Gallstones didn't show on CT Scan?

That sounds horrible!!! I've had mine for about 2 years with severe upper stomach pain (under my breasts) that would go away if I sat down and I'd be good to go. As of now, my nausea is worse and every day, it does ease up on some days, but still makes it hard to do anything and go out to eat. I still have a massive appetite despite chronic nausea, so I haven't lost much weight unfortunately even though I exercise daily and have cut back a lot of the bad bad food. I still have a weakness for pizza. It's so weird, one morning I just slowly wake up and the pain slowly comes on as a stomach ache in a way, and then flares up completely in the upper back and stomach and i can't sit, stand, or go back to bed. It's horrible pain! Like I said, only this past two weeks has the pain been this severe where it absolutely would not go away. Before that, it was manageable. I'm wondering if my recent stomach bug made it flare up or caused an infection? 

I'm so weirded out as to why it doesn't come right after dinner, but comes in the morning hours! The times I get it were once before dinner, and in the early AM (6-8AM). You think if it was gallbladder, it would come an hour or so after I ate, not 10 hours later, right? ha.

I have that same back pain! It's kind of always lingering in the background, waiting to flare up I guess! I haven't been to the hospital yet, but the episode I had this morning was quite severe I thought I might have too! The last time I was in the hospital was when I was born 21 years ago! So that's why I'm so hesitant to remove my gallbladder. I hear so many horror stories of chronic diarrhea and stuff, it makes me appreciate my chronic nausea.  I just had my CT scan done and it didn't show anything blocking my ducts, so I'm just wondering where the pain is coming from if that is the case!

It's so horrible, I've never sweat because of being in pain and it's really scary when it won't ease up!  Post op what are you able to eat? Did you have to really watch your diet? I hear it's a terrible surgery to recover from! I am also in the US! I've tried about 3-4 doctors, and two gastros who don't seem to care one bit about my massive liver or gallstones! Only option I have is surgery, which I'm pretty much not going to do right now. This might change when I get another attack, however. ha Yeah, to see a stomach specialist it is around $500 for a visit! so I try to get my primary care doc to order the tests, so they'll be cheaper! Any pain relief methods you tried? Food? Positions? anything to relieve the pain for a moment? Thank you for all your advice and info on your journey. So frustrating!! 

I would definitely ask your dr for some zofran, its a literal lifesaver for the nausea! You have no clue,and i still get bouts of it on occasion. Was getting severe bouts of it with acid reflux AFTER surgery... i have come to realize that food choice has ALOT to do wiyh with it. Most people who are refusing surgery decide to go on a very strict Low Fat to no fat diet intake. .. and it should help alot. But it must cases, may not either! Once your gallbladder decides to make stones, it usually does not stop and sometimes surgery is the option. . And recovery does suck.. i wont lie. .. but it DEFINITELY beats the alternative of having the stupid thing in ... i am now slowly gaining my appetitie back now, still cant always finish a full plate for some reason though, and some people have issues with bloating afterwards. . Thankfully i haven't gotten that 1 though! ! I do notice cheeses affect big time now, some meats.. like straight red meat gets me a Lil, but after surgery you really have to SLOWLY integrate foods back in to your diet. . Like pasta sauces, fatty foods, id lay low on spicy foods for quite a few months, gravyish stuff, etc.. i am a pizza junky myself and having started trying white pizzas and can seem to handle those alot easier digestively than red pizzas!! Also look into digestive enzymes (pill form). Ask your dr for a script, or over the counter. . And it should help with breaking down the food in your stomach. Bile usually does this, but because our gallbladders are not acting right or gone now, we need these enzymes to aid in digesting.. id really try to look into lowering your fat intake in your diet big time if your going to avoid surgery for awhile. Because it definitely sounds like your having gallstone attacks... and eventually they get worse. If it gets to a point where your gallbladder starts getting swollen or infected, and your begging for them to take the sucker out, they wont be able to , till its reduced in inflammation and you also do not want to do further damage to your liver as well in the process!!

Zofran worked for you? Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. Promethazine worked for me for a month or so, but now it doesn't do anything which bums me out. I ate a lot less food yesterday especially fat wise, and I didn't have an attack this morning. I'm having one of my old attacks where it's just the upper back and stomach pain, but not as severe as the shorter attacks, and is somewhat relieved when I sit down. I'm hoping a low fat diet, and some Apple cider vinegar will help, even though ACV is nasty stuff! I've heard of peope developing stones even after their gallbladder is removed which sounds horrifying!  That's the one issue I typically don't have....I always have an appetite, except maybe like twice I was too sick to eat, but still did anyway. 

Removed or not, I still have to eat and try a low fat diet! Either way I'll have to go low fat anyway, so why not try it with my gallbladder still intact? haha. I had a low fat pizza with green peppers and onions last night for dinner, it helped me some because I love green peppers. I've heard about digestive enzymes before! Do you use any? I've seen so many brands, it's hard to narrow down which one might help us out! Do you know how much fat you should eat a day? I really hope my gallbladder calms down in the next few weeks, because these attacks are getting on my nerves! Diet reform here I come! Thank you for all this helpful info!

Well, I am amazed at the similarity of the symptoms you describe and my own. I am the same as you regarding appetite too. And I noticed this over a year ago before I was close to understanding that it was a gallstone thing. I almost always feel hungry. I may be very full. I know I am full. But unless I eat just a little something (the right something) I feel this kind of sicky hungry feeling.

But if you are sweating while being in pain, and it sounds like it is gaining in frequency, then that sounds like an infection to me. My doc told me that if I am in excrutiating pain, with a fever, I need to go to a hospital ER and get an evaluation, and most probably surgery. He told me that this is an extremely dangerous situation. The infections move very fast. That kind of infection can cause death. Get this checked out!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Before i was diangosed last year, I thought all the upper stomach pain was pancreatitis or something, but my mom said no, it's gallstones, and sure enough it was. My nausea used to be only bad day back early last year, and it would go away. Then it would stay for 2 days or so and go away, then it would be one full week of nausea, and maybe 2 weeks I'd get a break, now it's every single day and maybe I'll get one day where I'm not SUPER SUPER nauseous. I do have that similar hungry feeling a lot, but I try and ignore it by drinking some gatorade. I looked up peptic ulcers and they can have similar symptoms to gallstones from what I heard! I was wondering if I might have gallstones and maybe an ulcer. 

If I go too long between meals and don't eat I get super nauseous. 

I did sweat two morning ago, it was terrible! I don't think I had a fever, but I looked pretty washed out in the face. I'm fine as of right now, and I hope it stays that way if I continue drinking apple cider vinegar! 

So, how much of the vinegar do you take and how often? How did you hear that it was helpful for gallstones? If you do have an ulcer, though, the vinegar would be hard on that. I had an ulcer when I was 27. I could eat only really bland anything. My roommate at the time (a nurse) called it a "sippy diet" or a "white diet". Anything with vinegar, like pickles for example, just killed me. But I don't mind the taste of vinegar on things. If it is not too much I might could try it. I do have other things wrong with me that I have to be careful of too much acid. I cannot take Vit C because it is ascorbic acid. I have to be very careful of citrus juices, and not too much citrus fruit. Aacchhh!!! What a world!!! Trying not to be sick is a hard job!

I used to only take it when I had a flare up or when I would be traveling. I just now took a tablespoon full of apple cider vinegar and mixed it with orange gatorade to try and cover the taste of it. I found on it by looking on the internet, specifically WikiHow "How to ease gallbladder pain" There's a long list of things that are supposed to help, but I've only tried Apple Cider Vinegar, Omega 3 supplements (for nausea), and Vitamin C back 2 years ago. I'm unsure if the other recommendations work. They say only one tablespoon in a bottle of water, or whatever you can drink and just chug it down. If you're having an actual attack, I've heard under 8 oz, but I doubt I could do that, so I stick with the tablespoon. How do they diagnose ulcers? I've already had the CT scan which I thought would show ulcers, and then the ultrasound. I'm wondering if an upper endoscopy would show them, because my doctors wanted to do that test last year, but with my severe nausea, I doubt I could handle a big camera down my throat. I got a 16oz bottle yesterday at the grocery store for just $1.39! The bigger bottles are around 6.99, but the smaller bottles work fine for me. Ah, Vitamin C caused me to have worsened stomach cramps when I took it for my gallstones 2 years ago! So I went off it! Orange Juice seems to irritate my stomach, too! It is super hard! I would just like to be able to go out to dinner with my family again and now feel like I'm gonna hurl! I have anxiety any time I go out now thanks to my nausea and the fear of getting sick! Arg!!

They diagnose ulcers by symptoms first. Since there is more than one type of ulcer they do look for some specific things. But a lot of it is the kind of pain and what you had eaten before. Then there is a barium X-ray. They have you drink a thick white liquid (barium). It was not as bad as I had thought it would be. The barium makes the stomach and small intestine show up on X-rays. The only way to tell for sure though, is an endoscopy. Since you are here in the states, your nausea would not be prohibitive for a doctor performing this. They do knock you out for the procedure. But the kind of anesthesia they use for this kind of thing is not the big major stuff they use for long surgeries. Most GI doctors have their own staff and equipment at their offices to do the procedure. If you have mitigating issues they might choose to perform it in the hospital as a "day surgery". You are only there (either location) for a few hours and you go home.

My stomach has been terribly sensitive since that ulcer. But there is no question that the gallstone was a different thing, even before they found it in the CT. And (knock on wood), I haven't had bad pain from it. I have had a little. And it is very different from an ulcer type pain. My doctor had me checked over a year ago for a possible ulcer with the barium X-ray. They also did a blood screen to make sure that I did not have that bacteria, H. pylori, that causes alot of ulcers. I did not have an actual ulcer, but I was suffering all the same pain as one. The Dr. said since I didn't have the bacterial infection that they treat me just the same way as if I did have an ulcer. For me that is Nexium, and Ranitadine. One other thing I have used for stomach pain for years is Phazyme (or any brand of little capsule of high dose simethicone). It really helps break up the gas that causes much of those stomach aches. 

I tried to find out if the ACV was good for nausea as well as pain, and I saw nothing like that. Several sites saying that ACV helps to lower cholesterol, and make the gallbader better. So, I put the tablespoon of it into apple juice this morning and it was fine. We'll see if it helps nausea too.

Oh, I see. Have you ever had the upper endoscopy? Another thing that scared me away from the upper gi was that they put you to sleep, and I've never been put to sleep or sedated so I'm afraid I'd have a reaction. I've heard you can do the upper gi with just the stuff they spray in your throat to numb it, and you stay awake....but I'm not sure how fun that would be. 

I'm negative for H. Pylori....or I was about 2 years ago when they tested me for it a second time. Oh! I've never heard of Phazyme. I wonder if it would help all my burping! I will look into it

I don't know if it helps my nausea as much, but the past two days I've had it, my nausea has been better except when I try to fall asleep it gets bad for some reason?? I'm going to have to take it again today. It tastes nasty to me. Hope it helps you!

Yes, I had the endoscopy and then the colonscopy. Having anesthesia has never been exciting to me either, but I have had enough issues that had to be dealt with and there was no other good option. But I am old enough that I have seen big changes in this part of medicine. I was 4 when they took out my tonsils and they gave me ether! They don't do that anymore! The endoscopy was not so bad. And believe me I am a baby when it comes to pain, etc. But I was Ok when I woke up. The major anesthesia they used for some procedures about 20 yrs ago always made me really sick (nauseous) when I woke up. But with this stuff I was fine. 

The phazyme could help the burping. Since it breaks up gas inside, it has nowhere to go but outside (up or down). But I have to say that since having the gallstone I burp a lot more. Still, I usually take a simethicone capsule with the Ranitidine. 

I'm wondering if you have tried having the ACV with apple juice instead of Gatorade. I did that and it makes the apple juice taste like strong apple cider (not hard cider with alcohol). So tonight I put a lot of ice in with the vinegar and did the ACV over ice (like a tall ice tea). It was much better that way. I do drink Gatorade though and tried that first. I kind of think that lemon juice works better with that. Vinegar is better with various juices.

 

I might consider doing the upper gi, then. I'm still not sure as to whether I'd go under sedation or just ask for the throat spray and stay away. I've heard the sedation doesn't do much anyway. Yikes! A long time ago I had a sinus infection and they recommended I take my Adenoids out, which I never did. I have bad allergies today. I'm wondering if sinus drainage contributes any to my daily nausea. I might go get me some of the Phazyme. 

No, I've never tried it with apple juice. Honestly I've never had apple cider, but I've heard people love it. I might try it that way, but Gatorade was all I had that might cover the strong taste up. I did my ACV last night AFTER I ate and today I have a little bit of back pain, so I'm going to try it again before I eat, rather than after I ate. I honestly dont know which might work better...before or after a meal?

Every time I drink lemon with my water or squeeze a lemon in my water, my gallstones would flare up. not with the severe pain, but I'd get some more stomach pain, so I stopped trying lemon juice! I did drink it cold rather than warm, so I'm wondering if that made the problem. The strong taste of ACV still makes me so grossed out when I drink it, but I'm really out of ideas when it comes to my gallstones and nausea. 

I will try that.  Thank you! I slept on my left side, rather than my right side last night and I didn't get an attack. I'm wondering if sleeping on my right side is like squishing my gallbladder or something! haha. I will try this!

I haven't had an MRI yet, but I was just wondering why a CT scan wouldn't be able to see them! I most certainly feel like they're still there more than I did when I was diagnosed with them back in April!

The upper back pain is so bad. I feel like I have too many health issues to be just 21 years old! So frustrating.

you are absolutely right you are very young to go through all this 

but you have to see your options I mean you need to have a definite diagnosis regarding you gallstones it's either positive or negative 

I went through exactly what you went through a stabbing sharp like pain in the right side of my back that last for two weeks I lost weight I was really sick nausea chills pain fatigue throwing up constipation all this it then turned out to be a kidney inflammation I managed it through drinking fluids and an amazing antispasmodic that used to give me relief called cataflam it was excellent it would reduce spasms and tension I took it for about a week or more and I was excellent afterwards

If you had a CT especially if it was HRCT (high resolution CT ) and showed negative then it's not a stone or a really small one I hope you come up with something soon and try changing your doctor if you feel that he's going no where with you

Good luck