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.

[kenny p]

I am a 45-year-old male. I also have had a feeling of "presence" or pressure in the upper left quadrant of my abdominal region. A little over five months ago I found myself in the emergency room with a kidney infection. The infection cleared up with antibiotics. However, I have had this pressure since then. Also, my stool has been lighter in color - sort of yellowish brown - and there have been small undigested particles of food in the feces. The stool is also sticky. It does not float, but it does seem sort of greasy. When I take large doses of acidophilis (sp.?) the stool is a darker brown. I have developed lengthwise lines or ridges in the fingernails. My guess is that I am beginning to suffer from malabsorbsion. I am fatigued. I wonder if I am suffering from cancer of the pancreas. I have tried to stay away from gluten and dairy products for the past two weeks, but the symptoms have not cleared up. Has anyone out there been through this who can help me understand what is going on?

[joey k]

I'm glad to feel some company though i
have great compassion for all my fellow sufferers.
What else do we all have in common? I have been a compulsive
overeater for as long as i can remember. I binge on sugars,
starches and of course fats. Now i know overeating can
lead to fatigue and disfunction of all the digestive organs
but i rekon there could be a chicken and egg effect if i had/have parasites, candida etc.   I am involved in counseling to try
to resolve the emotional roots of my addictive eating....but i too wish i could find a doctor who could help me get some definative diagnosis and treatment for my symptoms. What ever happened with Lela whose son had the Sphyncter of Oddi cut? Did the dr. ever write a paper on that case?  I'm going for all the tests this week..CT scan, Ultrasound, GI series...but after reading on this board i expect no new news.  Any other folks with eating disorders manifesting these symptoms out there?

[kathyhb]

Wow! I can't believe I found people who experience this same pain. Let me share. I'm a healthy 34 year old woman who had an "attack" like this one night a couple of years ago. I had just finished eating a cheese sandwhich. I thought I was having a heart attack. I couldn't breathe, was gasping for air, vomiting and on the way to the ER I almost kicked my boyfriend's windshield out of his car I was in such pain. When I got to the ER they immediately started an IV and in less than 5 minutes I hadn't even noticed the pain just stopped.It ws a Tagamet drip running through the IV. The Dr. came in and just smiled. He said this was normal for women my age, race (African American), and who were slightly overweight (about 15 lbs) to experience gallbladder problems. Although I had an xray he was reluctant to taking it out. His suggestion was for me to lose weight, lay off the cheese and dairy, start moving out of my sedentary lifestyle and to take  Tagamet at the very beginning of any symptoms and it should go away. He was right. For 2 years I did well and didn't have one reaccurance. Now unfortunately, I'm overweight again and you guessed it, the attacks are back. Now I'm exercising again and watching my diet a little more carefully. One common thread I noticed are a lot of posts here say they are vegetarians. I'm wondering if any of you are heavy on the cheese and dairy type vegans? I think this is a huge culprit just like being overweight. I hope I've helped someone out there, because I experienced that excruciating pain. Bless you all!

[Neekos]

p.p.s. On top of all that, I also forgot to mention that the areas of skin on my back (where my kidney pains are) are absolutely ice cold.. If I get in a hot bath, the pain subsides a little.. My mum reckons that is a sign of a kidney infection..
Is this true ?

[Neekos]

I also seem to be in a similar boat to everyone else....
Here's a brief history .. :

(I realise that some of this may be irrelevant, but I'll put it down anyway)

I am a 22 year old male, have had echzema all my life and work in a normal office environment..

Shortly before xmas 1999 I experienced a bizarre thrush-like problem on my genitals.. It lasted a week or so and then disappeared..  Then on millenium new years eve I suffered pain
in my lower back on both sides of my spine (Kidneys I presume)..
The pain was so bad I couldn't sit down, but the strange thing is that I only drunk about two pints of beer that night, so it wasn't due to excessive alchohol intake. Since then I have had intermittant kidney pains and in the last few months they have become somewhat permanent.. I have also suffered from attacks similar to the ones described by other posters (I had one at night where I woke up and had difficulty breathing because (I presume) My liver was enlarged)...

When my condition gets worse, I sometimes burp a lot and get pains in all kinds of places.. I have had very similar back pains to those previously mentioned.. (It kind of felt like something was pusing on my spine).. My stools are a normal brown colour, but I have noticed that recently they've got a slight bronzy tint to them and leave behind a definate yellow colour on toilet paper..

The main reason for me first visiting the doctor. however, was because my skin on my arms keeps getting infected.. It comes and goes and never gets THAT bad, but the fact that it happens is bad enough.. I've had skin infections since I was about 15, but now they seem to come in a strange pattern.

My skin gets red around my armpits, all the way down my arms, hands etc.. But the most bizarre thing (which I have NEVER suffered from before) is that the skin on my neck (all the way round) gets increadibly painful.. It literally feels like it's on fire !! This only happens at night and gets better once I apply water to it and moisterising cream.. On top of all this, over the last few months, my skin just seems to fall off in massive amounts (only on the affected areas).. This sometimes is so bad that when I wake up my bed is literally covered in tiny skin particles..  I told my doctor about this and she just said
"Oh, your skin must be too dry" she then looked at my skin and said "Oh, it isn't !!"..... At first I thought it was a buildup of dustmites in my bed..(At this point I was getting HUGE red patches on my shoulders that burnt like hell) So I got a new bed !! This sorted out the patches, but I am left with the neck and arms problems..

I have had (in the last 4 months) two blood tests. Both of which reported a higher than normal level of biliruben. The second one was lower than the first (with about a 2 month gap in between).. My doctor seemed to think that because the level had dropped it wasn't too serious.. (I, on the other hand, think that the level simply fluctuates).. I then had an ultrasound on my kidneys which was OK... I am now awaiting an oppointment for a liver ultrasound check and another blood test.. I also have an appointment with a dermatologist in July !! (JULY !!! What F**kin use is that??? hg hmm.. A..nnyway !)..

The final thing I can think of is that now, I cannot seem to drink any alchohol without my skin getting very itchy.. It goes very white and very red in patches (mainly on my forearms and hands)..

I realise that there's no simple answer to this, but why oh why is there no-one out there trying to sort this out ??
Is no-one doing any research ? or is it just a case of specific doctor's not having the right knowledge/experience ??

Finally, On a lighter note (Or darker, depending on your perspective).. I went to see my doctor last week (I should point out that I don't actually have a GP as such, the NHS lost all my medical records !! Wonderful) and she said "If the liver scan is normal there's nothing more we can do!! You'll probably need to go see a homeopath !" ehhhhhh  ??? How the F*** can she say that ?? I've had two tests and some blood tests and that's the end of it ?? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!

I guess what I'm really asking of this list is :

Has anyone else experienced similar skin problems to me ??
Does anyone have any advice ???

Thanks a lot for everyone's time in reading this excessive post :)

Nick.

[Neekos]

P.S. Does anyone have any advice as to which route I should take to get a diagnosis ??? i.e. Which type of specialist would provide the best insight ??

cheers,

Nick