I'm a 20 year old female, and I've been having stomach problems ever since I was 14.
It started with gastritis (untretable), and now it was discovered that I have a large amount of gas in the upper right colon (won't leave with meds) and gallbladder sludge. I have thus already had an ulcer and a gallstone.
Anyway. I'm now on holiday abroad so I've been eating a bit less healthily (I don't usually eat much fatty foods), and I don't know if it may be linked to that or not but for a few days now I've been having abdominal pain as soon as I eat (like gas pain) followed by orange diarrhea (which relieves the pain). I've been going to the toilet more than once a day lately too. I was wondering if it may be caused by my biliary sludge because I haven't taken my meds. Other than that I feel normal, sometimes a pinch in my upper abdomen or back but I always have weird pains like that.
I'd like to add that I don't currently take any medication and heaven really eaten anything orange, and also I don't smoke or drink alcohol or caffeine..
If you have any tips or ideas of what might be the cause, feel free to help! Thank you..
The orange in your stools is either bile or blood. Either way you need to see a doctor as soon as you return from holiday. In the meantime drink plenty of water and knock the fatty foods on the head. Take painkillers if the pain is bad.
Hi, the high fat foods won't help if you've got biliary sludge as this will cause problems and may form gallstones in the future.
When you get home I would go to see your doctor and get them to do some bloods to see whats going on especially with your liver. If you have meds for your sludge then you should take them as prescribed.
Stick to your normal diet if you can while you're away and low fat foods and eat smaller amounts at a time rather than large meals as if your body is having problems digesting food it'll be able to cope better with smaller amounts.
Let me know how you get on when you get back. Take care x
Hi. Definitely cut out the fats. With sludge, and stones, the bile is made from the liver and then sent to the storage facility in the gallbladder. When you eat fatty foods, the GB is supposed to squeeze out bile to help break down the fats. So when you have sludge coming from the liver, it is slow and sluggish and gets thick and cannot perform as it should. Since I have had my GB out and have pains to the left and right of the upper abdomen, I have been researching this and this problem can be helped by taking Digestive Enzymes with ox bile in it. This helps thin out the sludgey bile made by the liver and Milk Thistle detoxes the liver. If you take these as directed, it could reverse the sludgey mess and no need to get your GB out. I wish I did that--instead got my GB out and its been awful. Good luck !
You seem to have had a gallbladder diagnosis already. Can I just say that hanging onto a sick gallbladder is very risky. You would risk the gallbladder perforating and peritonitis. You could develop jaundice and be at risk of sepsis. Gallstones can also affect the liver, pancreas and bowels by blocking them. If the NHS thought there was anything you could take to alleviate the symptoms permanently, they would not be spending millions on gallbladder surgery. Eating a low fat diet does ease the symptoms but it's not a permanent solution either. Many people do suffer issues following gallbladder surgery but I know five people personally who've had this surgery as well as myself and none of us have had problems eating a healthy diet afterwards.