Unsure on gallbladder.. very anxious.. help

your symptoms do sound like gallbladder problems, i had to go through an ultrasound( useless for me, it did not detect anything abnormal with my gallbladder) it found a mass in my liver ( thanks God when i went for a CT scan, it was just a calcified granuloma) endoscopy and colonoscopy, everything checked out good except a tiny little ulcer and H Pylori. My problems continued, the pain used to wake me up at night, and the frequency and pain level kept on increasing as time went by. The day of my colonoscopy when i left the clinic i was super hungry and went to an Ihop for some fatty food, that was the nail in the coffin, about two hours later the pain in my upper right quadrant started again, but this time it was extremely strong, radiating to the middle of my back like a band, it was very tough, after a few hours i could not take it anymore and told my wife to take me to the hospital, as soon as the guy did the ultrasound he told me your gallbladder is in pretty bad shape, very very swollen, he said if they gave me the option to do the surgery right away, not to think it twice, because it was so inflamed he was afraid it could rupture and then more seirous problems could arise. As soon as the surgeon saw the ultrasound findings, he gave me the option to do the surgery right away, i accepted and that same night i was getting that crap organ out of my body. next day i was already home, and for the most part i am doing very good, no more excruciating pain and my digestion has been good, even though i am not taking care of what i eat. So if they find out its your gallbladder and its giving you a lot of pain, dont think twice and get it out. Hope everything works out for you.

you definitely need to be sure, but the whole point of my story is that sometimes specially with ultrasounds they miss it, remember ultrasounds are highly dependent on their operator. if its the gallbladder sooner or later the pain will let you know, they say kidney stones are horrible, i have never had those , but i can tell you gallbladder pain is bad, would not wish it to anybody. keep on trying until they come out with a diagnostic, the digestive system is complicated since there are a bunch of organs involved.

Yikes! I guess I am "lucky" in that my symptoms were so acute, it was hard to miss (although the ED still misdiagnosed). If the surgeon thinks that it's gallbladder and is willing to remove it, and you feel miserable, I'd definitely consider having it done. EGD wouldn't likely show gallbladder disease unless you were in the midst of an attack/inflammation/infection - which would show on labs. CT can show some GBD but frequently misses stones. Ultrasound is most sensitive for stones - but still only picks up 85% of them in symptomatic patients. AND you can have GBD without having any stones as well.

It's odd to me that the GI doc isn't recommending it given that a laproscopic choly is one of the most frequently performed operations especially among women. Curious question - any of these docs women? I ask this because there are a number of studies that show GBD and other digestive disorders tend to present differently in women than in men, yet most of the symptoms that doctors learn about in med school and in practice are those that stem from research done primarily on men. It's not sexism per se, just that women present the same disorders differently from men because we have very different anatomies. You hear about it a lot with heart disease, but it's true with many conditions.

I'd have it out. I had significant nerve damage and daily migraines after a car crash three years ago, and had numerous specialists tell me that I shouldn't be having the pain I was having. Finally, I used family connections to get in to see one of the top neuros in the US. He said it would be 50-50 if surgery would improve my condition since many of the damaged nerves wouldn't regenerate. I realized I couldn't have much of a life with the pain and loss of function I was living with - so I went for it. 12 week recovery, still living with chronic pain, but a million times better and no regrets.

Risk of diarrhea post-cholecystectomy is less than 1%. Other side effects and risks are less than 7%. Risk of not getting better if you don't do it - 100%.

Good luck!