Has anyone had a gall bladder ejection fraction test? New med for diarrhea..

Hi--

Hope everyone is doing okay as can be. Well, my pc doc did me right. I've had chronic bile diarrhea for ages. My gi doc called it IBS and gave me bentyl, which helps sometimes, but my diverticulosis has spread throughout my colon and is often inflamed and "scalded" his term, and I get bleeds and had a cancerous polyp even.

I got sick of bouts of burning explosive diarrhea and went online for a dietary solution. I found out that my high triglycerides and problems metabolizing fats may be triggering my gall bladder to dump bile to digest the fats, but the fats don't make it to my gi tract as my liver just stores them instead of getting rid of tem like they should. Anyway, I talked wth my pc doc about a powdered medicine cholestrymide (questran) which lowers my cholesterol, binds with the bile, and may even lower my blood sugar. The doseage can be modified and I can even take as needed. This may really help my NASH and prevent my colon from getting bad. Its an old medicine and seldom prescribed now. ITs more trendy to say that many of these colon problems are genetic and autoimmune and prescribe expensive liver toxic drugs that often end up making us sicker. Sometimes I think the doctors forget what they once knew. My moms colitis may have been totally due to her gall bladder removal and bouts of bile diarrhea burning her insides. And not one doctor offered to treat the diarrhea with questran, which is routinely give to patients with no gall bladder with bile diarrhea.

So my pc doc did me right and she is going to refer me to new gis. And she ordered a gall bladder ejection refraction test or something like that. Has anyone had this one?  Any advice on it?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Thanks, Lynnwood. So you didn't have a big scar?

They do 4 little cuts, ~1/3 inch at most...1) belly button, 2) just above that under breastbone; then 2 to the right about 4 inches over, one even w/belly button, one above that but not quite as high as the one over the breastbone.

The bellybutton one is impossible to find, the others you really have to search for to find. In in AM, did surgery, home by 5. Rest for 2-3 days (they told me more) then I was pretty much back to normal. Some people heal slower, I guess. An friend w/out lupus had the same thing done and was in bed for 2 wks and still complaining after that.

And I've never had problems with rich foods or raw veggies after that, but my friend is always complaining "I can't eat that" or about gas - both of which she claims is from the gallbladder issue.

From what I've heard from others on here, the "no problems" occur more often than not.

Hi Marji. I take cholestyramine once or twice a day for my daily diarrhea. My gi doc told me some of his "diarrhea patients" have good results. I still have to take lomotil, but the cholestyramine has become my main defense for diarrhea. It's also lowered my cholesterol and glucose, but so far I can't discontinue my meds for those.

A few weeks ago I had upper right pain below my ribcage which lasted several hours. My internist ordered an ultrasound. It was normal so he suspects gallbladder. I guess the cholestyramine can only do so much... and my medication list seems to never end. I really hate lupus right now. Next time you're running to the bathroom, know that I'm with ya. Love, Butterflake 

I had to take the questran a few nights ago and it worked wonders! I wouldhave been up all night--again. Anyway, this is a drug they need to use more often for patients with IBS and diarrhea because it helped the pain and the bloating and the diarrhea. The only problem was that I took a slightly too high dose, so next time I know take half as much. Its a really good thing, it does really help alot. I think it may help with my fatty liver too, maybe finally I will start burning more fat since my cholesterol and sugar are down.

Thanks all for the info. Ihave an ejection fraction tomorrow and am fasting. I got to get to sleep.

I dunno, they also call it CCK, there is a long name for it. My gall bladder woudn't release so they had to give me an IV drug to make it spasm so they could see the small intestine. The nurse injected me with a lead lined needle.

I'm not sure what's going on with me. My mom has microscopic colitis which is like ulcerative colitis but they can only see it microscopically and I have the same problems, we both actually had our first attacks at the same time though we were 200 miles apart and hadn't seen each other for over a month. We still think that somehow we may have both got zapped with some kind of infection or parasite that took a long time to hit, but all the tests came out negative.

I don't know what the test results really were, normal can mean "abnormal but because you are medicare, we aren't doing anything" or actually normal. I need to see the doc to find out.

I haven't had a liver ultrasound for a while and need one, that may give them more info. My pancreas has never been imaged, they keep claiming they can't see it. My mom has an inoperable tumor on hers.

So it could be anything, but you are so right, the questran is a God send. It really works, and works fast. Thanks for the support. My doc just wanted to go ahead and take out the gallbladder but she said medicare won't allow that anymore.