Posted 9/18/2006 12:09 PM (GMT -8)
When I had an attack--which usually, but not always--happened in the middle of the night--I would wake up sick to my stomach. Lying down intensified this feeling 10-fold. I would get up and pace around my living room cramping all along my diaphram (several doctors said I wasn't have GB problems because people only hurt on the right side). After some time--usually about 30 minutes--the pain and sick feeling would intensify suddenly and I would go sit on the toliet and hold a trash can and wished I could die. Then I would have a fairly explosive bowel movement, sometimes followed by another one or two additional movements. I would then become very chilled, but the pain and sick feeling would start to subside. I could then return to bed, but I had to go to sleep sitting up for a few hours afterwards because lying down made me sick again.
Supposedly the inability to lie flat on your back when you're having an episode is a hallmark symptom of a bad gall bladder. Vomiting is also common, but I only ever did it once. Vomit and stools during and after attacks tends to be yellow or greenish in hue, become more and more yellow/green the longer you expel fluids. I usually had diarrhea the day after an attack and the more I pooped, the yellower it became until it was daffodil-bright yellow. Bile also burns like the devil and there's nothing you can do or take to stop the burning in your esophagus or rectum. I also sometimes hurt up into my right shoulder and down into my right arm--my elbow would ache and ache like it has been severely injured. This usually happened after I drank something with caffeine in it, but sometimes it happened with food too. This too is a common gall bladder symptom. The other common symptom I had was the sudden feeling that I had overeaten and was in danger of vomiting. This would happen before I had even finished my regular amount of food for a meal, but some people complain of feeling Thanksgiving-miserable after only three or four bites.