What are the test for Gallbladder, and what do they do, do they hurt?

Hi there and welcome to the boards! There are many different tests for gall bladder - the most common is ultrasound (looking for gall stones or enlarged GB) which is painless. It's conducted like any other ultrasound, but focuses on the liver/gall bladder region.

A hida scan is another test commonly done to test the function of the gall bladder. You will be inserted with an IV so that the tech can inject a dye that will fill/outline the GB on a monitor. You will be lying on your back and can watch the procedure. For the GB to fill/outline completely, it may take up to 2 hours (at least mine did). Sometimes after the gall bladder is full, the tech may have you drink something to stimulate digestion (like milk for example) and then measure the output of the GB to determine its function. During my hida scan I was injected (via the IV) a chemical called CCK to stimulate the gall bladder. The injection felt kind of like a stinging or burning as it was injected. When the CCK got into the gall bladder, I had a severe attack of pain right where I was having all my gall bladder pain, which indicated problems with the gall bladder.

Some people have no pain at all during these tests, but if you do have pain during procedures, the doc should note this as a possibility of a gall bladder problem. What kinds of symptoms are you having to prompt possible tests?

There may be other GB tests out there, but these are the only ones I've had done.

Good luck to you,
Katie G

Hello, About 4 months ago I fell flat on my stomach and landed as if I did a push up on the front side walk and I fell hard as hell! 2 days before that I went bowling for the first time in 15 years and felt as though I strained all my right side muscles....well 3 days after the fall I started to get real bad cramp like feelings...they started to ease up and I did some gardening with a shovel and pain came back again but not as bad..Now I feel better but still have some tightness and when I move a certain way (WOW) I can breath very well and then I'll be in a certain postion and breath deep and it feels like a sorest muscle I've ever had...This pain I've had is around the bottom of my rib cage (inside my ribs)
What do you think??
and PS...thanks for responding!!

I just wanted to pipe in about this...
I had EXTREME pain from the gallbladder sonogram ultrasound.
It was so bad that I was CRYING as the technician was performing the test. I was in so much pain, that the technician kept apologizing to me!

She DID say that many people are sore in that area, and that I was somewhat unusual...
But I should say, I had the pain for weeks before this, continuously. And then 3 days before the gallbladder sonogram, I had gone for an abdominal cat scan with contrast which made me MUCH WORSE.

SO it could've just been that I was just so sore in that whole area that that's why I had such bad pain from the ultrasound.

On the up side, the ultrasound is non-invasive. It doesn't involve any needles or anything.

Also, I will say that the CCK HIDA scan, it was upsetting to get the IV hooked up - but I have medical phobia. But the actual test didn't cause me any pain - if anything, I felt BETTER after the CCK HIDA scan.
And I've heard that many people actually get a gallbladder attack FROM that test.

So I'm not necessarily the norm.

But I just wanted to post this because these tests are not painless for everyone.

That said, I don't regret going for these tests - as there's something wrong with me, and I needed them to help find out what's wrong with me. And despite my trepidation about medical tests... they are necessary. And though they can be painful, they can help doctors to figure out what's wrong and cure/fix a person. So it's not a bad thing.

About that fall & injury - could that cause a hernia? I don't know much about that. But I know that some kind of hernia was one thing, that was mentioned as a possibility for me - but that was ruled out by a cat scan.