Hello all,

I am a 21 year old female from the UK, and I am suffering from what drs think is gallstones. :confused:

In the middle of June, I was woken up with the same pain at the same time of the day for about a week. It was in the centre of my chest. I thought it may be heartburn, as we were on holiday from work, so we had been snacking late at night. I thought this was the cause.

That stopped after about a week, and I began to get pains just under my right boob. They wouldn’t last very long, but they would make me feel really faint, hot and clammy and sick. I got these mainly in the morning, irregularly. I thought it was indigestion, and my friend worried me by telling me I may be pregnant, as I had never suffered from indigestion before. However, my period soon followed, so that blew that out of the window. :bouncing:

Anyway, I thought nothing else of the pains. Until last weekend. I went car racing for the first time in ages, and I had a ¼ lb cheeseburger with chips from one of those greasy vans. I have been following the Weight Watchers diet and have lost over a stone and a half, and this is the first time I have had this food since starting. Anyway, after an hour or so, I had really bad pains under my right boob again, making me feel sick and generally unwell. They only lasted about 15 minutes, and disappeared as soon as they came. I just thought it was indigestion again. Sunday morning, I had poached egg and baked beans on toast for breakfast, and ended up with the same pains an hour later. This continued throughout the day, and indigestion remedies were not making the pains any better. I have never felt anything so bad. The pain seems to be mainly under my right boob, but also makes the rest of my tummy feel funny.

Anyway, I was nearly reduced to tears on Sunday night because the pain was so bad, so we went to A & E. They took blood, and the results came back showing I had an infection and possibly gall stones. I was kept in overnight and given IV antibiotics. I wasn’t allowed to eat anything on Monday because I was waiting for an ultrasound. However, this didn’t happen on Monday so I asked whether I could go home, and wait for an outpatients appt for the ultrasound. They said that was fine, as I wasn’t in any pain then, and they had switched my antibiotics to oral ones. My temperature had also gone down.

I am on Metronidazole and Cefalexin tablets three times a day, and have been taking Co-Codamol for pain. The only thing is, my tummy aches almost all day. It’s nothing like the pain I had before but it feels uncomfortable, almost like wind. Could this be the antibiotics? :confused:

My ultrasound appointment is next Thursday. Will I be OK to wait until then? I should have waited in hospital I guess, but there was no guarantee as to when my scan would be, and I would have just been bored. I also didn’t sleep and that made me feel even worse. They also said it was fine for me to go home. I’m really worried this is going to turn nasty now! I’m also paranoid that I am jaundice, as that means a stone is blocking the duct, doesn’t it?!

The main thing I wanna ask is, does this sound like gallstones?! I always thought it was something old people had – I’m only 21! Could they be wrong with their diagnosis?!

So sorry this is really long, I guess I had a lot to get off my chest!

Thanks for any info anyone can give,

Jo xx

From what you have said it could be. They might do a test called a "Hida Scan" to see the function of your gall bladdler if the ultrasound does not show anything. I ahd mine out a few years ago and I was only 24 at the time.

I did not have gall stones but I did have sludge (not sure of the difference) and my gall baldder was only functioning at 22%.

I would see a stomach doctor and go from there. He may be able to give you something for the pain to get you through.

Good Luck,
Kallie

It sounds alot like gallstones. If you have another attack before your appt. next wee return to the emergency and I'm sure they will then do the ultrasound early. In the meantime, watch everything you eat, to try and baby this along for the next week. Baked beans for breakfast would kill me. You really don't need a hida-scan and CCK unless your ultrasound doesn't show any stones. If it does I'm sure they will recommend surgery, if not, then that is when to have more testing..No cheeseburgers or anything fired or greasy for awhile until you found out what is going on..Please let us know what happens,
Sara

Can you describe what the pain under your breast felt like?Was it a stabbing pain,burning,gnawing o raching pain.Any of those describe it ?

Oops sorry hit wrong button,meant aching pain.

J, Hope you are feeling better.
Two years ago I had the same feelings and pain you describe. I ended up in the Er and they simply took Xrays and behold I had a gallbladder FULL of stones. I do mean full, the dr, had my xrays out showing the entire nursing staff, they laughed I cried. Anyway, I did have the surgery and It went great, only took them 30 minutes start to finish, came home the same day.
I do not believe you are too young to have gallstones. I agree with the rest saying keep off the fatty foods. Thats what I did until my surgery, which was at least a month after my initial visit to the ER. Also, if you were "jaundicy" You would have yellowing of the skin and eyes.
Keep us posted and just take it easy until your ultrasound.
I'm sure you will be fine.

Hi there! The thing I noticed about your post was the fact that you had been on Weight Watchers. Seems like so many people develope gall stones after weight loss. My husband is having his gall bladder removed a week from Wed. He too had dropped 15 lb., then started getting pains like you describe. Turned out to be gall stones. So many people we have talked to said they had lost weight prior to having gall stones. There must be a relationship, but the doctors poo-pood the idea when we asked.

Hello,

Touch wood, I have not had the pain since being admitted to hospital, and I don't really remember much about it! I know that sounds strange.

From what I do remember, it was like a constant stabbing pain, which made me feel sick and clammy, and nothing I did made it feel any better. On the day I was admitted to hospital, the pain was lasting a couple of hours at a time. Not nice!

Jo xx

Hi J,

Don't worry too much...it's almost certainly gall-bladder-related, if not actually gallstones. My wife's going through exactly what you went through (read some of my previous recent posts for the gory details). You and her show almost exactly the same symptoms, and both your doctor and her doctor have come to exactly the same conclusion and course of treatment. The good news is, unless there's some weird complication, you just have to hang in there, not eat fatty goods, etc., and once they make a firm diagnosis and remove your gallbladder, you should be just fine (and rather quickly, too, I might add).

One question for you: what foods are you eating now? My wife is very leery of eating anything but toast, bananas, applesauce, and rice (easily digestible, but not very fulfilling). She's going nuts--almost anything else she tries gives her a reaction in her gallbladder area. Needless to say, she'd love to find something else she could eat that wouldn't give her pain!

Please do let us know what the results of your ultrasound are.

Dave

Hello,

I posted a couple of weeks ago about my ultrasound - they found small stones. I was so relieved, as it meant that there was a reason I was getting all the pain. I know someone who has been in agony much the same as I was, and when she went for her ultrasound they found nothing. I feel so sorry for her. At least I have something to go on now!

I have been pretty lucky and have not had the horrible pains since that night I was admitted to A & E. The week after that, I was feeling so ill from the antibiotics I was on I hardly ate at all. Then I just started with basic things like toast, and pate on toast, and low fat soup - things like that. Can she eat vegetables and salad? I have been eating pretty much what I ate before (it was all low fat anyway, because I have been on the weight watchers plan), and <touch wood> it hasn't affected me. I have been very wary though, and not eaten huge amounts of things with a lot of fat in them. I have been eating things that have less than 5g fat in them, as I read somewhere that's a healthy way of doing things. You should not cut fat completely out of your diet as your body needs it.

Is it that your wife is frightened of eating anything else, or that anything else will give her the pain? If it is the latter, then perhaps she should return to her GP? I know when I went to see mine when I came out of hospital, she told me that if things didn't settle down, they would be able to give me some antispasmodic drugs to help.

I really do sympathise with her though. I hope she gets better soon.

Jo xx