“I too had my gallbladder removed in 1991, along with a VERY large ovarian cyst on the right side. I had the easy surgery (which they said would be easy, and I would be back and walking and WORKING in three days)…I had the laproscope surgery. I will never forget the day I left the hospital. I left, got driven home by my mother, and every pothole in NY made me incur so much pain. I NEVER had stomach issues before that, except vomiting water and pain in the center of my chest which wrapped around my back. All classical symptoms. It took me six months before full recovery. I had it out when I was in my mid thirties. My aunt, maternal, had hers out too, left the hospital the day after, and was able to drive and come to my fathers funeral. She was then, at the time, 83. Everyone is different. (thats for sure)…
I too hurt when I eat. I get packed with gas, and if I eat foods that are too rich, including butter and even steak (too heavy to digest), I get deathly ill. The doctor first decided to do a CT scan to make sure there were no gallstones stuck in the bile ducts. I seem to always have to go in for those CT’s, as there are times I am in pain…its been so long since the surgery. My endoscope test revealed some type of sores which led them to do further testing. They found out I had a wheat and gluten allergy, (Celiac), then were astounded I had Crohn’s disease, Diverticulitis, IBD and more.
I started to more research on my family history. Mom’s side…all had, appendectomies, ulcers, fistures (narrowing of the colon), and a few of my cousins, very young, have ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s. Fathers side also…the same. I feel for you, and you are surely NOT complaining. I took a medication called Aciphex for a few years to control the pain in the center of my chest (it too felt like heart attack pain, and I can only count the times I wound up in the ER thinking I was having a heart attack), but now I am on Prevacid, which works nicely. I try not to take it all the time though, as it stops your acids, but we sometimes need those. Also, btw, I was always healthy UNTIL that surgery…I always ate huge hero’s PILES on the mayonnaise, ate steak galore…now I am lucky if I can keep my diet in tact. It is so hard to even eat sometimes, and also very depressing.
Your concern of the pain on the right side is concerning me, as I had that for a few years, and that was due to my Crohn’s disease. I never had an exact diagnosis, until I was so desperate that I called the Cleveland Clinic and drove 9 hours alone to try to get help. I still however, like yourself, always seem to have the pain on my right side. They keep saying it could be an appendix issue, but it is not. You may either want to find another Gastro doctor if you feel that you are not getting the results you want, or if you are not getting relief. If you don’t mind me asking, how do you tolerate dairy? Fats? Also, every time I ate, LIKE you, my pain on the right hand side (like now), hurt…do you have abdominal swelling too or just the pain on the right side? I started to get abdominal swelling last year to a point that people thought I was 8 months pregnant…I was highly embarassed, would not wear my nice clothing…I wore big shirts and empire waisted tops. Let me know if you have the bloating as well after you eat. Mine is going down now, but that is because of the Celiac diagnosis. My doctor told me “”no, you don’t have it,”” even though my titers from the lab were Celiac elevated, so I went elsewhere for a stomach biopsy. I just worry for my son, 22, but thank goodness he has no symptoms…yet.
Your pain is identical to mine…side pain (did you check your kidney with a CT scan?) Just curious, as you would get a horrible gnawing on your right side as well. I was just informed I have a “”multitude of 5mm kidney stones in the right kidney”” which too, is causing my pain in the side…so I have to make sure I drink, until they can decide how they will treat it. I just found out they are calcium, hopefully they can blast them. Another trait that is on both sides of the family. I can swear that I have been blessed with both issues from my mothers AND fathers side.
I understand what you mean about the esophagus “”pulling pain,”” as I get that also. I went in for an upper GI series, but they keep saying there is nothing there. Also, the lump you are getting in your throat could be either a VERY bad case of gastric reflex disease (treatable with prilosec) but you’d need to have an endoscopy done…I too get the choking as well…being you have had so much on your plate with the surgery, I think too, like me, you are suffering from a little stress. I don’t know your age, but I am also in the menapause phase, and I get that a lot. It is so hard to determine, but the lump I do get. It happens when I eat things that I am not supposed to eat, but when I am stressed, I get it also. It feels that the food will not go down, and it is also a choking feeling. Doctors cannot find anything, and are contributing it to stress. I understand how you feel, and when you don’t g get the answers you want, it makes matters worse, which will in turn do this to you…so any issue you are in fact having, is going to be magnified x 3.
MRI’s don’t lie…did you have contrast with your MRI? I can’t…I am allergic to the iodine, shellfish, and the IVP dye, also the dye they now have, the non-ionic dye, but they used it on me for my kidneys and they almost killed me. Not sure why, but all my tests were done w/o contrast.
I won’t have my tests done locally…I go to a place in Connecticut for ALL diagnostic tests, and they are always right and picking up on things…their machinery is VERY good, and they use 64 bit scanners and send me home with my images on a CD rom…they do not do that where I live in NY, so the two hour drive is most worth it.
I would suggest, that you listen to your body…if you feel you are not quite right, I would seek a second opinion…sometimes you just have to. I did not long ago and found out that I was a medical mess…but in a way, I am glad, because although I have a lot of bad days, at least I know that I was taken care of at a GOOD medical facility.
If you have any more questions, drop me a note…Teri
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