Is it IBS, gallbladder...any advice would help

Hi lucy,
Welcome to HealingWell!
You might consider having your appendix checked as well. Do you have a temp? Do you have any other symptoms besides pain and gas? Is your pain relieved by a BM (bowel movement)? Have you been diagnosed with IBS and are wondering if you pain is associated with that?

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No, during these episodes there is no nausea, or fever, or rebound tenderness lower in my abdomen...doesn't seem to be relieved by a BM, although I do notice I seem to have more of them than I used to...I don't have the symptoms of gallbladder disease, i.e., pale or fatty stools...just the pain in my side. Guess I should just quit guessing and go to a gastroenterologist or just have a colonoscopy done anyway as I just turned 50 and need a full physical anyway.

Sometimes pain is the only symptom of gall bladder disease. I know of people who went to the doctor for this odd pain in their side and find out their gall bladder is full of stones. From just what I have observed, stones don't seem to cause quite as many symptoms as outright dysfunction, because a stoney gall bladder will keep on functioning to some degree a lot of times. When it's dysfunctional you tend to have more episodes of nausea, vomiting, indigestion, diarrhea, etc. But, like I said, sometimes pain is the only symptom. Fever is actually not a symptom of a bad gall bladder, but I think it frequently is when your appendix is bad.

Yep, probably time to get proded anyways.