Well, I had my gallbladder out when I was 19, first year of University.
From what I recall, I had 2 types of pain. One was more related to the front and stomach under the rib. However, I had very large stones & sludge. The doctor figures that I had the stones very young as it is herditary - late grandmother & dad both had them. Plus, lots of yo-yo dieting contributed to making them worse....
I digress.
The pain for me really was in my back, below or around my shoulder blade and radiated upwards. I was told that this was because the gallbladder itself was inflamed and pressing on the kidney. So, you can most certainly have pain on the back, not just the front.
Grease and spices can aggrivagte the stones, that is for certain. One of my worst attacks was the evening after I grabbed "street meat" or "smog dog" on campus. I thought I was going to die that night. I curled up in a fetal position and rocked. My mother heard me whimpering at the time and brought me every pain med we had in the house - T3 and Midol. I took the T3 and it helped a bit. Needless to say, went to the doctor.
The doctor pressed on my right side, below my ribs and I nearly went through the roof. Next step was an ultrasound to confirm.
Keep in mind I am in my 30's now, but back then there were already quite a few treatment options, but we chose surgery because the odds of the stones coming back was high because I was so young. When you are older, they try to avoid the surgery by controlling your symptoms with diet. There are pills you can take and there also is ultrasound therapy where they break up the stones as much as possible. Again, depending on how big the stones are and amount of sludge and age....could all lead to different treatment plans.
Until I had my surgery to remove it, best thing I could do was avoid spicy foods or anything greasy. Also, if I did get any pain, a heating pad worked wonders.
I hope they can figure out what is the best option for you.
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zvi
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-31 11:28 pm (UTC)From what I recall, I had 2 types of pain. One was more related to the front and stomach under the rib. However, I had very large stones & sludge. The doctor figures that I had the stones very young as it is herditary - late grandmother & dad both had them. Plus, lots of yo-yo dieting contributed to making them worse....
I digress.
The pain for me really was in my back, below or around my shoulder blade and radiated upwards. I was told that this was because the gallbladder itself was inflamed and pressing on the kidney. So, you can most certainly have pain on the back, not just the front.
Grease and spices can aggrivagte the stones, that is for certain. One of my worst attacks was the evening after I grabbed "street meat" or "smog dog" on campus. I thought I was going to die that night. I curled up in a fetal position and rocked. My mother heard me whimpering at the time and brought me every pain med we had in the house - T3 and Midol. I took the T3 and it helped a bit. Needless to say, went to the doctor.
The doctor pressed on my right side, below my ribs and I nearly went through the roof. Next step was an ultrasound to confirm.
Keep in mind I am in my 30's now, but back then there were already quite a few treatment options, but we chose surgery because the odds of the stones coming back was high because I was so young. When you are older, they try to avoid the surgery by controlling your symptoms with diet. There are pills you can take and there also is ultrasound therapy where they break up the stones as much as possible. Again, depending on how big the stones are and amount of sludge and age....could all lead to different treatment plans.
Until I had my surgery to remove it, best thing I could do was avoid spicy foods or anything greasy. Also, if I did get any pain, a heating pad worked wonders.
I hope they can figure out what is the best option for you.