health

[wispfox]

My gallbladder looks perfectly normal on ultrasound, and blood tests did not reflect expected changes as if there were trouble with gallbladder, so there is still no explanation for my intense pain starting 1-4 hours after eating anything with fat in it, nor why it's so much worse while lying down (and therefore, while I'm trying to sleep). Urine tests, xrays, and cat scans - as done when I went to the ER over a week ago - showed nothing, and it's not as if it feels like a kidney stone or UTI anyway.

Nurse practitioner wants me to remain on my current fatfree diet for a couple weeks (she initially kept saying 'low fat', but I can't eat _any_, really), then try to add stuff back in. If the pain comes back when I do that, to call her back, and she'll make me an appointment with general surgery (although I don't know what the goal of that might be, if there is no idea what's going on!).

Severely frustrated, me.

Comments

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

Oh, hell.

I've gone through similar stuff with pain in the right place for the right reasons, but the ultrasound and HIDA scan showed nothing. Eventually it stopped, but it's frustrating as hell.

*hugs*

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Damn. It stopped randomly, as well? That has to be worrisome!

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

Imaging tests pretty much only let them determine if you have stones or structural problems with the gallbladder. There's a test involving a radioactive tracer (usually just called a "gallbladder scan") that can see if there are functional problems, or there's an endoscopic procedure they can do, which has the downside of, um, its endoscopic nature, but the upside that sometimes they can remove a stone stuck in a duct while they're in there anyway.

All of which is to say that I sympathize tremendously with your frustration, but there are more things that can be done. If you feel like they're not being proactive enough, I encourage you to push for a referral to a specialist!

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

I've obtained a referral to a specialist in the same clinic, for the 18th. We shall see.

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

Good luck!

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

But the pain's where gallbladder pain should be?

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Yup.

The first thing the NP said when I listed my symptoms was 'gallstones'. The symptoms point to that.

[azhure.livejournal.com]

I had a similar issue - turned out that I have gastroparesis, confirmed by an endoscopy.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Was the pain in the stomach, or elsewhere? Since a dictionary search indicates a stomach-related ailment?

[azhure.livejournal.com]

The pain was in the upper right quadrant of my abdomen - classic gallbladder pain (they thought I had gallstones - scans showed no stones at all).

[majes.livejournal.com]

I did a whole bunch of reading on the net about this yesterday. Turns out that lots of people have similar pains that similarly cannot be explained. On the plus side, many of these folks reported that it just went away.

In any case, all kinds of *hugs* and good energy is being sent your direction.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

If I did not have a family history of this, I would not worry as much. But I do, and though I may be young for this, I was also very young for kidney stones, which I most definitely have had and am at risk for again.