Vesícula biliar - ou tudo acontecendo na minha cabeça!

Saúde digestiva
1

Hi everyone,

I've been experiencing what can only be described as gallbladder symptoms over the past 3 weeks (I know it's a short time and many people have these symptoms for months).

3 weeks ago, I'd eaten a bacon and egg sandwich for dinner (after not eating all day) and that evening I had horrible heavy / pain in my urq, which radiated to my back / shoulder blade, felt really sleepy and horrible - managed to sleep but the following morning I wasn't feeling much better, still in pain and nauseous. A few days later, I took the kids to the beach and we had ice-cream...oh me ..... same feeling again - pain, heavy in the right side, felt really tired again. Went to ER the following morning, they said it was most likely my gallbladder, took some bloods and told me to follow up with dr the following day.

Went to the dr, all the bloods werre normal (apart from a slighty raised amalyse), which would indicate gallbladder. So Dr ordered bloods to be done again, all of which came back normal (amalyse had fallen back to normal) and an Ultrasound. I ended up paying private to go for the scan as I was freaking out, the pain wasn't going and I was really nauseous and couldnt eat much, I had myself diagnosed with all kinds.

The Ultra Sound came back normal. Inbetween times I had a couple of yellow oily bm (sorry if tmi), but that seems to have settled now.

After the clear scan and normal bloods, Dr put me on Sertraline as he thinks it's anxiety.

I've to be 4 weeks on Sertraline and then go back to him, as he's sure the symptoms will settle !!!

I'm not so sure .... I'm fairly sure there's something not right .... the pain is there pretty much all the time ..... worse if I eat something really fatty.....

It goes from under my ribs on the right side, to my right shoulder, to inbetween my shoulder blades.....sometimes, it's so sore and my shoulder blades and muscles are so tense I feel like someone is squeezing my throat .....

I know that the side effects of starting sertraline can cause all kinds of stomach upsets, anxiety etc.... aswell ...... but I feel like I'm in hell ..... dr just thinks cause everything came back normal and because I suffer badly from anxiety that it must be in head.....

 

2

Parece vesícula biliar para mim, continue insistindo até que eles façam algo.

3

I'm going through the same thing and have to say gp's are useless. My doctor also wanted me to take another anti anxiety med at first but i refused. Yes i have anxiety issues and it took him nearly six weeks to arrange an ultrasound which came back clear as have all my blood tests, so in his eyes it's not my gallbladder. It then took a further 2 months for him to refer me to a gastro which i had last wedk and now waiting for a ct scan. This has gone on for nearly six months and looking back i should of refused to leave the gp surgery until i got the correct referrals as i've lived in dail pain for nearly 6 months but have not felt normal since October last year.

PUSH PUSH PUSH your gp!

I swear once you have anxiety on your medical records you could go in with a broken neck and a gp would blame it on your anxiety!

4

Parece-me cálculos biliares. Insista até que lhe mandem fazer uma ultrassonografia e, se isso não mostrar nada, peça um exame de tomografia computadorizada. Você precisa ser insistente! Se eles não fizerem os exames, consiga uma encaminhamento para um gastroenterologista que fará. Enquanto isso, coma alimentos com baixo teor de gordura e açúcar, e faça refeições pequenas e frequentes. Beba bastante água.

Os primeiros sintomas da vesícula biliar vêm e vão. Imagino que os médicos geralmente pensem e digam isso: "Está na sua cabeça". Torna o tratamento de todas as sortes de doenças fácil, porque não é problema deles.

Boa sorte para você e, por favor, me avise como você se sai.

5

It sounds to me like gallbladder attacks. Your symptoms are very similar to those I had. Ultrasound doesn't always pick stones up, especially if they're very small or there's sludge. So many gastric type illnesses have similar symptoms. It could be that your gallbladder isn't ejecting bile as it should and there aren't any stones. Either way, they'd probably want to remove your gallbladder.

Do you feel it could be caused by anxiety? Nobody knows your body like you do yourself. I think doctors are too keen to diagnose anxiety when they can't find a reason for something. The average GP sometimes doesn't know enough about gallbladder issues. My own GP admits she knows very little. Let's face it, they are only human and can't be experts on everything.

I think you should ask for a referral to a gastroenterologist who can run all necessary tests and give you a diagnosis. If it is a gallbladder issue, you don't want to be waiting months for surgery as delay can cause other more serious problems.

6

Thank you everyone for your replies.

It's been a bit of a learning curve for me with Gallbladders. I'd always assumed that if you had a gall bladder problem, you had severe pain, got strong pain meds from the hospital, the pain passed after a couple of hours & you were fine until the next attack. I had no idea that gallbladder problems and pain could be there permanently, I'd never heard about a low functioning gallbladder.

I don't think this is going on in my head....but I do suffer very badly with health anxiety, and starting up on Sertraline does cause awful side effects. I have the dr in 3 weeks time. He wants me to wait until then to see if it helps. It's going to be a long painful 3 weeks. I've lost weight aswell, probably around 9 / 10 lbs over the past 3 weeks (though I've drastically cut my food intake and everything that I do eat is low fat).....(I used to be quite a heavy drinker aswell, liked my wine in the evenings, I'm ashamed to admit it - but this all kicked off after I stopped with my bottle of wine in the evening) ..... I feel so ashamed and so angry that I've probably done this to myself. Thanks everyone for listening. X

7

Por favor, nos avise como você se sai. Muitos de nós têm razões para nos "arrependermos" 😊 por coisas que fizemos. Mas, não há razão para se envergonhar. Você aceita e segue em frente e busca ajuda para si mesmo... Ninguém pode prever como o corpo vai reagir. E, existem tendências genéticas também. Finalmente, há a questão da má sorte. Estamos aqui para ouvir e oferecer apoio! xx

8

Thank you Lynda. Xx

9

De nada. Tenha coragem, lembre-se de que você geralmente é quem precisa tomar a iniciativa na sua saúde! Uma das minhas frases favoritas é: "Ore a Deus, mas reme em direção à costa." smile

10

No need to feel ashamed Shelly. There are plenty of people who drink more and don't get gallbladder issues. As Lynda said you have also to factor in genetics and luck.

The typical gallbladder sufferer was always said to be 'fair, fat, forty and fertile'.

Many people get gallbladder disease worldwide. South American Indians, Japanese, and Asian peoples cannot be considered fair, yet suffer badly from it.

Many slim people also get gallstones. Out of five close friends and family who've had cholecystectomy, two were always slim and one of those hated butter, cream and cheese. There is even a theory that having a dodgy gallbladder affects the digestion of fat, causing it to be stored elsewhere on the body, so can a bad gallbladder actually cause weight gain?

Age is supposed to be a factor yet many young people and older people suffer from gallbladder issues. I am 67.

I had hysterectomy twenty-five years ago, so can hardly be described as fertile.

So being 'fair, fat, forty and fertile' aren't necessarily risk factors.

The important thing is that you've stopped drinking, so avoiding liver complications. I had to have a liver resection five weeks after open cholecystectomy. I've never been a drinker: one glass of wine with dinner on a Sunday was my limit and often not even that. I've not touched alcohol since the first gallbladder attack last year.

11

Oi, como você está indo?

12

Can relate totally xx this is all the same as me. Bang on. Pain in my back gets worse with exercise or anything where I need to move my arms xx

13

Same Anne - I was noticing that everytime I went out running I was getting an awful bad stitch in my gallbladder / liver area....it got so painful .... I wonder now if it was my gallbladder getting irritated. x

 

14

Thank you so much for your reply.

Yes, I'm so glad I've stopped drinking. I also know loads of people who drink ten times the amount that I did and they're carrying on quite the thing .... it doesn't seem to bother them.....

I'll go with the theory about the gallbladder affecting the digestion of fat and it being stored elsewhere in the body.

I've tried for the past few years to lose weight...no amount of running / healthy eating / cutting calories / switching to low fat etc.... was making any difference....(aside from my evening wine, I always thought I was fairly fit....ran 6k 4 times a week, went on my cross-trainer a couple of times a week, tried to get in 10k steps everyday)....but no matter what I did .... not a lb would come off. I always put down to my age (I'm 46)....now I wonder.

Thanks again for your reply. xx

15

Oi Shelly,

Você pode ter um fígado gorduroso. Quando você fizer seu ultrassom, peça para eles verificarem. Quando as pessoas sofrem de fígado gorduroso, torna-se difícil para elas perderem peso. O fígado não digere mais a gordura. Em vez disso, ele armazena gordura em si e no corpo. O fígado gorduroso é causado pela ingestão de muito açúcar, incluindo açúcar de cana e xarope de milho com alto teor de frutose - não gordura, acredite ou não!

16

Thanks Lynda, they did an ultrasound last week. They said liver was fine, gallbladder, pancreas and whatever else they could scan .... all came back clear.

I had wondered if I had a fatty liver - but they said no.

x

17

Hi Lynda

Thanks for asking.

I'm doing ok I think. I feel well: probably better than I've done in years. I have a check up arranged for September so I'll have a better idea then.

I've stopped taking Omeprazole now and all seems to be fine digestively. Still eating fairly low fat diet as I find too much fat in one meal is just too much to cope with, but I can eat fats in moderation.

Right side is still tender but I was warned it could take me a year to get over both surgeries. I still tire easily, yet, conversely, I seem to be energised and I've been tackling jobs around the house that I've been putting off. No lifting still but I only have to try to lift something and I can tell it's too heavy - sort of tugs inside.

Realise now that having gallbladder out and finding cancer at an early stage may have saved my life but at the time it looked very bleak. I just take it a day at a time and value time spent with my husband and family.

18

Did you have yours out Shelley? xx

19

No Anne, it's not out. I'm just at the beginning of my gb journey I think. Lots of symptoms daily .... but ultra sound & bloods all coming back normal. X

20

Que bom saber que você está indo tão bem! Um dos sinais é que você está "percebendo" coisas que precisam ser atendidas e cuidando delas! Eu fiz a mesma coisa.

É incrível como às vezes receber a pior notícia possível acaba sendo uma coisa boa para você a longo prazo! Continue se recuperando! xxx