Gallbladder/HIDA Scan

[awilli84]

I've read through many of the forum topics on this site as I've tried to educate myself on what is going on with my body.

I'm a 25 year old thin, active female. And by active I mean going to the gym 5 days/week along with chasing after my 3 year old. I can think back to times for the past 5 years where I have had bouts of extreme pain after eating certain foods.It started out as an occasional thing...maybe twice per year, so I didn't think much of it. Recently, it's been occurring ever 2-3 weeks. I get woken up by terrible pain either in my back, right below my right shoulder blade, or URQ right below my ribs. Had an ultrasound that showed no stones, so I went to see the surgeon who ordered a HIDA scan. First scan they said wasn't accurate because it was positioned at the wrong angle, but ejection fraction was listed as 16%. Had the test done today again, one week later, and was told the ejection fraction was 74%. I had pain after the CCK was administered, but it wasn't as bad as it gets when I have "attacks," but it was pretty consistent with the pain I experience on a daily basis.

The thing that really bothered me about the test today was that after they gave me the tracer and I laid under the camera for an hour, they made me drink like 21 oz of water and then took the pictures of my gallbladder for 30 minutes with me standing. It just seemed bizarre to me. I'm not a medical professional, but it seems to me like that would be allowing the force of gravity to help the gallbladder. I never have the really bad pain when I'm up and moving around...it typically wakes me up at night, when I'm obviously laying down sleeping.

I'm just at a loss. The radiologist basically made me feel like an idiot today and told me my pain is "absolutely not" my gallbladder. I won't get to talk to my doctor until Monday, but I am *hoping* anyone out there may have experienced something similar or has any type of advice. I feel like I'm at square one today with being told my gallbladder is perfectly normal when the pain, trigger foods, etc all point to gallbladder.

[awilli84]

My grandma and aunt both had their gallbladders removed after normal ultrasounds and HIDA scans. My aunt isn't blood related though, so I can't use her as a family history, but my grandma is on my mom's side. She was talking to me yesterday and said that everything came back normal but her doctor took the gallbladder anyway, and when he got in there he said her gallbladder was just so diseased. She hasn't had problems since

I almost wish that they could do an exploratory surgery to check the gallbladder just to see what it looks like because obviously modern medicine isn't doing that great of a job of diagnosing problems like this for a lot of people. If it's not my gallbladder, I obviously don't want to have unnecessary surgery, but I don't feel like the tests are giving correct results either.

I'm very curious to see what my dr has to say about the way in which my HIDA was performed. It was just so strange to me...get the pictures for an hour, drink for 15 minutes, walk around, make me stand for the whole 2nd half of the test...just weird. And the beeper on my IV went off at 30 mins, yet they waited to take my 30 min picture until like 5 mins later bc the tech wasn't even in the room (they had to take all my pictures manually since I was standing; it wasn't a continuous process like it is when you lay down.) All over just weird

[Laneysmom]

Forgot to mention I also have a 3 year old that I chase all the time too, lol!

[Laneysmom]

I am having the exact same situation as you, though my HIDA scan I was laying down.  All of my tests have come back normal, but my doctor said because the HIDA scan caused an attack, that he feels like it is the gall bladder & that something isn't showing up on the tests.  From what I have read, you could have a stone that is missed, sludge, or just a diseased gall bladder that causes pain but still appears to be working normally.  He is recommending I see a surgeon and have it removed, but I am worried that it could be something else and will have the surgery for no reason.  My pain is almost a daily occurrence (sometimes in the a.m. before I eat, sometimes after I eat, and almost always at night), so am anxious to have it resolved.  My doctor says all my symptoms match exactly with gall bladder problems and this is the right course of action.

[awilli84]

Sorry to hear of your trouble. Seem likes they have put you on some bizarre medicine for pain. Zoloft and wellbutrin have so many nasty side effects as it is (I'm in the mental health field). Have you read into sphincter of oddi disorders at all? I can't find much on it, but it seems likemore research is being done on people who still have pain post removal and that spasms and malfunctions of this sphincter can cause a lot of pain.

My hida took 3 hours, but I still think the drinking and standing affected something. I even told them I get the symptoms when I am layingdown, so it seems counterproductive to make me stand the whole time.

[jhcanderson]

Of course I can only speak of my own horrific series of events so as to what is considered the "norm" is hard for any one person to say.  As for my Hida scan adventures, I only needed one for their prognosis. Only in my case I went in to the ER with SEVERE pain and the filled me full of morphine and demerol then sent me for my HIDA scan. The problem that I have learned is you need to be free of Narcotics in your system or it will "throw" the results. I was only at 28%, so they performed a lap chole and now almost a month later I am still in severe pain. They have put me on the most insane medication regimine I could imagine. Zoloft, bentyl, codeine, nexium, wellbutrin, and welchol. Basically they are just drawing straws trying to figure out whats going on. As for protocol with HIDA, all I know is they told me it could take 30 min to 3 hrs to complete the test and mine took a total of an hour.