Post gallbladder surgery

[Whitepina]

As I read through the postings dating back to 2005, I was amazed at how many people share my medical history.  I began feeling like I could not swallow in August of 2007.  I went to an ENT who told me I have acid reflux.  He gave me samples of Nexium to try, which seemed to eliminate the problem.  Unfortunately my insurance refuses to cover Nexium, so I was forced to try Protonix and Prevacid, both of which caused me extreme side effects...severe diarrhea, nausea, migraines.  After battling the reflux for numerous months, I developed pain in my upper right side.  I went to my gp and he said I probably had gallstones.  Went for an ultrasound which showed nothing.  I went home and the pain became unbearable after two days. including vomiting and diarrhea, so I went to the hospital.  They admitted me and ran a complete GI series to find nothing.  After 3 days they ran the radioactive substance gall bladder scan (can't remember the name of it) and said that my gallbladder was not functioning.  I was scheduled for surgery the next day.  Had the surgery, felt better, went home.  A week later started having horrible chest pain, so bad that my husband called the ambulance to take me to the hospital.  I was diagnosed with having bile reflux now, and was given Carafate to bind the bile.  I was also given Reglan to speed the digestion.  Two weeks after starting Reglan, my extreme pain was back.   I continued to have diarrhea every day, and I had blood work which showed extreme anemia.  I had an endoscopy which showed the reflux.  I had a colonoscopy which showed nothing.  The pain continued to worsen, so I was sent for a video capsule endoscopy, where you swallow a pill that has a camera inside and wear a monitor which records the images taken.  My small intestine was full of ulcers, so I was put on Entocort, a steroid.  After 3 months on the Entocort, my pain is gone, my anemia has vanished, and the diarrhea has stopped.  I still have horrible gas and belching, which I attribute to the reflux, but I am so relieved to not have the diarrhea and pain.  The video capsule endoscopy was the only test that could have shown these small intestine ulcers and I am very thankful I had access to the procedure.


This discussion is related to weight loss, nausea vomiting bile after gallbladder removal.