I had an ultrasound today to check for gall stones and I asked the lady if I had stones and she said she couldn't tell me but I saw her type that no stones were seen. I'm having most symptoms of gall stones so if it's not that than what could it be? I have an appt in two weeks to talk to my doctor and he told me if they didn't find stones they would run a different test to check my gall bladder. Could it still be my gall bladder if I don't have stones?

The other test that your doctor is refering to is most likely a HIDA scan. It tests the functioning of the gallbladder. It's possible to not have any stones but the gallbladder is still not working right. This test is mostly just boring. It can take 1-2 or more hours. They put in an IV line and have you lay on a skinny little table that slides into a big machine like a CT scanner (not claustrophobic, though... your head and feet are out in the open). Then they inject a tracer through the IV that gets picked up by the liver and put into bile. Then (in theory), the bile flows out of the liver and into the gallbladder and also some might go directly into the small intestine. You can see this on the computer screen, which is kind of fun. The tech can't tell you whether anything is wrong or not, but if you ask they will probably point out what you are looking at anatomically, at least. Then when your gallbladder is full of bile, they inject a synthetic version of the hormone that is released when you eat a fatty meal. This stimulates the gallbladder to contract and squeeze the bile into the small intestine. By measuring the amount of bile in the gallbladder before and after it squeezes, they can see how well it is squeezing. Note that typical functions are around 40% or higher. My recommendation is to bring your portable music player of choice. Or a book. Mine took 4 hours (there were issues with getting the bile to actually go into the gallbladder, because it was so full of stones...), and I got really sick of staring at the two posters on the ceiling!

I don't have stones so they want me to have the Hida Scan done.

Would soda cause pain between my shoulder blades?