My story began in January after having friends over for a Halo party. As I do for most video game parties, I had purchased Little Caesar's because it is just so darn cheap! Now, I have a pretty strong stomach and vomiting is usually a choice that I don't make. So when I woke up throwing up the next day I thought I had food poisoning and was texting all of my friends to make sure they weren't sick. Thankfully it was just me and because I also had a pretty high fever I assumed that I just had the flu.
After a few days I noticed a sharp pain just below my right breast and decided to go to Urgent Care to make sure that I didn't have pneumonia. The doctor was absolutely terrible! He asked me what I thought was wrong because he got most of his diagnoses from his patients. He also told me that the pain was probably because my bra was too tight. I was sent away with a prescription for Ibuprofen and a follow-up appointment in two weeks.
By the time I went back for my follow-up I had been getting extremely nauseous after eating anything greasy or fatty. I was given a prescription for an anti-nausea medicine and we set an appointment to have an ultrasound of my gallbladder.
This brings us to March. I have a follow-up regarding the details of my gallbladder to which I am told that I still have a gallbladder and it's normal. He then explains that he wants to do another test to see how my gallbladder is contracting but that we would schedule it in September. No explanation of course as to why we are waiting so long.
Because I am horrible at confrontation, I took this opportunity to find a Primary Care Physician who scheduled the HIDA scan right away. By this point I was experiencing sharp stabbing pains a few times per week. The gallbladder tested normal in the scan despite the fact that I experienced pain during the procedure. The expected range is anything greater than 35% and allegedly my gallbladder was operating at 93%.
We are now up to July. I had developed a constant mild aching pain and would still have the sharp stabbing pains depending on what I had to eat. The list grew to include sugar, dairy and lettuce. Oh and the nausea medicine was no longer working! I had a lovely visit to the emergency room for vomiting where they confirmed that my liver was fine and I didn't have any blood clots in my lungs. They gave me a prescription for Irritable Bowel Syndrome and sent me on my way. The doctor scheduled a CAT scan and of course found nothing so I was passed off to a gastroenterologist who performed an upper endoscopy. When I called to follow-up regarding the results I was told that nothing was found. I asked the nurse what we did next and was told that the doctor would call me. A week later I receive an appointment card in the mail for an office visit in three months. I kindly wrote them a letter explaining how unprofessional that was and to cancel the appointment. (A big step for me, might I add!) Then made an appointment with a surgeon.
We are now up to July. I had developed a constant mild aching pain and would still have the sharp stabbing pains depending on what I had to eat. The list grew to include sugar, dairy and lettuce. Oh and the nausea medicine was no longer working! I had a lovely visit to the emergency room for vomiting where they confirmed that my liver was fine and I didn't have any blood clots in my lungs. They gave me a prescription for Irritable Bowel Syndrome and sent me on my way. The doctor scheduled a CAT scan and of course found nothing so I was passed off to a gastroenterologist who performed an upper endoscopy. When I called to follow-up regarding the results I was told that nothing was found. I asked the nurse what we did next and was told that the doctor would call me. A week later I receive an appointment card in the mail for an office visit in three months. I kindly wrote them a letter explaining how unprofessional that was and to cancel the appointment. (A big step for me, might I add!) Then made an appointment with a surgeon.
The surgeon was the first medical professional to actually listen to me and express sympathy. He assured me that we would get the problem fixed but explained there were a few other tests he wanted to do first. I visited another gastroenterologist. They did blood work to make sure that my thyroid was fine and confirmed that I didn't have a Glutton allergy, they also did a colonoscopy. Nothing was found yet again and pretty much everything that I ate was causing trouble. The gastroenterologist was super amazing, he said that all of my signs pointed to gallbladder disease despite the tests and alas I was scheduled for surgery!
It has been less than a week since my gallbladder removal and despite the pain and soreness, I feel so much better! I was able to eat pizza the day I was released from the hospital without nausea or sharp stabbing pain.
I took the time to share my experience for two reasons. The first, for those close to me if I have seemed not myself this year and come off grumpy I am so sorry! This year has been so stressful having procedures and appointments every few weeks all while being in pain and unable to eat. The second, and probably most important reason is that this is fairly typical. I have talked to many of my friends, family and co-workers over the year who have had their gallbladders removed and they had to keep fighting, some of them for a few years. I believe it is somewhere around 85% of women that have their gallbladder removed. The surgeon told me that less than 4% of the time the tests on the gallbladder are inaccurate yet out of about a dozen women that I know, five of us had our tests come back normal. I completely agreed with the surgeon that we needed to confirm that nothing else was wrong before going into surgery. If you are having the same problems and nothing is found and the signs point to gallbladder despite the tests... take that bad boy out! It's an unnecessary organ anyway!
It has been less than a week since my gallbladder removal and despite the pain and soreness, I feel so much better! I was able to eat pizza the day I was released from the hospital without nausea or sharp stabbing pain.
I took the time to share my experience for two reasons. The first, for those close to me if I have seemed not myself this year and come off grumpy I am so sorry! This year has been so stressful having procedures and appointments every few weeks all while being in pain and unable to eat. The second, and probably most important reason is that this is fairly typical. I have talked to many of my friends, family and co-workers over the year who have had their gallbladders removed and they had to keep fighting, some of them for a few years. I believe it is somewhere around 85% of women that have their gallbladder removed. The surgeon told me that less than 4% of the time the tests on the gallbladder are inaccurate yet out of about a dozen women that I know, five of us had our tests come back normal. I completely agreed with the surgeon that we needed to confirm that nothing else was wrong before going into surgery. If you are having the same problems and nothing is found and the signs point to gallbladder despite the tests... take that bad boy out! It's an unnecessary organ anyway!
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