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!!!

[bethban00]

I had gallbladder surgery 6 weeks ago.  Have had no negative effects since then.  I was very ill with high fever, chills, severe pain, and an elevated liver count when I arrived at ER.  I am so sorry to hear of all of you still having symtoms, but for me removal of the gallbladder was a life saving decision. I hope that you all find relief from your pain and/or symtoms.

[krisg]

thank you,  thank you,  thank you !!!
You said it the best.  There's nothing like having other
people in this world to relate with.  Best luck with
your daughter.

[browniee]

Hello everyone!
I've had gallbladder pains since December of last year. I opted not to have surgery, and so far, I am doing much better. I started taking digestive enzymes a long time ago, and lately, I added some herbs and vitamins that support the gallbladder and liver. A couple months ago, I had SEVERE gallstone attacks once a week to 3-4 days a week, but lately, I've only had one every few weeks. I feel much better. So far, I'm glad that I haven't had surgery.

[gardenmaniac]

Haven't visited this site much since Jan '03 following my 19 year old daughter's gallbladder surgery. Wanted to maintain contact with those that were so helpful to me, but with the change in format to allow the "dr" to respond to everyone questions first, they limited the questions/new comments to only 2 per day..sorry...but most people posting here have already been to too many doctors with no accurate diagnosis.

Anyway...in response to the surgery or no surgery debate..let me first say that my daughter had no stones & no sludge in her gallbaldder. She had 2 EGD's including biopsies of her small intestine and a bile sample taken from her gallbladder. She had a small bowel follow though series done and 2 HIDA scans at 2 different hospitals. She saw 2 family doctors, 2 gastroenterologists and one surgeon. The first HIDA said 32% ejection fraction, the 2nd one 6 weeks later said 8%. The surgeon informed us that with no obvious problem with the GB that the surgery success rate is not as good as if you have stones, etc. We agonized over what the right thing to do was. It seemed that the people that posted here still had problems folling GB surgery & then the problem was worse. I just know that by the time my daughter finally had her surgery ( a year and a half from the first doc visit) she was unable to eat anything with pain. Who wants to live like that?  

It has now been 9 months since her surgery. she is a junior in college & IS better...but does have part of her digestive system gone...& she still has reactions sometimes to things she eats. Stress plays a major role in her digestive system. ( Hmm.. college=stress) She would tell you that she is glad that she had the surgery, but would have been happier if it hadn't stopped working in the first place. since we don't really know why it quit, something else could rear it's ugly head in the future.

The best part of this site is all of the contributors...those that found solutions and those that haven't yet. There is nothing like being able to talk to someone who has been there, done that. Best of luck to those of you still searching for answers.

[krisg]

well, I had my gallbladder out 5 years ago.  I had stones and was having some discomfort and running a fever.  Within hours after the surgery I was having an attack of pain in the upper gastric area which prevented me from talking and breathing, and caused me to vomit for a couple of hours. (very painful just following surgery.)  I was told it was only gas.  Had a 2 day hospital stay.  I complained of these attacks (mostly at night) to the dr. and they diagnosed me with severe acid reflux.  I was already on prevacid 2x a day.  Finally was hospitalized with a severe attack 2 years later with elevated liver enzymes.  2 months later, they sent me to another dr. Still no answers.  Well, after another 3 years of agony I finally was diagnosed with Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction.  Bile duct was narrowed and scarred and full of mucus.  Had a sphincterotomy in feb 03.  Was doing better until last month. Back to the drawing board, so to speak!  My advise for diarreah is to get anti-spasm med.s.  There are a few different ones and I personally think they work great for the bowel problem after gallbladder surgery.  As for my SOD, I think it is something that is always going to give me pain for the rest of my life.  I'm just trying very hard to come to terms with that now.
Good luck to all who have this surgery.

[Kare 1]

I had gallbladder surgery 1 month ago and I am still in pain.  and very bloated, I have dairrha every other day.  I feel nausea all the time.  what can I do