I went to the ER with severe chest pain and abdominal pain followed by nausea and continual vomiting a month ago. It had happened a few times before over a period of a few months, but this last time was the worst and I felt like I was dying. I had been to the dr. the day before but don't feel like he was listening to what I was telling him. He referred me to a gastro dr. with an appointment 2 weeks away. I knew I couldn't wait that long.
That night I had another horrible bout and again in the morning. I called the dr.'s office and they told me go to the ER. I have always tried to avoid the ER but am glad I went. They did an EKG, chest x-ray, ultrasound, and ct-scan. I was dx with severe pancreatitis, gallstones, kidney stones, and a kidney infection. I was admitted and spent a very painful 8 days in the hospital with nothing to eat or drink for the first 6-1/2 days. I continued to have pain for the next 2 weeks but not as severe as it had been. I lost 11 lbs.
A month later (5 days ago), I had my gallbladder removed via laparoscopy on an out-patient basis. While in recovery, the dr. told my mother and hubby that I had a very large gallbladder. I woke up from surgery in terrible pain, but they sent me home with pain meds. The pain has lessened each day and unless I try to move, it doesn't hurt much at all. Getting in and out of my recliner gave me the most pain. I haven't had much of an appetite but have been able to eat. I have also been taking leftover nausea meds.
Yesterday, however, day 4 after my surgery, I was just sitting in my recliner eating dry cereal when I was hit with sudden severe pain in the middle of my lower chest and all across my abdomen. It felt exactly like the pain I had with the pancreatitis and was far worse than any pain I'd felt since having the surgery. The on-call dr. told us to just come by the office in the morning. The pain was unrelenting and was going up my chest on the left side and into my collarbone area, shoulder, and neck. I couldn't wait til morning and if it was pancreatitis, I wanted to avoid the nausea and vomiting I had had in the past since I was worried about
that causing my stitches to tear. I felt I had no choice but to go to the ER. The pain got worse as I tried to get in the van and hurt terribly whenever we'd hit a bump in the road. The closer we got to the hospital, the pain started to fade. It came back when I was walking into the ER, would lessen after sitting for awhile, and would start up again every time they had me go to another desk and then got bad while in the 2nd waiting room. I asked my hubby to get a wheelchair when they finally called me back to a room so the pain wouldn't get so stirred up again.
They drew blood and did an EKG. Thankfully it wasn't pancreatitis, but why was I in so much pain? The ER dr. called my on-call dr. (surgeon) and was told the pain I was having only 4 days after surgery was not out of the ordinary and to call them in the morning, but never told me why I was having this kind of pain or what exactly was causing it. He offered me more pain pills but I was already on them and they don't help a bit with that kind of pain. I just asked for more nausea meds as I hadn't had this pain til after I ran out of them and I didn't know if that had anything to do with it. After being there for 3 hours altogether, I didn't have any more "attacks" but just felt sore, esp. in my shoulder, collarbone, and neck which didn't make any sense to me. As long as I didn't move, I was okay.
When I got home, I took some Gas X and later had my first bm in 5 days. I didn't have any more episodes last night. I have felt fine all morning and wanted to see what I could find out online before wasting more time, $$, and energy finding someone to take me to the dr. just to hear him tell me there's nothing wrong. Now I'm wondering if the pain is from trapped gas from the C02 they use to do the laparoscopy. Anyone else have this happen? And if so, how many days did this go on? And is there anything that helps to prevent it or to lessen the pain?
Post Edited (peachespeachespumpkinseed) : 11/10/2014 10:40:25 AM (GMT-7)