Hi, I had my bowel removed three years ago and now have a Jpouch (this is formed from the small intestine and I go to the toilet through the rectum as per normal) I have had a number of issues with burning rectal pain and anal ulcers and have been on a bland diet of potoato, rice, bread, soup and eggs etc for a couple of months before I realised that I was still passing yellow greasy dirarrhoea, which seemed impossible with no fat in my diet! I also have excessive gas (belching) acid indigestion and I am finding I am very breathless at times as well.
I am under a GI surgeon who cannot understand the intense rectal pain as I only have mild inflammation in the rectum. I find when he gives me ciproxin it helps with the greasy stool and a little with the pain, but I have only just mentioned to him the fact that I think I may have some gallbladder issues, so he is doing an ultrasound on Monday.
Does any of this sound familiar, I have no chest pain but a feel this may be a gallbladder problem. This has been going on for over a year and I just wondered if anyone had experienced anything similar??
Thanks so much.
Bernie
Hi Bernie,
Sorry to hear you're having these difficulties. Seems to me that you've already been through a lot!
If the liquid surrounding your stools is clear and yellow, it's bile. When a gallbladder is diseased it's either releasing too much bile during digestion, which results in diarrhea, or too little, which results in constipation. Bile is an acid, and extremely caustic, which would explain why you're experiencing pain.
Besides an ultrasound, your doctor might want to do blood tests to determine whether your liver and/or your pancreas are stressed, which is also a by product of gallbladder disease.
Bile is released into the small intestine during digestion. The body also produces a hormone which allows the bile to be reabsorbed during the digestive process. Perhaps your body is no longer producing this hormone.
Finally, sometimes an ultrasound will not show when a person has small gallstones or sludge in the gallbladder. A CT scan usually works better, but not always.
Best of luck to you, and please let me know how you get on!
Thanks so much for your reply Lynda, I know pretty much everything there is to know about pouuches but not much about gallbladders I'm afraid!!!
I have been on antibiotics for over a week now and this has helped with the bile, it tends to be green now but goes back to yellow if I eat any sort of fat content.
At the moment I really hope it is my gallbladder (mad I know!) as if they cannot figure out what is casuing the pain then they will remove the rectum and I will have to go back to an illeostomy and there is noting wrong with my pouch so that would be a real shame.
If it is just inflammation would that show on an ultrasound do you think? When he removed my colon, he had a lot of trouble as it was stuck to me duodenum, I wonder if this could be relevant??
Yesterday I had a weird thing happen..I couldn't breath and my heart was racing (I was only walking down the road) could this be related to gallbladder issues or do you think it could just be the strain of the pain or even the painkillers I am taking? (naproxin and co-codamol)
Sorry for all the questions but you seem to know a lot about this and I want to be able to go to see my consultank on Thursday with some knowledge and I will ask him about bloods if they don't do any.
Many thanks
Bernie
Hi Bernie,
I'm in the US, so there will probably be a bit of a delay in my responses.
From what you are saying it seems to me that you might have an infected gallbladder. Inflammation won't show on an ultrasound, but what might show up is thickening of the gallbladder walls. If you have an infection, your white count will be elevated. Also, gallbladder problems can stress your liver and your pancreas.
You should also know that naproxin is very irritating to your digestive tract. In fact, I suggest that you research the drugs you are taking on line and pay particular attention to the side effects.
Finally, taking antibiotics can mess up the bacteria in your digestive system and lead to a build up of harmful bacteria that are normally kept at bay by the good bacteria. I'm not necessarily advocating that you take probiotics, but you could ask your doctor about it. Even if you can eat yogurt that might help in the long run. You need good bacteria to populate your digestive tract.
Your body is particularly stressed by your medical conditiona and the drugs you are taking, so I think that what you suffered is your body telling you to take it easy...
Please let me know how you get on!
Thanks Lynda, I will look them up, I know naproxin can cause stomach bleeds, but when I stop taking them the anal pain gets so much worse...I have only been on the antibiotics for a week, as they just take the edge off the burning pain I get, I presume they are not the antibiotics which would be used for and infected gallbladder but they were given to treat bactieria in the rectum, this was before I suspected I may have gallbladder issues.
I'll speak to my doctor about all you have mentioned about the drugs and see what he says about probiotics...mind you he's a surgeon and they don't tend to offer much in the way of dietary advise 
I will start on the yoghurts though...I should have thought of that!
I am at my whits end with pain I am in all the time and it would be such a travesty to have to go back to an ileostomy when there is nothing worng with my pouch!!!
Thanks so much for taking the time to give me advice, it really has helped.
I'm glad to know I've helped. So, what antibiotics are you on, may I ask?
I agree that it would be a shame to have to go back to your ileostomy!
Ciproxin, which is for bacterial infection, this is what he gives me for the inflammation in the rectum.
Okay, so that's cipro, correct? I am wondering, because cipro tends to wipe out "good" bacteria as well as the "bad."
Probiotics might help you restore a healthy balance and lead to fewer overgrowths of the bad stuff.
Just a thought! Hope you start feeling better!
Yeah I think it is cipro, in teh UK it called ciproxin but I'm sure it's the same. That's intersting....I'll give probiotics a go then.
Thanks again.
Bernie
You're welcome. One more thing. Make sure that you get bacterial cultures that work in your urinary tract and your gastrointestinal tract. They also need to be able to survive the acid in your stomach.
I suggest that you mention this to your doctor, too.
I will, thanks Lynda...funny you mention urinary tract, I seem to be needing to pass water a lot more than usual, but didn't think anything of it.
As people age they tend to become dehydrated quickly, so drinking lots of water is important. Sometimes, they also get urinary tract infections but don't have any pain, which can mean that the infection can move into the kidneys.
This makes urinary tract infections in the elderly very serious, because none of the typical symptoms are present. I recently had a UTI, but I started experiencing the symptoms of frequent urination one month prior to the time that I developed pain. So I have to be very careful from now on...
I have to drink a lot of water due to having no colon...and I am getting on a bit now, i'm 59, so I need to keep a better eye on everything I think!!!
Are you a doctor or nurse by the way?
No, I'm not in the medical profession. Everything I've learned can be traced to research and the school of hard knocks!
Please do let me know how you get on with your doctor!
Well you could have fooled me 
I know what you mean, experience is a great eductaion!!!
I'll let you know how I get on.
Thanks again.
Bernie
Hi Lynda,
I had my ultrasound today and the radiographer said there were no stones but there was some sludge in the gallbladder, though he's not sure there is enough to casue this much of a problem. He asked if my surgeon had done any stool tests, which he hasn't and said he may well want to do that now.
He also said I have a cyst in my kidney, actually one in each, which he said is not unusual, but one of them will need another scan apparently. He did say why but I can't remember the word he used!!!
I started on yoghurts today...hopefully they will help.
Hi Bernie!
Well, anytime there's sludge in the gallbladder it can become irritated and have difficulty doing its job. From my own experience, if stool tests are done, they may come back as "normal" because they're testing only the stool, not the yellow or green liquid that surrounds them. That happened to me. I had my stools tested twice and they came back as normal.
They need to do bloodwork and test the levels of enzymes secreted by your liver and pancreas. Those tests will indicate whether those organs are stressed--a sign of gallbladder disease.
I hope that the yogurt helps you, too!
Have a good day.
Lynda
If he doesn't offer bloods I will ask for them on Thursday when I see him.
What was your experience then, was it similar in that nothing obvious was showing but you actually did have problems??
Ask him to do a panel to check the liver/pancreatic enzymes.
In my experience, I was having constant diarrhea, especially right after eating. So, if I was at work, I couldn't eat. I lost over 30 pounds. Not much gallbladder pain, but I did have nausea, especially in the morning. No vomiting.
They did a colonoscopy and endoscopy. I had two colon polyps, noncancerous. Essentially, the tests were "normal."
I was initially diagnosed with IBS-D, which is really a non-specific diagnosis.
I had ultrasounds, which didn't show many stones, but the issue for the doctors was that I wasn't presenting the classic symptoms. I realized that in order to get treatment I was going to need to tell them I was experiencing a lot of pain, so I did.
When my gallbladder was finally removed, it was brimming with sludge and small stones. I wish I could say that I was one of the lucky ones who had no symptoms after that. But even before my surgery, I had bile acid malobsorption. My system can't reabsorb the bile secreted during digestion. So I'm on medication for that, which I've taken daily since 2009.
So, you're correct. Nothing obvious enough to tempt them to do surgery, but I was still sick!
I have heard that gallbladder problems can be hard to diagnose and you are proof of this!!!! It must have been awful for you, were you in pain with the diarrhea, ie: burning due to the bile? It's a good job you ahd the sense to tell them you were in pain or you would still be in the same boat now!!!
Does the medication work for you or do you still suffer?
I will ask him about the panel check, did you have this done eventually and did it highlight your problems?
It sounds like you've been though hell, I hope things are better for you now.
Many thanks for all your advice, I really appreciate it.
Bernie