Pale Stools, Gallbladder, Fatty Liver

[neitzhe]

I had a month long case of diarrhea after he use of Clindamycin. Dr's first thought it was a stomach bug but one day I suffered the most terrible cramping Ive ever felt along with yellow burning diarrhea.Cdiff was suspected. I was treated with Flagyl things seemed to get better. But my diarrhea returned. I had a colonoscopy that showed no problems. Was checked for Colitis, crohns celiac and all were negative. Three tests for cdiff were also negative. The Dr. diagnosed IBS. Since then I have had pain in my upper right quadrant and around the bottom of my ribs, my diarrhea has continued and my stools are increasingly pale. Sometimes they are orange but a lot of the time they are light yellow.

I have had a cat scan which revealed fatty liver and cyst on my kidney. My LFTS have been in normal range during three tests. An ultrasound that showed fatty liver as well. Finally I had a Hida scan with CCK that revealed a very low functioning gallbladder--around 1 percent.

The test made me feel very sick and my stomach became even more upset.   I also had pain under the ribs on the left and right side that continued for days. The hospital Dr. made it seem I would soon have to have my gallbladder out. However my GI dr seemed unconcerned. He sent me for an Endsocopy which revealed nothing. He also passes my pale stools off as IBS and has me on belladonnabarbital. I told my general physician and he mentioned the pale stools made him wonder about Pancreatitis but said the cat scan and ultrasound should have ruled that out. I have an appointment with my GI to follow up about the Endoscopy and possible gallbladder removal in a few days. Could a low functioning gallbladder without stones cause pain in the right upper quadrant and left, as well as pale stool and diarrhea with occasional nausea? I know having a gallbladder out might not fix anything so I am not interested in rushing into it. But could it be aggravating my pancreas? Should I test again for Cdiff? Thanks for the help.

[Enoch Choi, MD]

Normal scans and labs are reassuring.  As part of the lab workup, were amylase and lipase drawn?  Those pertain to your pancreas.  The GI doc can order those.  Although an ultrasound can miss a common bile duct stone that can irritate the pancreas as well, the HIDA scan is pretty good at looking there.

Although clostridium difficile is something that can be present even when stool antigen tests are negative, if biopsies were done during the colonoscopy you'd expect that they could see evidence then that was more definitive.  

It's worth discussing this more with your Gastroenterologist, since there's pain.  It's hard to say whether on not gallbladder removal will cure more than your pain, it may not get to the bottom of your diarrhea.

[Lori707]

Did you have blood tests for Amylase and Lipase?  These are pancreatic enzymes. Just curios if they were elevated.

[neitzhe]

I should add I am in my late 20s and overweight.