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has anyone been told this?

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Irritable Bowel Syndrome
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Posted 8/6/2006 9:09 AM (GMT -8)
I had gallbladder out in march. I was deathly sick before & still get sick now, either c or d. I still hurt up high in my back, likethe bottom of my ribs, and dirrectly around in my back also. I have had 2 dr. tell me our bodies or nerves are kindof like tree trunks, that it could be refered pain from front. Has anyone been told this or something simular? Does anyone else hurt like this? This has been on going since march.
Posted 8/6/2006 9:35 AM (GMT -8)
I haven't personally been told this by a doc, but I have heard it from a friend who sees a chiropractor. Also, Keri (another member) can speak to this. She has had first hand experience with this type of radiating pain. Hopefully she'll be on shortly.
Posted 8/6/2006 11:49 AM (GMT -8)
Referred pain is a real possibility. I have a chronic back muscle injury, so it's hard to tell what's causing pain where most of the time, but I know that certain areas can refer pain to odd places. Often shoulder pain is from gas... back pain could be from your rib muscles tensing from pain or anxiety over other IBS symptoms. A lot of doctors seem to believe that people with IBS have miscommunication in the neurons, so if our brain is sending wrong messages to our intestines, it seems to me a very real possibility that they're sending pain messages without cause. That's not at all saying that the pain isn't there or "in your head" as we've all heard before, but that our brains somehow have managed to not send or receive all the messages appropriately.

I'm certainly not a doctor, but I would suggest looking into some sources regarding referred pain and the remedy. I wonder if accupuncture could help.

~ Jade
Posted 8/7/2006 7:21 AM (GMT -8)
Oh, I forgot to tell you that, given the pain that you are in (regardless of your bowel issues, you should not have pain once your gall bladder is out, at least not high up like that), you need to talk to your surgeon about it. It is possible that your bile duct was damaged when they took your gall bladder out. Or, if you had stones, you may have had a stone lodged in the duct when they took your GB out and it's still there. You need to talk to your surgeon about this lingering pain and see if he thinks it might be a surgical problem. I guess it's even possible to develop scar tissue that causes problems (and thus pain) or is even painful in and of itself.

When my gall bladder was bad, I would hurt up into my right shoulder and down to my right elbow and across my diaphram, so yes, GB pain can radiate to most anywhere in your upper torso.

Also, have you tried anti-gas meds? Gas can often get trapped under the rib cage and hurt into the back and chest. I know when I had my GB that I had a hard time passing gas for some reason and would get bad gas cramps. It may be that you have a similar problem and that's the cause of your upper torso pains.
Posted 8/7/2006 8:04 AM (GMT -8)
I tryed to talk to him & he just brushed me off. I never had gall stones just bad hida scan. The surgeon was very reluctant to remove gallbladder because when they done hidascan they saw a place on my liver on the left dome he said he did'nt know what it was. The GI compared it to a ct scan that was 3wks. previous & said it was a artifact, other words there was nothing there.I am begining to worry about malabsortion. I have never looked at poop before until now. So if anyone can answer this it would really help. Is IBS D kind of oily looking? Mine varies between C or light or dark yellow D & kind of oily looking . It could just be because my gb has been removed. Drs. won't tell you nothing, just act like your nuts!
Posted 8/7/2006 2:12 PM (GMT -8)
I don't really know what you mean by "oily", but the yellow is a sign of excess bile--in your case caused by not have a GB.

If you are concerned about malabsorption, which can happen in people with too much diarrhea and--I had one dr tell me (though not my g.i.)--people on Welchol, just get an OTC vitamin supplement. Not one of those with 1,000% of your daily allowance for all of the ingredients--excess consumption like that just means your kidneys have to work harder filtering and expelling the excess--one with 100% or so of everything is good enough.

You might want to see if you know someone who can recommend another surgeon and ask for a second opinion on the liklihood that you have surgical damage or scar tissue that's causing your pain. I'm afraid I don't know the stats on how often a GB removal can be botched, so I don't know if that's a long shot or not.
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