Mandie,
I lived with this pain for over 2 yrs undiagnosed because the doctor I was referred to by an ER did not believe me when I told him I did not eat after midnight like he told me not too. So when he saw something on the in office ultrasound machine he flatout told me I know you ate something that's why there is something there. He gave me prescription Pepcid AC. It was a placebo for me for awhile, then I moved to live with my mom in another town.
I had 2 attacks within 30 mins and my mom drove me straight to that towns ER and I was told I had a classic textbook case of gallstones and they did a ultrasound right then and found them. They got me a surgeon and I was seen within a day or so and he immediately put in the request for the surgery because as he said you can't leave the gallbladder in once its diseased.
I had the surgery done laproscopically and was only a little sore I had 4 bandaid stitches as they called them back in 92' only my bellybutton had real stitches. I have since developed something near my bellybutton but that is probably from my genetic disorder and not the surgery.
I was so happy to not have that pain anymore and to finally have someone believe me. I was told it was indigestion to irritable bowel syndrome the IBS diagnosis came from a woman; who had the nerve of saying that being a first time mom I was very nervous which was probably causing my pains. She recommended I take fiber supplements to help me poop.
Didn't help at all, they only drawback from this surgery is some people like me develop diarrhea from eating too much fat in a meal. Right after surgery I couldn't even get through a meal without rushing to the bathroom, so eating out was a problem for my family. Now I know to watch my diet and when I do consume too much greasy foods I know what will happen. I decided not to take a special medication that might have helped me because my insurance would not pay for it and it was way too expensive at the time.
Now I just deal with it. Go to the doctor get an ultrasound they are better nowadays than they were and get rid of your pain. Just make sure if you do have the surgery that the surgeon checks the bile duct if he leaves that in, sometimes a stone can be in there and later on you will start having the pains again. That happened to someone I knew she had to have a kind of laser surgery at her Kaiser Hospital.
BTW the doctor gave me my stones after surgery and told me my gallblader was just filled up with stones. And that 1 of them was the size of a 50 cent piece and he said its no wonder I was in so much pain. He also sent some of the stones to pathology to make sure it was just from Cholesterol, I still have problems with my Cholesterol moreso now that I don't have a gallbladder but I deal with it with Niacin everyday.
I hope I haven't overwhelmed you, I just don't want you to wait out of fear because I did that when I had problems with the first doctor and it cost me a lot of missed time with my newborn daughter who is now 16 1/2. Don't make the same mistake get it diagnosed and fixed quickly. Let me know what happens.
W. H. in Sacramento,CA