Crohns with GALLSTONES?

[Chelle78]

Anybody else already go through this? My lab tests are OK. Doing the ultrasound tomorrow and the Hida scan next week.

:sign0085:
So after doing my own investigations, I'm thinkin that it looks exactly like gallstones. I am passing them. Except my colon hurts with the BM post chest pain too. That is what the doc can't figure out. I have all the upper abdominal pain, pressure, chest pain, nausea..... and then it evenually feels like a big bruise after something shifts and there is some relief in that area.

But then, I feel severe pain with the BM that comes afterward. Like glass or razorblades. The screaming likens to a midnight horror film. My choir director would be thrilled with the notes, range and length of it all coming from me.

Doc was ready to put me on amitryptilene for chronic pain in the colon before anyway because I am so sensitive, but it only comes just after the upper abdominal pain and with the BM that comes with it.

If you have a sensitive colon and have passed gallstones and have any understand of what I am going through---please get back to me. My doc is a bit confused with my multiple issues and trying to localize them all.

My issue seems to come about every 4-6 weeks like clockwork. By the time I have recovered from one attack, I have the next one to prepare for. I keep losing weight and I am too week to do even the basic of normal activity.

Thanks everyone!

 

[beth]

Funnily enough, I have an ultrasound on my gallbladder next week for suspected stones. Tho I'm not getting anywhere near your level of pain.
What I am getting is impressively green diarrhea if I dont eat.

 

[Chelle78]

What are your symptoms?

 

[social me]

I have all the same symptoms but no pain. I have been passing small round yellow balls, its not pills because nothing I take is that size also it looks nothing like a pill I put on gloves and yes its gross but I had to know so I could explain to my doc. But, it is soft, mushy and is yellow on the outside and white on the inside. I am also passing undigested meds. Who knows he did a stool sample check and it came back normal nor is he concerned because I am not having pain in my bm's. I hate all this and not knowing what is wrong with my body.

 

[bypeep]

So you're passing hard little greenish/yellowish/brownish balls in your stool? My gallstones were given to me after my cholecystectomy and they were rock hard and crystally on the outside, kind of like they were dipped in sugar crystals, but a little finer. Maybe more like 220 grit sandpaper. I had been passing stones for about 6 months before I had mine out, but never saw them in my bm's. The doctor says mine were large but still fractionally small compared to a bm. Large gallstones won't pass because the common bile duct won't stretch enough to allow them. It's mostly the smaller ones that get down through.

Why don't you just harvest some of these things and save them?

 

[Chelle78]

some answers!

:yrolleyes:My GI doc says I'm just constipated. Sure. After going through the ultrasound and then the Hida scan, I know that I for sure have kidney stones (thus the agony of the chronic pain in the lower back and under the rib zone which has been going on for about nine months)-- but then they reproduced the gall bladder attack completely with the scan in the hospital-minus the bowel pain and attack which almost always happens with each gall bladder attack.

I generally get the gall bladder attack, then the passing of the BM immediately post attack is excruciatingly painful. I get several soft balls together with a soft stool and then it os over except the recovery is weeks longer. After the gall bladder attack, it could take 24-48 hours for the BM to completely move and then in certain places, it is like glass moving through. I have done this every 4-6 weeks for 9months or so. With the passing of the BM, I scream for like and hour as it shifts through and Then I am on a liquid diet for usually a good week or so before I can start intrducing solids because my insides feel so torn up that it hurts to digest anything.

My doc keeps saying it is just my Crohns, colitis, IBS... but I say it happens on a very odd cycle. I now know that I have SLUDGE in my gall badder and kidney stones and that my gall bladder seems to complain when it is functioning even well. I am going for a surgical consult next week for "new eyes".

I have Passed small smooth, dark oval shaped looking stones that did not match the rest of a BM when putting on the gloves and goin diggin. My doc does not want a sample. They were about the size of the tip of my pinkie nail.

Can large gallstones get stuck in irritable bowels and appear as constipation?

I am passing something and various somethings. I am not sure what to look for.

Nobody is willing to talk poop. not even the GI docs who are educated in poop. Lets just say it now.:yrolleyes:

 

[beth]

An update from me: my ultrasound the other week showed I have lots of stones. So yesterday I saw a surgeon to talk about what to do about them. He is concerned I'm not displaying "classical" symptoms: ie I dont have long periods of bilary coloic pains. I'm only getting short sharp horrible pains and previously green poo.
So he wants me to see my gastro-consultant before he whips the gallbladder out, just in case there might be another explanation for my symptoms.

Apparently 20% of the population has asymptotic gallstones. And us Crohnies have a higher than normal incidence.

I know it's sensible to see my GI, but this aint my Crohn's, it feels wrong, it's in my gallbladder - poke it and it gets painful and I get another bout from it. I don't and have never had gut pain. And my CRP/ESR are not raised, Faecal Protectin test was also within normal (non-crohn's) limits. So I'm kinda disappointed at the mo. I hoped this wouldn't be dragged out, just get it sorted and move on.

 

[bypeep]

Wow. Where I live, if you are symptomatic, have stones or sludge, your gallbladder comes out with no questions asked. Just the fact that you are having pain and have stones should make this a no-brainer. I agree that other things could be causing the pain though.

It seems like torture to have to wait around before something gets done. I hope that they get this sorted out for you.

 

[Sunshine]

Another test to consider is an ERCP. It's an upper endoscopy in which they collect bile from the gallbladder to do a microanalysis on or at least that's all they did in my case, it can also be used for a more in-depth study of the bile ducts, etc. It's considered more of an 'old school' test but it can be a great tool to confirm a gallbladder issue especially if labs, ultrasound, and HIDA scans all come back normal. At least this proved beneficial to me after several attacks weeks apart with each one becoming more severe but everything coming back normal. Even the second part of the HIDA scan completely replicated my pain but since my function percentage was normal my GP said my gallbladder was fine. My GI is the one that eventually ordered the test and further explained that the microcrystalline 'sludge' was essentially like sending a viscous and sand mixture through the intestines. Two weeks later the gallbladder came out and I can't believe the relief it has provided me....I don't think I truly realized how much right side back pain I was in....it even quieted down my flare significantly....

I hope this helps for anyone experiencing gallbladder troubles!