Gallbladder or IBD?

Hi,

I was reading about the variety of problems some people have had with their stomachs/gallbladder etc.

I have never been able to handle much fat in my diet, but I would say in the last year or so this problem has escalated. In early October I had a horrible attack (of the gallbladder?) and couldn't even eat for days! I lived on liquids (apple juice, water, broth and jello). Then I added sweet potato slowly to my diet. I found that I could digest the potato without anything in it.

I have been on a fat free diet since then, but I still have some full feeling and a little nausea. Once I ate a little low fat cheese, and had to spend about 5 days on the liquid/jello diet until the symptoms subsided.

I have the upper right quadrant pain, which radiates to the back and sometimes shoulder blade.

I had a HIDA SCAN done in October and the g/bladder was functioning at 33.4%. I also had an ultrasound which came back normal (no stones), and a CAT SCAN that was normal. The surgeon thinks it's the gallbladder and wants to remove it.

Also, I have Ulcerative Colitis which I handle pretty well. Does anyone know whether this condition causes problems with digesting fats? Or if this causes the g/b problems?

Please give any info that might be helpful. I am reluctant to take out the g/bladder and continue suffering with the same problem!

However, when not even a low fat diet is working, one has wonder if it is indeed the gall bladder. I am on a completely FAT FREE diet and sometimes I do fine on it.

Lillibet

[toBethany]

Do get your gallbladder removed if there are stones in it.  The passing of a stone IS VERY PAINFUL, and severely greater than surgery when it comes to being "life-threatening".  I passed a gallstone 3 years ago, and still am paying, painfully as well as financially and medically, for it.  

Bethany

[Lillibet]

But that's just the problem. I don't have any stones! The ultrasound didn't show any, and neither did the Cat Scan of the stomach/pelvis show any abnormalities.

[kimbacat]

UC is associated with PSC - primary sclerosing cholangitis.  have you had your liver enzymes checked?  I believe an ERCP is used to help diagnose PSC.  have you been checked out for this?

[werner]

PSC would be very serious, but it's rare and doesn't quite
fit with what you(lillibet) wrote IMO.
you should describe your attack and while you're at it
print a copy for the doctor. It's always better when they have something printed !
Small stones or thickening can be missed with ultrasound or CT.
What does the surgeon say, why he wants to remove the GB,
although your tests were OK ?  If he wanted to remove it
anyway, then why doing the tests at all ?   ;-)

[Lillibet]

The surgeon as well as my gastrointerologist suggest surgery because the HIDA SCAN came back with g/b functioning at 33.4%. They believe that this is what is causing the problem. However, I see that UColitis can cause certain problems with digestion etc. It does feel like a g/b attack when I get one. It is always assocaited with fatty foods (no matter how small the fat content is) and also with low fat and spices. I really am at a loss though, but I have been putting up with the symptoms off and on for a long time, and they are becoming more frequent and intense. No vomitting or fever though.

[werner]

I read about sphincter of oddy dysfunction below,
couldn't this be another possibility ?
I'd wanted to be sure, before I underwent surgery.
Hida 33% is not so bad, after what I read here.
But I don't really know, I never had one.
Maybe you can touch the gallbladder, when you have right-
quadrant pain. It should hurt when you press the
fingers around the right ribs from below.

[Lillibet]

When I touch the area (right quadrant) during an attack, it hurts like hell! Right now it's just a dull pain that radiates to the back. I have been on a very restricted diet for months now, and that helps with the attacks. As long as I don't eat anything with fat (very low fat either), or spices then I do fine. For the past year, I noticed a constant nagging dull type of discomfort where I have to remove my bra and any tight clothing. It is only on the right side though.

[lilbit_ch]

I had my gallbladder removed in 1989 after 2 or 3 years of ulcer medication every day and finally about 8 or 9 months of one infection after the other (bladder, kidney, you name it).  About 5 years after it was removed, I began to have extreem abdominal pain that felt like a hot poker being shoved straight thru me. I was refered to a gastro doctor or first thought it might be a stone in the bile duct (apparently common 5 or 6 years after removal of gallbladder).  He did a scope down my throat and didn't find a stone and I continued to stay in constant pain.  He then did blood work and found the bile and pancreatic fluid levels high so he suspected that the sphincter of odie was not working properly. He did a second scope and put a plastic stint in to hold it open and left it like that for a month.  I was pain free most of the time.  So he did a third scope, removed the stint, and cauterizd it open.  Boy, what a difference!  You might want to have that checked out if you continue to have pain.

[BlondieRainey]

Get them to do another ultrasound.  When I was 17, I was having terrible pains that was contributed to IBS bc nothing came back on the ultra sound.  Ten years later I had an attack that was so bad I ended up having emergency surgery to remove a egg sized gallstone.  The doctor told me that I more than likely had that stone 10 years earlier, that it would have been much smaller and that sometimes with a single stone, it can be missed on the ultra sound.