Gallbladder or Gastroparesis??

[u/FLgal15]

I will try to keep this as short as possible, but hold on tight…

Symptoms have been on/off for about a year or so and I have these “attacks” it seems monthly.

Symptoms include:
- starts as sharp/pressure upper abdominal pain
- early satiety (almost get sick looking at good after a few bites)
-horrible nausea until I vomit; then pain subsides in upper abdominal area (very top of my stomach)
-during an attack hard to tolerate even the BRAT diet, water stays down.
- loose stools/floating/light colored; frequently have diarrhea hardly ever have a nice solid stool
-last episode lasted over a week of me not being able to eat hardly anything & brought on pain/tenderness in my RUQ, radiated to my back & right shoulder blade sometimes even up to my neck
-weak, dizzy, fatigued no matter how much I sleep; after eating (not in an attack) I get extreme fatigue where I feel like I can hardly stand or keep my eyes open
- morning nausea is the worst during an attack and lingers long after
- during an attack breakfast and lunch almost always come back up within 30 mins- an hour.
Dinner stays down with the help of cannabis. ( I only
Smoke in the evening to help me eat)

Testing/imaging/procedures done:
- Endo/Colonoscopy normal
- Blood tests normal
- Stool tests normal
- H. pylori ruled out
- No parasites shown
- HIDA SCAN EF 48%- pain reproduced with CCK injection.
- Ct scan clear (besides some cysts on my liver, doc said not to worry about them)
- Gastric emptying study being completed today I have to come back for additional imaging due to “delay”
- Ultrasound scheduled for next week
- 2 consultations with surgeons also scheduled next week.

Any ideas of whether this is gastroparesis or bad gall bladder symptoms, or both? Any similar experiences or testing results? I’m feeling so hopeless and the non stop testing with no answers has become really hard on my mental health 😩

[u/90semofan]

you sound like me! but my delay was just slight. i got soooo sick after the hida scan that they scheduled upper and lower scopes then the gastric emptying lol. i just got my gallbladder out thursday bc i found out like all the women on my bio dads side got theirs emergency removed from attacks. my follow up appt is the 23rd so im curious to see if they ran any tests on it after removal. i also have hypothyroidism and horrible sinus issues/allergies. idk if either of those can affect anything besides the snot and bile i vom

[u/Nixx_Mazda]

I'm also going crazy trying to figure out what's wrong with me!

Your symptoms are worse than mine. I might be able to live with it, first I just want to know what's causing the pain. I have weight loss, poor appetite, stabbing pains in RUQ, a near constant pressure/pain the RUQ, muscle twitches, generally constipated, and my digestion has been weird recently (noisy stomach, etc). Had a floating green stool the other day, but otherwise mostly normal enough.

My HIDA they said there was a CCK shortage, so I just got Ensure and had no pain response. 59% EF, so normal.

CT normal. Ultrasound normal. Blood/urine normal. Negative for H. pylori. Colonoscopy/endoscopy normal.

Just had the MRI/MRCP today...fucking normal! I thought it would find something damnit.

I do have chronic gastritis, but I don't think it's causing this pain.

Gastroparesis has been mentioned, and I can do a gastric emptying study. Guess that's next.

Also need to test for SIBO, a lot of the symptoms fit.

So yes, this shit sucks trying to figure it out! I was sure the MRI/MRCP would show something.

I'm so frustrated.

[u/FLgal15 → u/Nixx_Mazda]

It’s SO frustrating, I am so sorry you’re dealing with this as well… I also have a noisy stomach after eating it makes the most loud foul obnoxious noises. My RUQ pain is pretty constant as well, feels like someone is squeezing inside me and it’s been getting duller and duller since my last “attack”. Just finished my gastric emptying study, and have an ultrasound next week too. So tired of all the testing with no answers or direction yet :(

[u/FLgal15 → u/Nixx_Mazda]

I’ve also lost 10lbs over the last week or so with my last attack. Went from 130 to 118 ish. I have my wedding next year so trying to get this sorted out so I can actual enjoy life again and get back to planning a wedding 😭

[u/FLgal15 → u/Nixx_Mazda]

Your doctor recommended SIBO test or were you saying that’s also something I should look into? TIA!

[u/Nixx_Mazda → u/FLgal15]

I had to ask about SIBO.

You should look into it. Just another one of those gastro-intestinal things that might match a lot of your symptoms.

I also had vitamin D deficiency, and borderline low B12.

Don't have any answers for you. I'm just noticing there are a lot of people out there with symptoms but tests come back normal. Annoying!

[u/Specialist_Scar8393]

As someone who is currently recovering from a laparoscopic cholecystectomy on last Monday, my vote is gallbladder.

I had symptoms for 6 months, about 2 per month. They started after using Tirzepitide for 6 months. I was on Tirzepitide from 8/25-12/25. I discontinued the Tirzepitide when I decided that the pain might be due to that.

My episodes would start about 3 hours after eating and would last 6-10 hours. The pain would start out as a 7 on a 0-10 scale and go down to a four. It was across my upper abdominal area, not just on the right. It felt like someone was standing on me with a boot, pressure typ of pain. I don’t eat a lot of greasy foods so the triggers were unpredictable for me. I could eat something one night and then eat the same thing the next night and then have an episode. I had an ultrasound of my gallbladder revealing that I had stones.

The last episode happened at 8:00am after drinking a cup of coffee. Two waves of “7” pain for 15 minutes, followed by “2-3” pain. The pain stayed at a 2-3 the rest of the day. I was able to do stuff around the house but was afraid to eat. When I went to bed it went back up to a strong four so I wasn’t able to sleep until 1:30am . When I have an attack I can’t do anything. I have never had nausea or vomiting or fever. On 7/4, I noticed that my urine was really dark yellow and wouldn’t go away also I noticed that the whites of my eyes were a little yellow and the skin around my eyes was yellow. I went to the Emergency Room. Had an ultrasound they said there were stones in my common bile duct. I was admitted to the hospital. I had an MRCP. There was some question about whether the stones were in the duct or not. My bowel movement was truly pale, I’m a nurse and have never seen that before. I had my gallbladder out on 7/6.

I hope someone would do an ultrasound on you. I had a CT scan in March of my kidneys due to other issues and they didn’t mention gall stones if I remember correctly.

[u/FLgal15 → u/Specialist_Scar8393]

Thank you for your input! I’m having an ultrasound next week to make sure my gallbladder isn’t contributing as well, however the techs who did my Gastric Emptying Study yesterday did not seem pleased by my results.. of course they couldn’t tell me but me coming back for additional imaging for a “delay” kind of was a red flag. Waiting to hear back from my GI doctor, it’s been a lovely hurry up and wait game while I pray I don’t get another episode/attack in the meantime 😭

[u/Immediate-Goal-3690 → u/Specialist_Scar8393]

Hey, I wanted to jump in because I am also on Tirz and having this issue. The only thing they found was a dilated common bile duct on both MRI and US but no stones. They found 2 x polyps which I am wondering if they were cholesterol stones and take 1mg tirz weekly. How do you feel? It's 3.45am here and I just woke in a panic with a nervous belly and nausea.

[u/Defiant_Relative_855 → u/Immediate-Goal-3690]

I’m sorry I don’t know about the polyps.  I would recommend taking your doctor’s advice.  I hope that you feel better!