NO STONES AND PAIN

by Darlene
(Hampton Roads, VA, USA)

Darlene, 51 yrs, I have had episodes of mostly mid-abdominal pain on and off for over 6 months.


It is almost always after eating somthing fatty; pizza, steak, even a granola bar triggered it. If it is dinner meal I usually wake up in the night with severe cramping and going to the bathroom, sometimes sweating bad and bent over back and forth to the bathroom and sometimes throwing up.

I end up with severe chills and the cramping continues for hours. I have had a colonscopy-normal, an endoscopy-normal, an abdominal cat-scan-normal. Utrasound-normal. I have had a Hida-scan and as soon as I was injected with the "fatty food" simulation I started cramping.

With this finding and my symptoms my internist says he beleives it is gallbladder; had all heart tests that were normal and the cardiologist said it seems like gallbladder. My gastro doc said that if this is affecting my life style and sick at work then have it out. I have talked to a surgeon and he said that the Hida-Scan cramping is a sign of gallbladder as well as my other symptoms.

Getting ready to schedule surgery to remove it. Just would like some definitive answers other than everything is normal but the symptoms and the Hida-Scan cramping. Any advise?

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Hello Darlene,

Fatty food does trigger gallbladder contraction and causes severe pain, even in some people without obvious gallstone. If this is causing you that amount of pain, then getting the gallbladder out will be the wise thing to do. Just before that, if you have not already done so, what about trying yourself on Low Fat Diet For Gallstone Sufferers?