Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Biliary Colic / Gallbladder Attack - Unbelievable.

Hi everyone,

I know I haven't been around much lately. It's a combination of the usual excuses, flare, fatigue, too many balls in the air at once. However, something happened to me this week that I thought I should share with you all.

I've been flaring since the beginning of July. Have been experiencing a lot of costochondritis / rib cage pain, and thoracic spine pain. I've also been exhausted, beyond belief. Falling asleep at 8, 9, 10 in the evening. Never waking up refreshed. Not able to do the things around the flat. So tired by lunch time at work. Of course, I attributed all of this to trying to do too much, and my flare.

On Tuesday morning my pain woke me up at 5:30 am. It was a band around my lower rib cage, not much unlike pain I've had in the past. But it was bad, really bad. I took a percocet (5 mg of oxycodone, equivalent to 10 mg of oral morphine), and when Loz and I realised that it wasn't going to touch this pain, I took a second. We put on a TENS, tried a topical gel called biofreeze, anything we could think of to help. I couldn't sit still for long, couldn't find any position which was comfortable. I went to the lounge to attempt distraction with the television, but it wasn't working either. The pain was so bad I was calling out, and I was having trouble taking a sufficient breath because it hurt to move my ribcage. With shallow breaths, intermittent yelps and tears, only 1.5 hours into this, we realised I needed to go to the hospital. The car ride was torturous. At some point during this I realised that my upper abdomen was also tender, but assumed it was just referred pain from my chest/rib cage.

At the A&E (ER) they took us straight in. Moaning and constant motion and complaining of chest pain and upper abdominal pain will do that for you. My ECG showed that my heart rate was 120. My oxygen saturation bounced around in the low to mid 90s even with oxygen on. I told them through the yelps that I was medically trained and asked them to keep me informed with what they thought was going on, and they were absolutely wonderful about it - even showing me my ECG/results as we went along which really helped with my anxiety.

It wasn't until much later in the day, after being admitted, given lots of morphine and having an ultrasound that the cause of all this pain was found. Apparently, I have a 'large' gall stone, which was trying to get out of my gall bladder, and made itself known to me in a very significant way. Ultimately, we hope to have the whole gosh darn thing removed, but in the meantime, I had two days of IV antibiotics, and have been given 5 days of ciprofloxacin to take care of any possible infection (cholecystitis) that may have resulted as well.

I've been out since yesterday, and still feel quite crummy. A visit to my GP was helpful, he reminded me that I WILL feel crummy for a good 4 or 5 days yet, and that I should be doing what I was doing in the hospital for the intervening time: resting and drinking lots of fluids. Also - I need 3-6 weeks of watching my diet - no fatty foods, no alcohol, no tea or coffee.

Loz as you proabably guessed has been wonderful and supportive during this whole thing, taking time off of work, and bringing my things to the hospital for me and staying by my side during the scariest of moments.

I'm glad to know what it is I'm dealing with (devil I know vs. devil I don't), but I'm a bit of an emotional wreak after the whole ordeal - which I appreciate isn't very logical. I know that the scariest bits are over, but I don't ever want to go through that again, and am somewhat afraid of eating now. I also feel a bit embarassed of having a gall bladder stone at 31 years of age, and feel like it's some sort of judgement on my life style - another less than rational thought, bc my GP told me today that he has patients 15 years of age with gall stones, and that if we knew precisely what caused them he'd be a very rich man. But I'm mostly just really angry that I have to deal with yet another thing. I'm sick of being tired, and not pulling my weight around the house. I'm frustrated about having more dietary restrictions.

Anyhow, I'm sorry to go on there with feeling sorry for myself. I mostly wanted to post about this so people don't fall into the trap that did. I have been experiencing pain that is less than typical for AS, but had attributed it to AS because it wasn't too dissimilar, and because, let's face it, it's my (and likely our) default. Obviously, when the pain got REALLY bad, I knew I needed medical attention, but even at that, I thought that I just needed better pain meds for the AS.

So, that's it my friends. Any related gall bladders stories, and personal experience of what worked and what didn't to keep the attacks at bay please let me know. I never want pain like that again.

Hugs,
Jeanna

So sorry to hear of all the pain you must have been in aswell as some really scary moments.
I hope that you are on your way to feeling better (physical and emotional) but know that you are in good hands with Loz at your side.
Please get well soon and keep us posted.
Dan

This sort of crap runs in my family. (which is why I don't take tylenol/acet. very often, don't want to upset the liver). Father died of liver problems, brother had to have his gall bladder out in his thirties. Brother is now fine but was sick as a dog suddenly before the gallbladder extraction. Had a friend who also got hers out in her forties, she was an extremely discliplined eater but it was getting ridiculous as to what she had left to eat. I have had mild bouts of not tolerating fats in food as well as I normally do for a day or two a month which exactly coincides with the day I ovulate and then it stops, so for me it's obviously hormonal driven. Birth control pills also made it worse. Before I changed my diet over to the low starch/non/gluten version I had horrendous problems tolerating edible forms of fat and then it pretty much disapeared. I had another round this spring I couldn't figure out, (I almost went to the doctor, can you imagine?) then I went on a trip and stopped taking flax oil daily and it disapeared, so that solved that problem. It seems I don't tolerate flax oil very well.

Full Scale gall bladder attacks are NO fun from what I have seen, and it sounds like the sooner you get that pesky gall bladder out the sooner you're going to feel a heck of a lot better.

Jeanna, Lovey ...

You have every right to feel down in the dumps and every right to come here and vent/moan/whatever epithet you want to give it. How frightened you must have been and I am so very relieved that you have found the problem and are being treated for it. You just focus on getting well - and when it all gets on top of you, come here and just go BLAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! 'Cause we love you and understand.

And your reminder is a good one. It is far too easy for us to blame everything on the AS. Sometimes we are blind to when we really should go in to see a doctor. So, thank you for that.

(And, Loz, thank you for taking such good care of our Jeanna.)

Love and hugs,

I really hope Jeanna that the antibiotics will settle down the immediate crummy feeling symptoms, and that the removal of the gallstone/s really gets you feeling better. No wonder you've been in near constant flare. Best wishes to feel better really soon!
I'm sending all my best wishes to you and to Loz

Wow Jeanna
That must have been so traumatic to go through. There is something you might expect when this is all over. Every time that I go through a traumatic experiance , the AS monster reviels it's self with a major and long lasting flare. I never had gall stones but I did pass a kidney stone once and I pray to never go through that again. I had a wild flare that lasted 3 months long. .

Loz is a very good man.I am so happy to see him lookn after his Jeanna Our Strutsy

Love you both....and a big gentle hug
Ray

Jeanna dear....I truly hope you get to feeling better...

As has this way of kicking at us for awhile and its sometimes hard to distinguish whether our pains are AS related or something else.

As far as the gallbladder...I know of that all too well. I had my first gallbladder attack at about 4 months pregnancy with Sofia. They tried pain meds but my ob/gyn knew it was going to have to come out. At the time I also showed I was positive for the H. Pylori bug and I believe thats what messed me up so bad stomach wise. I couldnt take the triple antibiotics for baby bug's safety. So at 6 months they did the laser surgery. Everything went very well but pain continued...luckily for me I ended up with another c/section. Turns out I still had TWO more gallstones that stayed behind. The doc said they can slip away and thats why I STILL had pain and they thought it was just my tummy growing and sorenes..>NOT!!

Lucky for me I found a fantastic GI doc after and she helped me out. I was treated twice in 2 years with the triple pack for h. pylori. Since then I have been slowly better. One thing is diet is crucial. Some nurses told me yes you can go back to eating the way you did....i beg to differ !! My stomach was never the same. I stay far far away from tomatoes or tomato sauce..thats what set off my first attack. Its a terrible feeling and can imagine your grief of the pain meds not working and the ride to the hospital. It's been 6 years for me and I still remember the pain clearly. Dont worry...I was 31 then and was told it happens alot in pregnant women. One doc told my stepdad they are seeing it in teens now. Eating too much seasoned and spicy foods make it worse.

For me I follow a low starch. It has controlled my attacks tremendously. If not I start feeling like I'll faint and sharp abdominal pains and just downright ugly. It can last from 15 minutes to a few hours. Take good care of yourself and dont over do it. I know Loz is doing all he can to care for his luvvie..so hang in there....know that you are in my thoughts and prayers....much luv from bug]]

Awww Jeanna, that's sounds like a truly horrendous experience to have gone through and a very scary amount of pain to endure. I've never had gallstone woes but it sounds just terrible.

I'm not surprized you feel somewhat shaken emotionally from all this , I think it's a logical reaction considering what you've just been through... being left with an 'aftermath' sensation after having every nerve frayed to the limit. Feeling a bit jumpy that it might come back or a bit fearful of food seems perfectly logical to me... just a natural survival instinct, I imagine!

I hope the next 4 or 5 days of expected crumminess will go by smoothly and include some better quality of rest, sooner rather than later. And I really hope that once the whole gosh darn thing is removed it may just translate to helping settle your worse than usual flaring days back down again. With a little luck, perhaps this is a soft light at the end of that tunnel too.


Warm (((hugs))) of concern and sympathy for you, Jeanna.
Hope you will start feeling better really really soon!!
mig

Awww Jeanna, you poor thing... Sending lots of hugs.
Sure hope you're feeling better soon - the AS monster is quite enough without gallstones to boot.
And none of this thinking that somehow this was your fault. With your training you know that it's not always about diet - it's more to do with alot of factors, and mostly about crap luck. lol My family, in addition to AS, also has an inheritable blood disorder that pretty much guarantees gall stones at some point in life, so this is also something I will have to look forward to. Yuck. Although at 31, I'm the OLDEST to NOT have my gallbladder removed in my family.
But despite your horrible luck, I'm glad to know there are good things in your life - with your very supportive Loz to help you through this. What a great guy you have!
Hope you are able to get the stone out soon so that you're less a few diet restrictions and feeling better.

Hi Jeanna,

I am so glad that they found the problem so quick!

Hopefully now you will be able to take care of the problem.

My gallbladder I think might be the 1 thing I have NOT had problems with BUT our middle daughter Rachel who is a mere 21 and just had our grand daughter in february had an episode pretty much like yours in which they said when they did the ultrasound there were so many gallstones in there they didnt see how she had made it this far.

They did surgery within 3 days...took it out.

We were so worried for her, but the surgery went great she missed like 2 days of work, took it easy for a week and was back at work.

She does have to be careful what she eats and it does seem spicy things are the worst culprit but by drinking more water and being careful she has lost some weight and says she feels better than she has in a long time.

I will tell you we were in total shock to learn our 21 year old needed to have her gallbladder removed, that just shows you that it can affect anyone at any age at any time.

I hope you are over the worst of it, so glad Loz is there to make things easier for you.

Keep us updated,

Lisa