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Right upper quadrant pain, nausea, vomiting....any help?
I am a 38 yr old female. On July 6th I had a laproscopically assisted vaginal hysterectomy due to some problems which couldn't be resolved with other treatments. Since the surgery I have been fine for the most part up until a little over a week ago. Not this past Saturday but the Saturday before I started feeling nauseous. On Sunday I got sick throwing up. On Monday I felt a little better, was still nauseous though and my sides hurt. I figured it was from throwing up. The pain has gotten much worse and the nausea and vomiting has continued. The pain is centered mostly on my right side right below my ribs. I have been to the ER twice now and had at CT scan and ultrasound to check my Kidneys, Bladder, abdomen, stomach, gallbladder, pancreas, liver and everything else. There is no infection, stones, blockage or anything that can be found to be causing the pain. A few months ago I had to go to the ER for chest pain and they found 2 nodules in my right lung. Is it possible that those might be causing the pain and nausea and vomiting that I am having? Any input or ideas or suggestions would be great. I have been having to take phenergan to keep food down and the pain has been so severe that even a shot of morphine didn't help. They had to give me a shot of dilaudid to control the pain. I am tired of crying every time I have to cough or get up from bed or not being able to pick up my kids because of the pain.
i'm very glad to hear that you have a surgery consult on the 18th!!
You are a very fortunate Young Lady to have a Doctor that takes you seriously and even though your tests show nothing is DETERMINED to get to the bottom of these symptoms for you. I'm sure that you have noticed on here just how many people have Doctor's that just send them on their way whenever a test comes back normal.
I had that happen once with a stress test that ANY other Doctor would have sent me on my way but mine was insistent that we go ahead and do Angioplasty JUST to be sure since I'm Adopted and have no Health History to go by, and I had an 80% blockage that would have caused a Massive Heart Attack and I would have died within 6 months according to the head of the Angioplasty Department at one of the TOP Heart Hospitals in the Southeast United States!! That's why I'm so GLAD that your Doctor IS going to pursue this to the end with you.
I hope that they can discover what is going on with you and get it taken care of "once and for all"!!!
PLEASE be sure and keep us informed on what happens with the Surgeon and what they decide to do NEXT!!!!
Keeping you in my Thoughts and Prayers!!.......Sherry
You are a very fortunate Young Lady to have a Doctor that takes you seriously and even though your tests show nothing is DETERMINED to get to the bottom of these symptoms for you. I'm sure that you have noticed on here just how many people have Doctor's that just send them on their way whenever a test comes back normal.
I had that happen once with a stress test that ANY other Doctor would have sent me on my way but mine was insistent that we go ahead and do Angioplasty JUST to be sure since I'm Adopted and have no Health History to go by, and I had an 80% blockage that would have caused a Massive Heart Attack and I would have died within 6 months according to the head of the Angioplasty Department at one of the TOP Heart Hospitals in the Southeast United States!! That's why I'm so GLAD that your Doctor IS going to pursue this to the end with you.
I hope that they can discover what is going on with you and get it taken care of "once and for all"!!!
PLEASE be sure and keep us informed on what happens with the Surgeon and what they decide to do NEXT!!!!
Keeping you in my Thoughts and Prayers!!.......Sherry
I had the HIDA scan done and when they did the part where it causes the gallbladder to empty I had nausea and pain with it so that is why my Dr set up the surgery consult. Even though the scan didn't show any problems the reactions from the scan showed there is a problem somewhere.
I have a surgery consult on the 18th. So far all the tests have come back normal but because the HIDA scan produced the same symptoms as I have been having my Dr is sending me for a surgery consult. It's very frustrating being in pain and having nausea and vomiting with seemingly no reason for it. Hopefully they will at least check it out even though the tests came back normal.
My mother's apendicitis happened similarly. She went to the hospital and they told her she was fine. She got married and went on a honeymoon to Jamaica and started having terrible pain, the locals told her to drink "Ginger Beer". She drank it like crazy and it helped but they had to leave early because the pain was just unbearable. When she got back her appendix was the size of a football. (It's normally the size of a finger, I think).
Thank you. I was wondering if maybe there was something with the gallbladder that could go wrong that wasn't something you can check with an ultrasound. I definitely don't have gall stones but the pain and stuff is in the same place as what other people have described when they have had gallbladder problems. I don't really eat a lot of fatty meals but have noticed that sometimes after I eat the pain is worse. All I know is that it hurts when I cough, sneeze, get up from sitting or lying down, move a certain way..etc. and the vicodin and dilaudid that has been prescribed doesn't even touch the pain.
Right upper quadrant abdominal pain many times turns out to be a problem with the gallbladder. Since you've already had two ER workups, I think you should see either your PCP or a gastroenterologist. A nuclear medicine test called a HIDA scan can determine if your gallbladder is not functioning correctly. It is not necessary to have stones to have a gallbladder problem. If your symptoms get worse after eating - particularly a fatty meal - that indicates something going on anywhere in the biliary tree including the gallbladder. Hope you find some answers and relief soon. :-)
Thanks to both of you. I had already planned on seeing my pcp but was also wondering what other people had to say or if anyone else had been through it. Everything that the ER docs thought it could be turned out to not be it.
Hi Jaysmama,
I want to Welcome you to the Pain Management Forum and let you know that we are GLAD that you have found this Forum!! I need for you to UNDERSTAND that there are NO Doctors on THIS Forum!! We are ALL CP (Chronic Pain) Patients and help each other thru our experiences and expertise that we have from our OWN CP conditions.
I'm so sorry that you are having to deal with ALL of this pain!!
JadedSweetheart had some very good advice about going to see your PCP and start some testing to figure out EXACTLY what is going on!!
You DEFINITELY need to get some DEFINITIVE answers to what is causing you all of this discomfort and pain. There are different things that could be causing all of this and I hope that you will get the testing that will allow you to find out so you can get it taken care of and get some RELIEF!!!
There will be others along later that may have more ideas as to what may be the underlying cause of this.
PLEASE keep us updated about what you find out as we ARE concerned about you...Sherry
I want to Welcome you to the Pain Management Forum and let you know that we are GLAD that you have found this Forum!! I need for you to UNDERSTAND that there are NO Doctors on THIS Forum!! We are ALL CP (Chronic Pain) Patients and help each other thru our experiences and expertise that we have from our OWN CP conditions.
I'm so sorry that you are having to deal with ALL of this pain!!
JadedSweetheart had some very good advice about going to see your PCP and start some testing to figure out EXACTLY what is going on!!
You DEFINITELY need to get some DEFINITIVE answers to what is causing you all of this discomfort and pain. There are different things that could be causing all of this and I hope that you will get the testing that will allow you to find out so you can get it taken care of and get some RELIEF!!!
There will be others along later that may have more ideas as to what may be the underlying cause of this.
PLEASE keep us updated about what you find out as we ARE concerned about you...Sherry
It sounds like it could possibly be adhesions from the surgery? I would definetly recommend seeing a regular doc so they can put you on something for the pain, keep up the phenergen script, and send you for more tests. If you look hard enough you can hear all kids of horror stories about what it *might* be. I think aggressive testing to find out what it *is* would be the best way to go.
I hope you get some answers and relief soon!
I hope you get some answers and relief soon!
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Not one darn thing showed up on any of the multitude of tests. Even the HIDA scan was basically normal except for the part where they gave the injection to make the gallbladder contract and measure how much bile is excreted. That number is called the ejection fraction and should be roughly around 30%. Mine was in the low 20's, which is still basically normal. I did experience a short, sharp burst of major nausea which was the only indication of a problem.
I'll never forget my GI doc saying he had to discharge me because he could find nothing wrong. Wish I had a picture of my face at that news! I sank down in the bed, stuck out my lower lip and informed him I was NOT leaving the hospital until I had a surgical consult. LOL! He really is my favorite doctor in the whole world and he was very gracious about it all. The surgeon came in and actually LISTENED to my symptoms. He agreed to a diagnostic laparascopy but didn't really think he would find anything. Imagine everyone's surprise when he found a gallbladder ready to rupture along with several areas of small bowel obstruction due to the adhesions.
The same thing happened a year later with my appendix. Nothing showed up on tests and I actually got down on my knees and begged the surgeon to take another look inside. Once again, he reluctantly agreed. There was the hot appendix complete with the usual fecalith that didn't show up on CT scan along with a ton more adhesions, this time on the colon. The surgeon just smiled ruefully and shook his head saying, "Even a blind squirrell finds a nut once in a while." LOL!