posted 05-27-2003 10:25 PM            

The thing is, the time that my pain was constant all the time really really bad was when I was being told nobody knew what was wrong with me, and I was losing my job. After I actually lost my job, and then started concentrating SOLELY on what I was eating, and relaxing, and just trying to get to different doctors... that's when I started to get the pain in SOME kind of control - though I wouldn't call it controlled really - since it still prevents me from doing every day simple things a lot of the time.

Anyway, I had a few doctors and a few other people had different thoughts on this...
One doctor (a resident) said that many suspect that stress or an emotional upset can actually precipitate biliary contractions in someone prone to it, which that's what happens during a gallbladder attack I guess - biliary contraction.
I also had another doctor say that stress can cause you to be tensing stomach muscles - which are in that area, and that can actually cause the pain to worsen.

posted 05-29-2003 08:23 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by HRATL:
I feel like it is jabbing at times (like a air bubble that needs to pop... and when I breath in and take a deep breath it jabbs even more

---

That's exactly like what I used to get. (ahhhh, what a pleasure it is to be able to say that I "used to get gallbladder attacks!"). My attacks never went away after 5 minutes though, even if I got up and walked around. They usually started to subside after about 2 hours, with a Percocette. It felt like a gas bubble that just would not go away. Then it would get worse and I would feel like someone was stabbing me in the ribs and twisting the knife. My pain "crescendoed" and "decrescendoed". That means that it got really bad and then it got better, then it got bad, then better, etc... My dr said that is a classic gallbladder attack. IBut all the while, I always had that feeling like there was a gas bubble sitting there under my right rib cage, just waiting to explode! In fact, when I had my very first attack, I truly thought it was just gas. "I'll take some tums and that'll fix me right up." About 6 hours later I had tried Gas-X and Maalox as well as ginger ale to get rid of my "gas". Nothing had even come close to "fixing me right up." The pain got worse and worse to the point where I was doubling over in agony, crying and rocking back and forth. Before I said that my first attack lasted about 6 hours. I have to correct myself. I was in the ER for 6 hours. The attack actually STARTED about 6 hours before that, with that gas bubble. So my first attack actually lasted about 12 hours. Over the past few weeks I was having those attacks every 3-4 days. They lasted at least 2 hours, and as long as 6 hours. Percocette helped a lot. My attacks always started out as the gas bubble beneath my right rib cage that just would not go away. I also always felt bloated for hours after a really bad attack, and could not eat normally for days because my GI tract took such a beating.

In fact, because I had so much gas during an attack, my dr was having trouble deciding if it was actually my gallbladder. Was it my gallbladder, or was it just really bad gas and GI upset? When my Liver Function Tests came back totally messed up, we knew it was my gallbladder without a doubt. (I never really had any doubts.)

posted 06-05-2003 12:02 PM            

It relaxes the bile ducts and lessens the pain. My chineese herbalist told me about it.

posted 06-06-2003 02:05 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by lckwp:
It's interesting that you use the word "crescendo" because I've been using that word all along to describe my pain.

ANd I too used to think I had gas... back when I had episodes of the right side pain. Which I now imagine must've been gallbladder attacks all along. They were ALWAYS accompanied by diarrhea.
Nowadays, since the pain became an every day anything I eat thing... It no longer feels like gas - just kind of like a vice grip around the right side of my torso with stabbing pains.

---

Those were my symptoms "to a T"! Every doctor that I have ever told about my gallbladder problems, including the ones in the ER have all asked me if my pain "crescendoes and decrescendoes". They have all said that is a classic symptom of a gallbladder attack.

Oh, and by the way, whiskey all of my tests came back completely normal too but when they did the ERCP they found so much biliary sludge that they had to insert a drain into my common bile duct just to allow bile to flow to the liver. My liver was getting almost no bile. (the drain was later removed during surgery.) Once my surgeon got in there, he found my GB to be so badly infected and full of so many stones that it was stuck to my small intestine. It was so big that it would not fit through the belly button incision. My surgeon wound up having to make a bigger incision in the belly button just to get it out. Some of these diagnostic tests, especially ultrasounds, are very deceiving. Ultrasound is not always the best indicator. And even a hida scan does not show the size of the gallbladder.

posted 06-06-2003 02:11 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by kirra:
I have pain under my right rib, and noe under my left. The pain comes and goes. Doctor told me it was muscular becasue it goes around to my back sometimes. The pain is like a dull ache and feels like something is there and my rib is rubbing on it. Liver functions test was perfect so I just don't know.

---

posted 06-06-2003 04:08 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by yellowroselisa:
That pain is the very same as mine Kirra. I would have never thought of it being muscular.

---