Sternum pain Gallbladder attack after removal??

Hi,
Just hoping there is someone out there who can help me,
I'm a slim 44 yr old Female, (A typical in retrospect candidate for this Disease)
I just had my Gallbladder removed on 16th August.

In Feb it was ultra sound scanned and was full of stones, On removal there were hardly any there!! but it was Withered!!,
Now its the 27th and i had a full on Attack today after eating a burger (not too fatty) my Mum made and COFFEE Which i think may do something to trigger my problem.
Anyway today it was so painfull i called an ambulance i was sweating(big time!!) rivers and pain in sternum was excruciating and constant for about 10 mins (the longest ever) I threw up everything id ate........
And in true Gallbladder style it was gone by the time the Ambulance got there,I felt fine a bit shaky but otherwise ok and didnt fancy hours in A&E.
So was ok to go home
I also have been in extreme pain in my Shoulder Head Neck and right side since i woke up from operation,
I spoke to Doc about this and Phrenic nerve has had big mentions,
I am going back to Doc obviously asap but just wondered if anyone has advice on this subject..

Thanks for reading
Carina

Carina-

I have the same problem, and I'm sorry to say it's been happening for several years. 4 months ago I had an attack so severe that I passed out, fell and broke my jaw. I'm a 57 year old healthy male and my 2 sisters 53 and 59 have very similar situation. I'm now getting more agressive on finding a solution. Several years ago I had an ERCP which helped some but my problems came back. But one important thing I'd like to tell you to try - as soon as you feel an attack coming on quickly drink a glass of milk (12 oz or so) it almost always works to ward off an attack if you do it soon enough. Please respond and let me know what's happening with your situation.

Regards,
Hugh

Hi Guys, Please get your doctors to check your bile ducts, my mum has the same problem and it is stones growing in the bile duct that is causing this, it's terrible and very common after gall bladder removal operations. It sucks big time.

Hi, this is my first post and i'm finding several people with my same problem. I had my gallbladder removed in January of this year and have had ongoing right pain under my ribcage. Not excrusiating, but very annoying. Then yesterday, i had an attack that was more severe than the attack i had before the surgery. It lasted only about 10 minutes, but was terrible. Anyone know what causes these episodes? Will i continue to have them?

marthajill wrote:

Hi, this is my first post and i'm finding several people with my same problem. I had my gallbladder removed in January of this year and have had ongoing right pain under my ribcage. Not excrusiating, but very annoying. Then yesterday, i had an attack that was more severe than the attack i had before the surgery. It lasted only about 10 minutes, but was terrible. Anyone know what causes these episodes? Will i continue to have them?

I can relate to your pain; I have the same symptoms. I had my gallbladder out in November 2006, and I continue to have a dull pain between my ribcage. This week I had an attack which lasted about 15-20 minutes. It was the worst one ever...I was taken by an abulance since I was in a movie theatre with severe chest pains (I kept thinking this can't be a gallbladder attack because I don't have one anymore) and shortness of breath. I almost passed out. After blood work, it showed that my liver enzymes were abnormal possibly indicating a problem in my bile duct. The emergency physician stated that I may have passed a stone in the duct or have stones in there. A couple days later, I went to my primary physician and she took more blood to check my liver again. If my enzymes are high she is recommending an ultrasound to check out my ducts, liver, and other organs surrounding them. I suggest you get some blood taken. I am also planning to make an appointment to see my surgeon again.

Have any of you ever heard of sphincter of oddi, theres a suppost site if any one is interested after looking it up. I got my GB two years ago and have problems ever sence and this is what they are thinking it is. Feel free to email me with any questions, do a google search for the symptoms. ***

I can relate to your pain; I have the same symptoms. I had my gallbladder out in November 2006, and I continue to have a dull pain between my ribcage. This week I had an attack which lasted about 15-20 minutes. It was the worst one ever...I was taken by an abulance since I was in a movie theatre with severe chest pains (I kept thinking this can't be a gallbladder attack because I don't have one anymore) and shortness of breath. I almost passed out. After blood work, it showed that my liver enzymes were abnormal possibly indicating a problem in my bile duct. The emergency physician stated that I may have passed a stone in the duct or have stones in there. A couple days later, I went to my primary physician and she took more blood to check my liver again. If my enzymes are high she is recommending an ultrasound to check out my ducts, liver, and other organs surrounding them. I suggest you get some blood taken. I am also planning to make an appointment to see my surgeon again.[/quote]

Hey guys,
I have the exact same symptoms as these... I had my gb out 5 years ago when I was 19. I have attacks now as bad if not worse than before the surgery. The only thing that remotely helps is getting my husband to rub the sides of my back or putting pressure on certain spots in my back. Try this next time, hope it helps.

hugh wrote:

Carina- I have the same problem, and I'm sorry to say it's been happening for several years. 4 months ago I had an attack so severe that I passed out, fell and broke my jaw. I'm a 57 year old healthy male and my 2 sisters 53 and 59 have very similar situation. I'm now getting more agressive on finding a solution. Several years ago I had an ERCP which helped some but my problems came back. But one important thing I'd like to tell you to try - as soon as you feel an attack coming on quickly drink a glass of milk (12 oz or so) it almost always works to ward off an attack if you do it soon enough. Please respond and let me know what's happening with your situation. Regards, Hugh

I have had the same problems, a year and half after gall bladder removal, still in severe pain with no answers. I have also found milk to be helpful just recently though...weird. I had an MRCP today, not hopeful, but the pain persists and is at a 10 or above on their little hospital smiley faces.

[quote="Jessnd"]Hey guys,
Hi:
I have the exact same symptoms as these... I had my gb out 5 years ago when I was 19. I have attacks now as bad if not worse than before the surgery. The only thing that remotely helps is getting my husband to rub the sides of my back or putting pressure on certain spots in my back. Try this next time, hope it helps. I hope that helps.

Hi all. I had my GB out a week ago today. 4 days after the surgery, I woke up with severe center chest pain in the mid of the night. It lasted about 15 minutes and subsided. I had another episode about 4 hrs later. Felt better after that. Since I was still constipated from the surgery, I decided to lunch on whole grain spaghetti in Ragu traditional sauce. 30 minutes after eating, the worst episode began. It lasted about an hour, by which time I was in the ER. They ran an EKG and did blood work and a chest/abdominal X-Ray. All normal, though the x-ray showed a lot of fecal matter present. They admitted me for observ and I had more attacks at 4pm, 5pm, and 10pm. They finally subsided and I haven't had one since. During my stay, they did 3 EKG's and 3 sets of bloodwork (spaced 8 hrs apart). All were perfectly normal. The conclusion was that the acid in the tomato sauce had caused the attack (I had eaten Spaghettios too the night before they began).

Do those of you experiencing similar attacks notice any link to acidic foods? I was also confused because the doc said now that my GB was gone there was nothing there to process the acid. My understanding previous was that bile still makes its way into the digestive tract and, since my GB was only operating at 23% before the surgery, little work was being done by it pre-surgery. So, I was thinking the absence of the GB would not make much difference to me.