Gall Bladder vs. IBS

I'm sorta freakin' out here. I just read some posts about gall bladder disease and I'm wondering if that's what's going on with me. Here are the symptoms of one of my lovely episodes:

-- sudden onset of nausea
-- feeling hot and sick all over
-- can't tell whether I'm going to throw up or have a BM
-- heart starts pounding/racing (it's not a panic attack)
-- after a BM I feel much better, but I get very cold
-- caffeine is particulary evil to my gut

From what I've read about gall bladder disease, is that those attacks are followed by D, but mine are usually normal BMs.

My dad had his gall bladder taken out so it seems like genetics aren't helping me out here. Anyway, any input would be wonderful. Are there any alternative treatments to gall bladder disease?

Yikes.

Thanks!

Hi shadowfax,

Welcome to HealingWell! 
Have you read Keri's post The Definitive Guide to Gall Bladder Disease?  That post explains pretty much everything.  You should probably have a hidascan done to test the functionality of your gall bladder.

From what I've read, I don't personally have experience with gall bladder issues, if you keep to an extremely low fat diet it will help with gall bladder attacks.  I think you can still get the pain and nausea attacks though; but the low fat diet would help with any diarrhea associated with the gall bladder.

As Des mentioned, it's been kind of slow today, hang in there.  Others will be around.

Shadowfax, i get all the same symptoms as you when having an attck and i get the bad d. I have had my gall bladder checked recently and all is fine with it. You should get checked, they can do an ultrasound to have a look for gall stones and check the gall bladder, but the symptoms you decribed are also very common for plain ole IBS, so please don't start panicink about anything more severe untill a doctor tells you whats going on.

The heart will tend to race when nausea kicks in, you will probably also have a raise in temp, hence feeling hot, that would lead to the feeling of coldness after the BM, as temp will return to normal and you probably sweated a little so that will also make you feel cold. It is perfectly normal to fell as tho you may throw up when you need the toilet badly and caffine will speed up the system and is a major IBS trigger and most of us are advised to stay away from it.

It did not say in your post if you have been diagnosed with IBS, so it would be a good idea to go to the docs and have a chat with them and get yourself some answers.

Best of luck to you

Indigo

I guess because it's a stressful, unnatural situation for the body to be in. To vomit, your stomach has to eject food out backwards and your esophagus move it back up to your mouth, which is also making it run backwards. Nausea is caused by your stomach and/or esophagus sort of churning around, not sure which way they will go. So, stressful enough to raise the heart rate. Also, I don't know about you, but a lot of us on here have a phobia about vomiting, so feeling like we might will make the stress level worse.

Shadowfax is the name of Gandalf's horse (the king of all horses) in "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."

That where you got it?

I'm having pretty much the same problems as Shadowfox expressed below, except during an attack, I usually have diarrhea and vomiting at the same time, both are severe and lasts several hours. I can tell when an attack is going take place, I get extremely hot and my sinuses start running. Once that happens I have a very short time to get to a restroom, hopefully if I'm out of the house I can make it home in time. When the attack subsides I get freezing cold, before it starts again. On many an occasion I will vomit in a thrash can while having diarrhea at the same time. The pain in the right side of my back is so painful at times I can barely stand up. There is also no pattern to the attacks or doesn't seem to be any particular food that will set it off. I've had attacks late at night, afternoon, two in the morning, etc... Sometimes soon after I eat, sometimes several hours after a meal. This has been an ongoing problem for over four years.

The doctors have done several CT scans with contrast, ultra sound and all say Gall Bladder is ok. Not sure if the Hidascan is the same as the CT Scan with Contrast, but sounds like it. What I'm looking for is some testimonials to show the doctors and/or possible areas they should look at, or other type tests that might be performed.

Thanks,

I meant E R