Hi all, I've been having some issues as of late and thought I'd thank the OP for posting that story. While there is a lot of info on Gallstones there seems to be a lack of info on Gallbladder disease or malfunction.
about
a month and a half ago my family suffered through a pretty nasty virus. I was on the road to recovery when a few weeks later, after eating out, I had horrible nausea and the runs all night long. Over the next couple weeks it came and went but with each repeat I'd get a feeling of pressure, and slight heartburn, in my midchest area. It's been a nightmare trying to figure out exactly what the problem is/was but as I've seen different docs and tried different foods I'm starting to think it is my Gallbladder. My dad actually suggested it to me, as he was my age when he had his removed and told me his parents had 'em taken out as well. I didn't have any of the stabbing pains that he described, so I don't think it's a blocked bile duct, but I suspect it's either malfunctioning or sludgy--possibly because of the virus and changing my diet to fix that, or just because of my 'western diet' over the years.
My major symptoms:
*Nausea but not Vomiting
*Feeling full to the point of being nauseous long before you finish a meal
*Gnawing / Pressure sensation in my chest, but not tenderness and not to the point that I was in 'pain'.
*occasional Lightheaded / Dizzy / General Anxious feeling that was not, in my opinion, 'stress' related.
Almost on clock, the symptoms above would let up at night time, only to act up again during the day.
Randomly / lesser:
*Occasional Diarrhea—seems like after I eat something 'fatty' which I've been avoiding
*Fast heart beat, the shakes, nausea, and dizzyness
*Feeling sick after eating certain foods, the most common culprits being fried foods, fatty foods, greasy foods and carbonated and caffeinated drinks
*Feeling like you have trapped gas
*An inability to lay flat on one’s back while feeling sick or while in pain, this is semi-true in that being upright / walking helped more than lying down, but, I could still lay flat at night.
*develop chills after having a bowel movement
Not a symptom:
*Intense pain in the upper abdomen and/or under the right rib cage
*Feeling like you have a “lump” or “golf ball” under the right rib cage
*Tenderness in the right upper abdomen
*Aching, pain or stiffness in the right shoulder, arm and elbow
*Suddenly feeling nauseous for no apparent reason (i.e. you’re not in the middle of eating)
*An inability to lay flat on one’s back while feeling sick or while in pain
I saw the first doc about
it and waited a week thinking it might be virus related. The second week they prescribed some Protonix for the heartburn sensation, but, after reading up at that point I thought I might have an ulcer and wanted to get that checked out so I saw a GI doc. He told me to start on the Protonix, thought I might have a Viral-induced Gastroparesis and scheduled an Endoscopy for mid-December. I started on the Protonix and had a few 'better' days. I continued cutting foods out of my diet, thinking maybe ulcer still, and hoping I'd fix the problem.
I was following a diet for ulcers, and trying some health food remedies (Mastic Gum, Broccoli, DGH Licorice) since I thought that's what I had but still certain regular foods seemed to be aggravating it more than others. I was off all the junkfood at this point for at least a week but I had even worse symptoms. Most of the time my bowel movements have actually been fairly regular and normal (albeit less since I've been eating less). The thing was, a couple times I had horrible feeling of cloudiness in my head, was very anxious/nervous, and had dizziness as well. My heartrate would beat faster. Only thing that helped was walking. I even went for a jog but that wasn't an improvement.
When I called the doc about
the dizziness, they thought it was related to the meds so I've switched to Pepcid AC and continued on my diet changes. Whenever it happened, at night time (about
7pm) it would magically clear up. Still I had a couple more of those 'days' of milder but really stressful symptoms (nervous system related).
It seems that bread/sugar/fatty foods seem to aggravate my condition (I tried peanut butter sandwich one day, and also noticed the anxiety/dizziness feelings after eating eggs). Looks like those foods are among common triggers for Gallbladder issues, and I think when mine gets backed up inflamed it must mess with my vagus nerve and cause those anxiety problems. I swear it's not in my head, as I'm no more anxious about
this in the day than at night... but my body is.
On the plus side, I found that eating fruits & veggies (specifically apples, grapes, broccoli, and plain potato) has been safe and even helpful. I swear I can feel my gallbladder squirting out bile into my stomach now and with each of those feelings I feel SO much better. I suppose it could be in myhead/imagination now, and given that, I've still got to convince my GI doc that the gallbladder might really be the cause even without the horrible pain associated with it so I can --at least-- get it checked out.
Anyway, I'm still working out the details... to early to say what it is. I'll try and update this thread if/when I learn more. My main point of posting is that I don't think that many docs bother to check out gallbladder unless we are having horrible pain... and focus on other causes for the lesser symptoms (nausea, heartburn, etc).
Sorry for the long post.
I found this thread on google and also found it interesting...
http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/63477.html
Post Edited (eihcet) : 11/30/2007 2:18:37 PM (GMT-7)