Pain right abdomen area

hi
i am a 30 year female that had my gall bladder removed 8 months ago, i recoved fine after surgery however had a colonoscopy after 3 weeks that seem to throw my system off, since then i have been doing ok until last week i took a fish oil pill and then started having pain on my right side. I t seems the pain is in my back and radiates to my front near the rib cage and also along the right side of the abdomen. I work at a Physical thereapist and have rulled out my back or spine. i am not sure if i have inflammed something and cause the pain to act up again or if that is even possible. I can sleep, work and eat  ( my limited diet). but the pain ranges from 1/10-2/10 pain. It is underlying nagging pain. I take prilosec once a day since it started and it seem to be getting better, but at times not. No vomitting, mild nauesa in the morning only when i wake up then gone. Some time the pain seems more intese after a bowel movment but only on the side. I have no cramping, abdominal pain or bloating issues.. is there such thing as phyntom pain or residual pain from the stump of the gall bladder? and what test would help diagnosis the cause of the pain? thank you in advance for your time

[Banned1]

Hi Kathy:

I'm really sorry that you are suffering.  I absolutely understand.  I'm not a doctor and I know next to nothing about this stuff but I'm learning through my own illness.  Your symptoms could be SO many things including Post-Cholecystectomy Syndrome, Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction, pancreatitis, etc.  I apologize for the length of this post but I hope it helps.

Doing your own research can only help.  Check out the "First Principles of Gastroenterology", http://gastroresource.com/GITextbook/en/Default.htm.  I would take special note of the biliary system, Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction and pancreatitis.

There are some less invasive tests such as the Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS) and MRCP-S (Secretin) which can image the whole thing including pancreas and ductal system.  If you don't have a Gastroenterologist, I would ask my primary care physician to refer me.  Once you've been seen by them, they might be willing to try an EUS or MRCP-S to determine what is causing your symptoms.

Are you taking Metamucil or a similar daily fibre product?  This is a great help for MANY people and might help your symptoms.   It does not make you go, it makes you regular by adding fibre to the watery stools, making them firm.  

Many people have great success with digestive enzymes and pancreatic enzymes.  This is something you can talk to your primary Doc about.  I'm told that they won't do any harm so really - unless you have side effects - there's not a downside to trying them.  Your Doc might even have samples.  This is something you can do now and it reduces the amount of work the pancreas has to do.

It helps to keep a journal or a blog and your welcome to read mine if you want but I write a lot (can you tell).  :)  It's a great way to review your situation objectively and identify patterns in your foods, symptoms, medications, bowel habits and pain level.  Hindsight is 20/20 and keeping a log might help you look at things more objectively over the longer term.  Also, when you do go into Emergency, you can say, this has been the pattern...

You are not alone!  Try to stay positive and reach out for support when you need it.  Talk to your Doctor, family, friends, co-workers, church or social service volunteers or anyone you feel safe with.  

I belong to a support group [SODP] that is wonderful.  To find it, search the web for Yahoo! groups.  Once you have the page where you can search the Yahoo! groups, search or "sphincter".  There are about five of them.  Only two of them are really worth joining.  Michele's [Sphincterofoddi_pancreatitis] is by far the best as she is a registered nurse and an uncommonly kind, empathetic and supportive woman.  Maddi's [sphincterofoddi-pancreatitis1] is wonderful, too.  Just put in a request to join and within a day or two, they'll let you know that you've been accepted.  Hopefully, if you join, you'll say "Hi" to me there?

When you do find answers, it would be wonderful if you could let us know the root cause(s) and how you got rid of your pain.  It gives people on this site hope to hear success stories.

Take care of yourself.  Good luck and Godspeed.  All the best,

Sam