor believed me and just told me to watch my diet better and eat less.  The endocscopies found esophageal ulcers from all the vomiting and she (my GI just prescribed me Aciphex for acid reflux and sent me on my way).

I finally ended up going to a gyno that suggested I do a food allergy and vitamin deficiency test (all done from blood work).  Now insurance didn't pay for any of it (~$400) but I was HAPPY to try something new.  As it turned out, RED FLAGS EVERYWHERE!  I had developed allergies to milk, yeast, eggs, turkey, tuna, and all kinda of other things.  Because of this, my body wasn't absorbing any nutrients and my vitamins were crazy low, explaining why I was always tired. 
It's hard to find a doc that will recommend a food allergy blood test but since insurance didn't pay for it, it didn't matter anyway.  After changing my diet based on my allergies I noticed a change in my body, energy level and even lost a lot of weight!  I felt NORMAL again!!!!  I would strongly suggest this as another option for those at wit's end.  I was only 21 when all that happened and grew INTO those allergies (never had any issues sucking down a half gallon of milk as a kid) so you're body can change and develop new allergies.

However, now its 5 years later and I am starting to have the severe abdominal pains, mostly on the right side, just below my rib cage, but all over my abdomen as well.  It's been every day for over a week now. It gets worse when I eat but never goes away completely.  Significantly worse with fatty meals over just over eating anything.  It hurts less to just not eat anything.  Doc did a blood test and CT and now that those were normal, she's sending me to a GI.  After my issues with GI's before (and their EGO issues), I'm going to get another food allergy test done first and if nothing comes out of that, then find a new GI.  It sucks to have to go through it all over again but at least now I can speak the Dr. and insurance lingo...

well, I have been having the same thing, had CT scan. Hida Scan, ultra sound, the first report (CT scan said my Gallbladder was not functioning right, then the surgeon wanted all these other test, now today, he said it was not my gallbladder, want me to have endoscopy, I will not do that, I just had it last year, I am planning on seeing a gastroenterologist as soon as I can get an appontment, I feel too that it is my GB.

My son has many of the problems described with the exception of dirrahea and pain for the past 15 months.  He endures constant nausea and vomiting and has been hospitilized with dehydration related renal failure 5 times in the last year.  We have had every test imaginable and they finally diagnosed him with Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome and are treating him with amitriptaline and rimmeron.  While the meds help, and he now has some good days, he still has "spells" when no medicine stops the vomiting.

I called his gastro dr. and asked what else could be done.  She replied that unless new symptoms presented, there were not more tests to run.  I just happened to mention that during his latestet hospital stay, his pancreatic enzymes showed to be elevated in his urine.  Well, that really spurred my Doc into action.

She reviewed his previous sonogram and found that there were polyps on the gallbladder.  Even though small, they can cause pancreatitus or swell and block the gallbladder duct, backing bile into the stomach.  We see a surgeon on Monday to discuss gallbladder removal, but it will have to come out no matter what.

She also reviewed his previous 24 hour urine test and found abnormalities there.  This lead her to investigate "intermittant porphyia".  I highly recommend that you guys get a 24 hour urine test for this condition.  It is a rare disorder, but fits most of his symptoms to a tee.

Only small tiny clues and a diligent mom and doctor found a possible diagnosis.  Hope this helps!

I had ruq pain off and on for at least a couple years. Was having diarrhea within half hour of eating meals. For last few months then nagging discomfort under my rib cage was almost constant. It was especially bad at night. I would get a hot flash and nausea at times. Went to ER in February. Had normal US and CT. Was told gallbladder didn't have stones. Later went to family doctor and he ordered hida scan. I had pain and nausea when cck injected and Ef was 74%. My doctor still sent me to surgeon. He sent me to GI to have EGD. It was normal too. Back to surgeon and had my GB out 5 days ago. The constant ruq pain under ribcage is gone! Being careful with diet for next couple weeks but so far I am happy that GB is out. Hope you all get answers and relief soon.

Update: follow up visit to surgeon. Still improving. Pathology on gallbladder showed cholecystitis.

Hi I'm a 27 year old female, four years ago i had this pain start in my upper right quadrant like most of you, I went to the ER and they wouldn't even help me with the pain, I went to my family doctor who said it was an ulcer and prescribed me something for that. Weeks later I'm in such severe pain that I had to go back to the ER. They did an ultrasound and diagnosed me with acute pancreatitis. I have a hidascan at 75% and my family doctor at the time said it wasn't enough of an emergency to warrant gallbladder removal.  A few months later the pain just subsided and I was ok again. Fast forward to a few months ago the pain came back, though I wasn't sure if it was in my back or my abdomen. I began vomiting and had uncontrollable nausea, and somehow I even gained 6 pounds. After another hida-scan, ultrasound, and colonoscopy everything is coming back normal. Tomorrow I have my CT scan. I was referred to a specialist who blew me off, told me to take Ibuprofen and then that the pain was due to a previous gallbladder removal. Which is hilarious since I still have my gallbladder. My colonoscopy showed excess bile, I think it was from the prep, since I don't have diarrhea symptoms at all.  The specialist also gave me a medication for gas, bloating, and diarrhea which I don't have. Only pain and vomiting.  So I go back to my family doctor and he just refers me to a surgeon to plead my case...what case am I to plead if I don't know what's wrong? My tests are all coming back to normal, and the only thing thats slightly helped is changing my diet, but it STILL didn't help the pain. I lost the 6 pounds that I gained but I'm not losing weight like I thought I should, considering I eat only once a day.

i FEEL THE SAME WAY AS YOU BASICALLY BEEN GOING TO THE DOCTOR FOR OVER A YEAR NOW HAD AN ULTRASOUND, CT SCAN AND AN MRI SCAN THEY ALL CAME BACK NEGATIVE EVEN ALL THE BLOOD TESTS CAME BACK NEGATIVE. I HAVE PAINS LIKE YOU AND FEEL SICK EVERY DAY I HAVE ONLY BEEN SICK ONCE WHICH WAS GREEN, I ASKED THE DOCTOR IF I COULD HAVE HIDA SCAN AND IF IT DOES SHOW MY GALLBLADDER IS FINE I'LL HOLD MY HANDS AND GIVE IN THATS IT NOT MY GASLLBLADDER BUT I TOLD THE DOCTOR THAT I'M 90% SURE IT'S MY GALLBLADDER. I'VE HAD ENOUGH

I know that this may not be the answer to your problems, and may not be a permanent solution, but try cutting all gluten out of your diet. I too have the same problem with my gallbladder. They even did exploratory surgery, but I think the doc only did that to satisfy me. Look up Gluten intolerance, and celiac disease. Hope this helps!

How old are you? My father had all the symptoms you had (hiccups included) and he had esophogeal cancer that metastisized to his liver. The liver was causing pain up his right side and his esophogeal tumor was causing the indegestic-like issues.

Just as a follow up to my first post 6 months ago, I luckily got set up with a general surgeon a few weeks later through a family friend Doctor. He immediately had an Ultrasound done and after nothing came out of that, sent me straight into a HIDA Scan. Results came back at 99% ejection rate which had my doc at a loss for words. He had never seen anything like it and he wasn't sure what to do. He even spoke with other doctor peers of his and they hadn't seen it before. He prescribed me a mild internal muscle relaxer (can't remember the name) to take when I started feeling pains to see if it would help by slowing down the gall bladder.

 

After 1 week it didn't really help much and while traveling on business, one day I started up throwing up violently every 15 minutes for 2 hours (after food and dry heaves, then just straight bile) and while on the way to the ER it closed in to every 3-5 minutes. The only thing that made me stop was an injection of Zofran (anti-nausea meds) once at the ER. For the next 24 hrs I popped 2 Zofran tablets every 6 hrs to keep from throwing up to get back to my home state. Once home, my surgeon and I decided on an exploratory laparoscopy and if he didn't see anything unusual, then he would remove the gall bladder while in there. He didn't want to take it out but he was a good enough doctor to let me make the decision since I would have to live with any possible side effects. The next morning I was in surgery and he ended up taking my gall bladder out (even though he said it looked as healthy as can be). After that day, NOT A SINGLE ISSUE! Only once did I get sick from eating a fatty food (BBQ 2 weeks later) but no problems other than that. I watch what I eat but I don't hesitate to eat a burger and fries, BBQ, fresh fruit, or cheesy soups and haven't had problems.

 

Without a doubt the gall bladder was the cause of my issue. I just got lucky enough to have a friend that knew a GREAT surgeon.