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!!
Ps... sleep slightly elevated as well at night. .. sometimes the acid reflux will back up into your esophagus area or chest and cause severe pain as well. Which is why you nay be experiencing it in the morning time more so , than evening. .? I usually take a body pillow and lay it long ways.. then take my pillow and a 2nd pillow to prop me up. .. that way i do not lay flat. Try that and see if it helps at all!
it's possible for gallstones to move out especially if they were small enough depending on the time period between the ultrasound and the CT
MRI will pick them up
it's not strange to have different results here n there cos both equipment have specific sensitivities and specificities to stones
gastritis can cause nausea after eating or irritable bowel syndrome or spastic bowel can do nearly the same nausea feeling after food like back pain and nausea
CT is more reliable than ultrasound especially if it's high resolution
I am on Disability so I have not worked in about 15 years anyway. But I am in the same boat with you on needing to stay home... And stay lying down too.
What my nausea is like IS morning sickness. Every once in a while I do NOT have the nausea as soon as I wake up. Most days, though, yes. I try to take the promethazine (anti-nausea) first thing, and stay sitting. Some days I start to feel better. Other days I remain nauseous. I definitely do not feel like eating. But often, if I eat something easy it makes the nausea subside. BUT, many days the nausea returns within 30 minutes.
More and more, the nausea sounds just like yours. I just can't do ANYthing! If I don't stay lying down I will start to throw up. [Found that out the hard way. I had to do some things to help my mother. I thought I could just "work through it". Forget it. Once I started vomitting I did that for at least 4 hours.] So, some days I am useless. And lying down like that I end up sleeping much of the time.
I also had what I figured was a stomach "bug"? I was SO sick. The action of vomitting really hurt my ribs and muscles, and probably the gallbladder. I felt totally helpless and so miserable. After the first 8 hrs I didn't throw up anymore. But I felt so bad. Then I tried to help my mother (I live with her), and I vomitted again. Still terribly painful, and went on for several hours. The whole ordeal was like a 24hr bug, only 36 hours.
This nausea is different from other kinds. It feels like there is this deep empty pit inside me. If I burp, I feel like I should have just vomitted instead. If I burp it seems cavernous and hollow inside. And NOT GOOD!
By the way, I found an article that says that the large gallstones usually do spontaneously pass out of the bile duct. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12831489>
And this one that has pictures! <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1289680/>
So, I am going to see if I can learn more about the nature of my own gallstone. Then I will pray that it will pass "spontaneously", if at all possible!
It makes it hard to do anything! I'm trying to find a job, but with this issue of my gallstone attacks and then plus my nausea it makes it hard. A few weeks ago, I only had to worry about my nausea interfering, now I have the annoying pain. I've never had morning sickness, so i really don't know how that feels. It feels like my throat is going to close up sometimes, with other times the nausea is in my stomach. It tends to switch places, or on really bad days, it's in my stomach AND throat. I take promethazine, too! It doesn't really work for me anymore. I've tried 4-5 different anti-nausea meds, promethazine was the only one that got rid of the lump in my throat feeling, but now it does not work. Sometimes eating does help, but sometimes the only thing that can even slightly ease it is laying down. That sounds terrible! Despite having horrible nausea for a whole year, I have yet to vomit from it. Been really close, but haven't yet. I hope it stays that way. When I don't feel super bad, getting out and trying to exercise helps some. I burp a lot too! Even in the morning when I haven't had anything to eat yet! My doctor put me on Ranitidine for that, but it has helped the nausea some, but if I go off it, it's terrible. I had a terrible stomach bug a few weeks ago, about a week of diarrhea but now it's gone, and I think it really messed up my gallbladder or something, so I have no idea why I'm in pain now with my gallstones, but wasn't the week before I had the stomach bug. I hope you feel better!!!
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!
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.
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!
When you had the stomach bug did you only have the diarrhea and no vomitting with that? I had terrible diarrhea too. But I kind of expect both with a stomach virus. I had a hard time getting so that I could eat again after it. I ate/drank broth, and hot liquid jello. I did that for a full day + after. I normally have bad constipation with this gallstone though. I have to take something for that every day too.
My Dr. put me on Ranitadine too, about 10 months ago when I first complained of the nausea. And it really helped back then. So I have to try to remember to take it consistently. It does help some. I take the promethazine for nausea when I take my pain pills. So, maybe I am too used to it for this problem. The Dr., of course, would not give me a different nausea med unless he took me off promethazine. I took the Actigal or usodiol. The idea was to hope that the gallstone would dissolve and pass on it's own. I took it for 4 mos. I read that some of the side effects were the same as the symptoms for the gallstone! And it was affecting me in several of the listed ways, but I thought I could put up with them. But then I got badly swollen feet and legs (below the knee). It got really very bad. Of course, I didn't know that it was causing it at first. But it was unbearable. It made my feet and legs hurt and I could barely walk. So they told me to stop the Actigal and see if my feet got better. I did and my feet did, so I was discouraged about what the next step with the gallstone would be.
Of course, I have spent lots of time and energy trying to figure out if eating a certain kind of food the evening before made me nauseous the next day. Or maybe the right food meant that the next day I would feel Ok. I get so I think I know the right drill, But then something happens to prove I don't know anything!
I am trying to avoid surgery at all costs. So I am looking for diets that are meant to help lower cholesterol, like immediately! We'll see.
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!
I didn't vomit with the virus and have yet to vomit with my full year of chronic nausea. My dad and I both had it so I know it was unrelated to my gallstones with the diarrhea. I ate nothing but toast and yogurt which was hard because I have a decent appetite! I now try to eat Activia yogurt every other day or every day to keep my stomach bacteria in line. I also take a probiotic, but honestly it took a while for my stomach to get back to normal, and to this day it still kind of gurgles and concerns me from the stomach bug I had 2 weeks ago. I didn't even get much cramping with the flu, but it was serious diarrhea where I considered going to the ER to get it to stop. Never did, but my stomach can still be iffy at times. Yeah, me too! A few days in between the diarrhea after the main symptoms of it, I got constipated! it came back for a day or two, and then I got constipated again. Normally what eases my constipation is coffee! It works like a charm most days because I got stopped up a lot having hypothyroidism.
I take my ranitidine every morning after my breakfast typically. I have to take it after breakfast because before breakfast, I have to take my thyroid medicine, which is said to interact with anti-acids and render them useless. If I go off the ranitidine as I did with the recent stomach bug my nausea will be ok for one day and I won't notice it, but after a week or two being off the medicine it really comes back bad, so now I'm back on it. Any time I try to go off the anti acid I get worsened nausea.
It doesn't get rid of the nausea, but it helps the severe part of it. Before I took ranitidine, I only got my nausea every few weeks, so that's why I've tried to go off it so many times, hoping I could get back to having weeks without any nausea, but no success going off it. 
That sounds terrible! I was wondering if my doctor would be willing to try the Actigal, but I've heard it's terribly expensive, and I doubt my insurance would let me even try it. I also thought about the other way they try to break up gallstones which is by radioactive waves?? If they're small enough they try to break them up with the waves and let them pass on their own, but I'm not sure how large or small mine are.
That sucks that it didn't work for you, but glad you figured out what was causing the swollen feet!
Same with me! One day I could eat just yogurt and not be nauseous, the next day i could eat the same exact food and be nauseous! You think you're figuring it out, and then it surprises you!
Oddly enough, I ate two pieces of cheese pizza along with some tacos last night for dinner and I woke up with no pain or sweating this morning! However, I did take a tablespoon full of Apple Cider Vinegar which is said to help gallstones! I'm not sure if it did, but I'm grateful I didn't wake up sweaty and in pain!
I'm looking anywhere on the internet for the same thing! I know they say it's not an organ you need, but I think it's an organ you need! The fact that they can get rid of kidney stones, but not gallstones is just annoying. As of right now, I'm going to try to eat a little less fat, and continue take apple cider vinegar every few days to see if it keeps my attacks at bay. ACV is nasty stuff, so I mix is with orange gatorade or I'd gag. Good luck!
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!!
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
And I recommend you don't experiment alot like searching online and drinking or eating whatever you find cos what's suitable for others may not suite u
try having another Ultrasound if it shows negative then it's not a gallstone
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.
I try not to listen to too much hohah on the internet, but I do hear ACV has worked pretty well to ease the pain somehow. I've heard ultrasounds can also miss stones, too! I'm not sure what to ask for when I see my doctor again! I think on the CT scan, it said my kidneys, spleen and all were in good shape. The only bad thing was my enlarged liver.
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.