Abdominal Pain after fatty foods-Post gallbladder removal

[olsonkl]

I am a 33 year old female, and I just had my second child 6 months ago.  I had my first painful attack of severe epigastric pain (presumed to be a gallbladder) attack about 2 months ago (which was 4 months after my birth of my second child). At the time of the attack, I went to the ER where I had sonogram and blood work taken.  However everything seemed normal.  Upon leaving ER, tentatively diagnosed with Gastritis, however GI cocktail did not stop the pain.  Since this time, I went to see a gasteroenterologist, he tentatively diagnosed me with gallbladder problems and ordered a CCK HIDA scan.  The HIDA scan an revealed a gallbladder ejection fraction of 22%.  Based on the ejection fraction, the Dr indicated my gallbladder was bad and instructed me to contact a surgeon to have it removed.  I had my gallbladder removed a couple of weeks later.  Prior to my surgery, I did not have any more episodes of pain.  However, I did note I was unable to properly digest fats, symptoms included:  Nausea, gurgling of stomach & diarrhea.  Therefore, remained on a minimal fat diet until surgery was performed.  Pathology from my cholecystectomy indicated my gallbladder had chronic inflammation of the gallbladder and think yellow-green bile. After the surgery my ability to digest fats properly seemed to get worse.  My symptoms included a more severe case of a gurgling of stomach and severe diarrhea after ingestion of fatty substances.  In order to get around this problem, I resorted to elimination of fats from my diet, although I still had a few problems with diarrhea and GI indigestion.  My doctor also prescribed Colestid and Metamucil, and this seemed to also help, but the problem did not go away if I ate very fatty foods.  I have had an MRI and an ERCP (where they were specifically looking for a choledochal cyst).  It turns out I do not have a choledochal cyst, but I am not sure they were looking for other problems that are related to my other GI issues.  Now, about 2 months post gallbladder surgery and 2 weeks after the ERCP, I had my second episode of severe epigastric pain after eating the chicken (not the skin) from fried chicken.  I again went to the ER where they ran blood tests and gave my the GI cocktail, again nothing worked (but pain meds) and did not see anything unusual in my bloodwork.  My question to you is, what else could be causing this epigastric pain?  Is it possible it could be pancreatitis or IBS?  Would this have been evident in the ERCP, even if they were not specifically looking for it?   (I think they may have only been focused on the bile duct)  What is causing this fat indigestion?  Is this normal post gallbladder surgery, what else could it be?  Can you suggest any addition tests I could have done to rule out other problems?  Thank you in advance for your help!!!

[cruiselover]

I thought I was the only one who had this problem. I started having intense pain in my stomach. I couldn't breath it hurt so much,the very first time it happened I was driving and had to pull over I couldn't see straight. I went to the doctor after months of pain and diarhea, he scheduled me for a hida scan which showed I had a 3% injection fracture. I had surgery
and healed very quickly and went back to school quick. I still have persistant pain and diarreah which I take welchol for I will take this probably for the rest of my life.

[smoops]

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[minnycinny]

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[paintbrush]

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[kimmie787]

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[kookster]

i have just been released from hospital after spending 3 nights there for severe pain in my abdomen just above my tummy button and below my chest was given  very strong pain killers and a scan which showed nothing  was wrong did anyone who has had gall stones suffer from this before the stones were eventually discovered