gastric problems

[cuddles1]

I am a 56 year old female who has had gastric problems for many years.  I had an endoscopy done 6 years ago and numerous polyps were found in my stomach.  The surgeon biopsied some of them and they were benign.  I have been on Pantaloc 40 mg. twice a day for many years and most of the time I am not too bad.  In November I had an episode of epigastric pain, pain under the right ribcage, severe nausea and vomiting.  In a few days the pain subsided but the nausea has remained.  I had an abdominal ultrasound done and everything looked okay.  I continued to have mild pain under the right ribcage and daily nausea.  I lost 20 lbs due to my inability to eat very much.  My doctor has ordered bloodwork and my lipase was slightly elevated so I will have the bloodwork repeated and a CT scan of my pancreas will be ordered. I am also seeing a surgeon in April for possibly another endoscopy.  My question is, can it be possible that my nausea, fatigue and mild pain be due to an inflamed gallbladder even though the ultrasound did not show stones, or is it likely that I have a serious problem with my pancreas?  My biggest problem is the daily nausea and flu like symptoms.


This discussion is related to Pancreatic Cancer.

[italianmom]

If you are getting another endoscopy anyway, ask them to take a biopsy and check for celiac. I had my gallbladder taken out but it wasnt until a couple of years later that i found out i had celiac and then after being gluten-free my weird stomach pains went away. Most drs dont test for it rountinely..

[mungufuata]

Not likely that you have a serious problem of the pancreas.  It sounds like typical gallbladder to me.  And there are many people, even on these boards, who are like myslf and have these symptoms because of a gallbladder that doesn't have any stones in it.  Ask about having a HIDA scan - it tests the function of the gallbladder and shows whether it's working properly or not.  Pancreas problems, which are in that middle location you are talking about, are usually caused by gallbladder problems.  I've had pancreatitis several times in the past 4 years without stones - just sludge, which doesn't show up on an ultrasound.