It's good to be alive

[XXL]

Glad you are up and about. I worked in health care for 44 years doing treadmills, ekg's and echocardiograms. Postponing treatment of chest pain has caused many people to end up with more irreversible damage than they would have otherwise. Good on you for getting it checked out quickly.

Merry Christmas and a happy 2020!

XXL

[steplift20]

Happy everything worked out in a positive direction for you, God bless. Nobody wants to go to the doctor or hospital thats the last place we want to go but sometimes you have to. I get pains all the time but when do you go to the hospital? I had this pain in the head and it would be a pounding headache then I said to my wife,Stop hitting me in the head with that pan, then it went away,that was a close one

[cfelton]

Glad everything turned out ok! We're all getting older and with age comes some aches and pains. Glad you listened to your body and went to get checked out. Hope you continue to recover well.

[Blue_Runner]

Wow, glad you got that resolved! The timing is crazy as I've had right upper quadrant pain intermittently for the last year. Just under the right rib. It started last year around this time right after I had the flu. While getting the flu checked out I talked to the doc, they just kinda said it was nothing. Fast forward to about a month ago I went back in to the doc for this pain and they scheduled a CT scan. 2 weeks later I got a note in the mail that the scan was reviewed and normal. So I guess I'm just supposed to keep dealing with this pain on and off? LOL It just seemed to me they would try to figure out what it is. I read online that CT scan is only about 75% accurate on detecting gallstones while ultrasound is the preferred method. Seems they would have done that first, esp considering the $3100 bill I got for the CT scan (that's before insurance, but dang).

When I was a kid my parents took me to the doc and doc said I was jaundiced. They ran blood tests which revealed elevated bilirubin. The doc said I likely had Gilberts syndrome. Reading online I saw where people with GS have a higher risk of gallstones. Later when I was in college (over 20 yrs ago) I had a bought of nausea that lasted around 3 days. Could not keep anything down and puked green bile. Went to the ER and they kept me overnight for testing. Never figured it out and never happened since.

Not sure where to go with it now. I guess I need to schedule a follow-up. Did you have right upper quadrant pain before this event? If so was it intermittent? Curious to know. The pain I have is dull. I also notice elevated dull pain after a big meal.

Happy New Year!
Blue

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by Blue_Runner

Wow, glad you got that resolved! The timing is crazy as I've had right upper quadrant pain intermittently for the last year. Just under the right rib. It started last year around this time right after I had the flu. While getting the flu checked out I talked to the doc, they just kinda said it was nothing. Fast forward to about a month ago I went back in to the doc for this pain and they scheduled a CT scan. 2 weeks later I got a note in the mail that the scan was reviewed and normal. So I guess I'm just supposed to keep dealing with this pain on and off? LOL It just seemed to me they would try to figure out what it is. I read online that CT scan is only about 75% accurate on detecting gallstones while ultrasound is the preferred method. Seems they would have done that first, esp considering the $3100 bill I got for the CT scan (that's before insurance, but dang).

When I was a kid my parents took me to the doc and doc said I was jaundiced. They ran blood tests which revealed elevated bilirubin. The doc said I likely had Gilberts syndrome. Reading online I saw where people with GS have a higher risk of gallstones. Later when I was in college (over 20 yrs ago) I had a bought of nausea that lasted around 3 days. Could not keep anything down and puked green bile. Went to the ER and they kept me overnight for testing. Never figured it out and never happened since.

Not sure where to go with it now. I guess I need to schedule a follow-up. Did you have right upper quadrant pain before this event? If so was it intermittent? Curious to know. The pain I have is dull. I also notice elevated dull pain after a big meal.

Happy New Year!
Blue

My pain was not dull. Started out as a tiny dull pain under ribs on my right side, just below the nipple. But the pain kept building until it seemed to cover the entire right side of my body, under the ribs. As previously mentioned, I thought it was gas so I started deeply massaging my chest just below the ribs. And it seemed to work! The pain did indeed shift to the center of my chest, about one inch below the ribs, and the pain on my right side seemed to lessen somewhat... so I took a wait and see attitude.... waiting for the pain to go away. But it didn't go away.. It just stayed there, never getting more, never really lessening. After a few hours of this torture I decided it was time to let someone else look at it so off to the hospital I went. Checked into the emergency room, told them I was having chest pains
(which is a red flag to them to check a person immediately in case it's a heart attack... it cuts through all the red tape and the waiting in the ER waiting room). It sounds like you "may" have the same thing as me Blue, but certainly I'm no doctor so take my thoughts with a grain of sand. I'd tell your doc you want an ultrasound done post haste.

[randlemanboater]

Glad you are back on your feet D.

In 2011 I was going to the gym regularly, riding bicycles a couple hundred miles a week, eating semi well, in great shape...but I kept getting sick.

Sinus and ear infections, occasionally just vomiting for no apparent reason, even ended up with pneumonia. This went on for 9 or 10 months.

Eventually I had a gall bladder attack (there is no mistaking when you are having one of those). My gall bladder was so infected that I had to lay in the hospital for 2 days on IV antibiotics before it could be removed.

My surgeon said that I probably had the gall bladder infection the whole time I was having all the other problems. My body was busy fighting it so all the other things were able to get me.

I did NOT have any stones.

A note on post gall bladder removal, at first you really have to watch fat intake, a hot dog or ranch dressing will shoot through your system like a freight train.

All these years later, hot dogs can still give me a little problem if I eat too many of them.

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by randlemanboater

Glad you are back on your feet D.

In 2011 I was going to the gym regularly, riding bicycles a couple hundred miles a week, eating semi well, in great shape...but I kept getting sick.

Sinus and ear infections, occasionally just vomiting for no apparent reason, even ended up with pneumonia. This went on for 9 or 10 months.

Eventually I had a gall bladder attack (there is no mistaking when you are having one of those). My gall bladder was so infected that I had to lay in the hospital for 2 days on IV antibiotics before it could be removed.

My surgeon said that I probably had the gall bladder infection the whole time I was having all the other problems. My body was busy fighting it so all the other things were able to get me.

I did NOT have any stones.

A note on post gall bladder removal, at first you really have to watch fat intake, a hot dog or ranch dressing will shoot through your system like a freight train.

All these years later, hot dogs can still give me a little problem if I eat too many of them.

Mine was infected also. I was on IV antibiotics for about 20 hours before my operation, and then for the balance of time that I was in the hospital.
It's funny though. I was cautioned by just about everyone that the first several months would be "difficult" with certain foods passing through like a freight train, yet in fact the exact opposite for the first week was the only thing that I experienced. It was more like a slow boat to China. I've had several hot dogs since the operation, as well as a few hamburgers from Mickey D's. In fact, the only thing I have noticed is a weight loss of almost 9 pounds so far. I attribute that to the fact that it seems I cannot eat a "full" meal anymore. It's more like several little meals over the course of a few hours. Weird

[Blue_Runner]

Thanks RB and D, good info on gall bladder issues. I guess I need to get back in to the doc for another look. RB how did they determine it was your gall bladder? Ultra sound, CT scan, both or other?