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Chronic Right-Side Abdominal/Back Gallbladder Pain

Digestive Health | Last Active: Nov 12, 2022 | Replies (54)

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@4man28

Hi I'm having similar frustrations...I am 28 years old female, i am hoping to maybe get some answers on here from anyone who has had similar problems. About 3 months ago I started to get weird back pain it was in the middle of my back more to my right side it would go from mild then with activity would get really tense tight pressure feeling then I would get really nauseous…thought I was maybe getting the flu went on for about 2 days like this then started a dull sharp pain right below my right rib cage and would radiate the pain to my back . only relief I would get would be laying down with a hot water bottle behind my back on my right side. In the past 3 months it goes from a week or 2 of every symptom very severe throwing up constantly sick to then being bit better for a week then flares up again feels worse…my pain tolerance is high so the constant burning stabbing feeling on my side I can handle but when the nausea sets in it's very hard to function. I have been to the doctor they have done a ct , they did an ultrasound of my kidneys, I have had a endescopy done, blood tests done etc all say normal the only thing was my blood tests showed my liver enzymes were slightly elevated but was told that was of no concern…I am someone who hates to even go to the doctor would like to just pretend that I'm fine and continue on but as much as I would like to my pain on my side stays…side note I had my gallbladder removed over a year ago …I was told by my surgeon that i should have my gi consider sphincter of oddi dysfunction? But seemed like she didnt really think it was…honestly very very tired of doctors and family thinking I'm crazy and it's just something simple like heartburn etc…if I could magically say I'm better and it was that easy would have done that long time ago. 

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Replies to "Hi I'm having similar frustrations...I am 28 years old female, i am hoping to maybe get..."

Hello @4man28

I found the "Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction" mentioned by your surgeon to be interesting so I did some research and looked it up. It is something that happens after a gallbladder removal. Here is a link to some information about it,
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/14516-sphincter-of-oddi-dysfunction.
If you read the symptoms you will see that many are quite similar to what you are experiencing and the interesting thing is that it is more frequent with people who have had their gallbladders removed.

Here is another article which discusses this as well and does mention the symptom of elevated liver enzymes.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4087924/ This article also describes some of the tests that can diagnose it.

You may want to search for a doctor who has some expertise in this area. If you are near the Mayo facility in Minnesota, here is information about a doctor who is experienced with this, https://www.mayoclinic.org/biographies/topazian-mark-d-m-d/bio-20054524.

We have another discussion about this on Connect, https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/i-have-sphincter-of-oddi-dysfuncfion-it-causes-severe-upper-abdominal-pain/?orderby=DESC#chv4-comment-stream-header.

I would like to know how you are doing with this process of finding an answer to your pain. Will you provide an update?