pain in left-upper abdomen: pancreas or gallbladder (or something else) ?

[Jerzy]

I have a long history of "stomach" problems for last 7 years - now I am 33. Most of the problems went away when bacteria was discovered and treated with antibiotics.
However for last 10 months I am feeling pain/pressure in my left upper abdomen. Initially it was an occasional feeling of pressure that came and go (there could be whole week of feeling ok). In last 3-4 months the pressure changed into pain and the pain is almost all the time there.

I will list my symptoms:
- pain/pressure in left upper abdomen. There is hardly an hour when I do not feel it. Sometimes it lasts for minutes, sometimes for hours. On 1 to 10 scale I would say it is around 2-3.
- the pain may go to my back (left side mainly) or to be close to my left shoulder
- in last 2 months the pain is more intense - I wake up during the night several times
- my stool is loose and a little bit yellow. I am mostly on vegeteranian diet, but when I eat meat the stool floats. I rather tend to have constipation, but anyway the stool is loose.
- I am not sure if my pain is related to eating - maybe a little bit, but I am feeling it so often that maybe I do not notice the regularity
- from total of about 10 hours pain per day I may have one or two minutes pain on my right side (under ribs or under right shoulder)
- sometimes in the evening I feel itching
- about 2 years ago I had very strong attack of pain (I would say 8 in 1-10 scale) on left side of my abdomen, that went to the middle. However in ER the doctor did not diagnose it as pancreatitis - he said gastritis. I never had that strong pain again.

Tests that were performed in last 6 months:
-gastrocopy: normal
-colonoscopy: normal
-ultrasound: sludge-like deposits in gallbladder
-gallbladder contraction test: contracts in 32%
-CT scan: normal
-MRI scan: normal
-endoscopic ultrasound: normal, however the doctor said that my pancreas consistency is more solid than usually in my age
-some blood tests showed bilirubin 1.9, but another one showed 0.4
-any other blood test was normal

My first gastroenterologist (did only gastroscopy and X-ray) said it was irritable bowel syndrome caused by my spine that is not perfectly straight.
My second doctor was telling me that it was gallbladder problem and sent me to a surgeon.
Surgeron said that my symptoms can not be explained by gallbladder and sent me for additional test.
Now I wait for appointment with the 4th doctor.

I was taking stool softeners and citrucel, but it did not help. I also was takin hyocamine (against spasms), but it neither helped. Taking advil (9 per day) helps, but without it I can hardly focus on my job.

I have following questions:
- should I remove gallbladder or not ?
- can a gallbladder cause stool to be loose, clay-like in color and make it float ?
- are there any other tests that should be done ?
- what do you suspect to be the most probable cause of problems ?

Sincerely,
Jerzy B.

[suz0314]

A related discussion, Upper left abdominal pain and back pain with wet sensation was started.

[tatyx2]

I am actually going thru this problem right now.....the pain under/by my left and right rib cage comes and goes, I feel it in my back too! I has a ct scan done and it was all normal. I am very scared and having a endoscopy and a colonoscopy performed. Hope is all good!

[whitey59]

A related discussion, Upper Abdominal Spasms was started.

[markrent]

A related discussion, abdominal pain was started.

[NotADoctor]

I've had the same problem for a few years of bloating, lots of gas, constipation/loose stools alternatively, pain in ULQ under the ribs. Went to some docs and they found nothing.

I read through the posts on this thread and another website and decided to try a home treatment for candida yeast overgrowth in the colon. It seems to have helped so I wanted to pass it on - some of it has been mentioned already. I use a herbal candida remedy from the health food store that contains caprylic acid (there are also stronger prescription medicines for this), psyllium husks w/water and a probiotic of acidophilis and bifido bacterium (acidoph. is for small intestine, bifido is for large intestine - where the problem really is).

The idea is you're killing/ retarding the yeast growth in your colon with the fungicide, pushing it out with the psyllium and replenishing the the colon with good bacteria which keep the yeast down.  You may have to alter your diet as well.

At first I started with just the probiotics, but found that the combo of all three worked best. The fungicide stopped the gas almost immediately.

If you lookup candida on the web you will find that it can cause lots of other symptoms as well as affect your liver. This worked for me anyway. Hope it helps someone out there. Good luck!

[NotADoctor]

I've had the same problem for a few years of bloating, lots of gas, constipation/loose stools alternatively, pain in ULQ under the ribs. Went to some docs and they found nothing.

I read through the posts on this thread and another website and decided to try a home treatment for candida yeast overgrowth in the colon. It seems to have helped so I wanted to pass it on - some of it has been mentioned already. I use a herbal candida remedy from the health food store that contains caprylic acid (there are also stronger prescription medicines for this), psyllium husks w/water and a probiotic of acidophilis and bifido bacterium (acidoph. is for small intestine, bifido is for large intestine - where the problem really is).

The idea is you're killing/ retarding the yeast growth in your colon with the fungicide, pushing it out with the psyllium and replenishing the the colon with good bacteria which keep the yeast down.  You may have to alter your diet as well.

At first I started with just the probiotics, but found that the combo of all three worked best. The fungicide stopped the gas almost immediately.

If you lookup candida on the web you will find that it can cause lots of other symptoms as well as affect your liver. This worked for me anyway. Hope it helps someone out there. Good luck!