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ERCP sucess stores - Told I have SOD

I am a 25 year old healthy female. Had my gallbladder out July of 2008, felt great for a few months and then back to having horrible attacks. Er trips, blood tests, Ct Scan, MRCP have all been fine except my blood tests show after every attack I have elevated liver enzymes. Finally went to a specialist who diagnosed me with SOD. They want to do a ERCP for this issue. Everything I have read online scares the life out of me. I only have these attacks every 2-3 months..i just don't want to go in there and have things end up worse than before I started. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am a stay at home mom with 2 young boys and am worried about the outcome of this surgery.
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Avatar universal
Hey there, my liver enzymes climb to the 2000-3000 range right after the attack and then when I get them re-drawn a week later they resume to normal. I'm so sorry about the shoulder pain :( that sounds awful. Please keep me posted on the meds. I really hope we can both figure out what is going on. I do agree it's odd that so many doctors do different things. Hang in there girl..:(

I will def. check into the liver cleanse thing, do you have a link?
Helpful - 0
1166735 tn?1263475353
Hey Candy just out of curiosity what do your LFT's rise to,? My last set 2 weeks ago got to 170 u/l, but its quite strange as when the bloods are taken almost as soon as the attacks occur, the bloods come back negative twice now on day 2-3 the LFT's were elevated does this happen to you or anyone else???
To answer your question on whether the meds are working, Im not really sure as I only started them on the 29th Dec. However Im still experiencing tiny spasms, and the pain in my shoulder blades is driving me to despair, even went to the chiropractor on friday to see if the pain was muscleskeletal, A, no it wasnt:-(
I just feel so confused as to the difference in treatments between the specialists. Mine wont do the ERCP, but yours are not even offering meds to help with symptoms. Anyhow. Look at my other post on my profile as Im starting the Liver Cleansing Diet tomorrow, Im trying to be pro-active in my own treatment I do not want to take these medications at all, look it up Candy  read the testimonials I was impressed what it offers, Let me know what you think!!!  Isn;y it funny how rare SODD is but just look on this site just how  many of us have or are being investigating for it???
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Avatar universal
You are right, it's So depressing :( I am sorry you are in the same boat as me..so not fun! Please keep me posted on your appt. and what they say. Do the meds seem to help? I haven't been given that option! they just keep saying "THE ERCP needs to be done" because of the sky high liver enzymes I get when I have these attacks. hang in there...this is not a fun thing to deal with.
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1166735 tn?1263475353
Hi there just found your concerned post, Im in exactly the same issue as you trying to have SODD diagnosed. And just like you have read so many horror stories of ERCP's and Sphincterotomies, that I really don not know which way to turn. Althlough you are lucky in the sence you have had an MRCP, this option has not been offered to me yet, but will suggest this the next time I visit the specialist- (HE IS CURRENTLY ON HOLIDAY AND MY NEXT OPA IS 22 FEB). My attacks seem to arise every 6 weeks so I know one will be due again before I get to see him. If the next one is like the one at xmas then another trip to the casualty dept is looming :-(
its so distressing and depressing isn't it???
I live in Perth Australia and the manometry testing is not even available so weather I consider a trip to the Eastern side, it can not help in the proper diagnosis of SODD for me.
I am  optimistic that things will settle down with these meds, but eventually further symptom control will be required, Im already on anti-spasmodics, an antidepressant, HTN med and Ursodeoxycholic acid to help reduce/breakdown any further sludge, that could of been the cause and  initially why I had the GB removed last July too. Although I understand there needs to be a process of non-invasive treatments for our condition, but, after reading so many testimonials most of the time the ERCP and Sphincterotomies are performed. Keep positive lin96
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Avatar universal
Yes he would be doing the manomentry and possible the sphincterotomy to cut it and fix it, they are also thinking I may have a stone that hasn't showed up on the tests. I am already on a anti-depressant so not sure I could take more than one?

This doctor is from Barnes hosptial in St.Louis...he does these surgeries daily.

Thank you so much for you input, I just wish I knew what to do? :(

Do you have SOD? do you suffer attacks? if so how often?
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Avatar universal
I dont' want to scare you, but you have reason to be worried.  I almost had an ERCP, and my GI specialist that I went to got very serious with me and asked me if I was "most definately at the end of my rope and could not take it one more minute."  He wanted to make sure that if things were worse afterward that it was worth the risk, and at the time....for me, it was not worth it.  I went to the specialists at the University of Indiana.
Have you tried any meds?  My doc prescribed me a muscle relaxer (Levbid) and an antidepressant (Elavil) which is used for it's side effect on pain, and I did have luck on those meds which made things a lot more tolerable.  From what I learned, this these meds are sort of a first attempt at getting relief before resorting to ERCP.

Is your doc also planning on doing manometry and possibly a sphincterotomy with your ERCP?  If not, it's definately not worth the risk.  The manometry actually measures the pressure in your SO muscle which determines whether or not they should score that muscle.

I now have 3 young boys, but when I was going through all of my diagnosis searching, I had 2 lil' guys.

Good luck to you!
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