I've been diagnose with gallstone problems and my doctor sent me to a specialist. the specialist barely let me finish talking once he has seen how much I weigh and that I have fibromyalgia. he says that I have IBS not gallstone problems. I need help understanding this, how the symptoms add up.
Symptoms:
Strong sudden pain under the right ribcage that sometimes spread to the left side.
Lasts up to 4 hours then it fades, but it has happened that a dull, nagging pain had lingered on for days until the next emergency.
The pain goes in waves and there is time to "rest" and take a breath now and then.
It often it happens after eating and often I wake up in the middle of the night from the pain. (Mostly after eating a heavy meal late in the evening.)
Sweating and shaking.
Cramps that often causes me to vomit.
Sometimes diarrhoea and sometimes I feel "bloated" during the worst of the pain attack but that's not often.
An ultra sound showed that I have stones in the gallbladder.
The reason why I was sent to the specialist was because of new symptoms:
The pain spread from under the ribcage and up into my chest as well as up my back between my shoulder blades and it also shot out into my shoulders/upper arms. it was similar to how I imagine a weak heart attack could feel.
Fever for over a week.
White (or close to white) stools that was oily and floated. after a couple of days it was more like white porridge.
My blood sugar started to raise during the night when I was sleeping.
I feared that my pancreas was being affected.
All symptoms stopped 2 weeks before I got to see the specialist.
I'm female, over 40, have diabetes and fibromyalgia, have lost weight but is still over weight, have a family history of gallstone problems and I take cholesterol-lowering drug. I don't eat many of the "danger foods" for gallstone problems but I have eaten eggs a few times without anything happening, just as I have eaten eggs and then been in pain hours after that.
All this, is according to the specialist signs of me having IBS (Irritable Bowl Syndrome), that and the fact that I'm the mother of a 20 year old and a 17 year old. Women who have given birth don't get problems from gallstones he says, they have stones but they don't cause problems. my problem is therefore IBS.
I'm a classic example according to him and I just don't see it.
What am I missing?