Medical update

[feuervogel]

I got in for ultrasound this morning. The radiologist on duty took a look at them as soon as the technician finished taking pictures, and he said it looked fine. But my doc hasn't received the report yet, and I don't know if she wants to do further testing or just make me take the nasty-ass metronidazole empirically. I'll probably hear back Friday while I'm at the con.

According to the website I linked yesterday,

* Ultrasound accurately detects gallstones as small as 2 mm in diameter. Some experts recommend that the test be repeated if an ultrasound does not detect stones, but the health care provider still strongly suspects gallstones.
* Air in the gallbladder wall may indicate gangrene.
* Ultrasound does not appear to be very useful for identifying cholecystitis in patients who have symptoms but do not have gallstones.
* Ultrasound is also not as accurate for identifying common bile duct stones or imaging the cystic duct. Nevertheless, normal ultrasound results, along with normal bilirubin and liver enzyme tests are very accurate indications that there are no stones in the common bile duct.

So, if I have tiny gallstones, or no gallstones at all, ultrasound won't pick them up. A friend who had her gallbladder out last year (or the year before?) said it took u/s, HIDA, and CT before they found hers. Yikes.

Other options to consider, I suppose, are IBS, IBD/Crohn's, and adult-onset food allergy.

Comments

[sabeth]

Both IBS and IBD seem somewhat unlikely to me because of the kind of symptoms you've been having. (Mainly nausea and vomiting, right?)
Either way, thinking good thoughts in your direction. Hope they figure it out soon.

[feuervogel]

Not just vomiting, actually. I didn't really want to get into the gory details tho.

[warpig1979.livejournal.com]

You'd have to have a pretty mean case of IBD for that to be the culprit (it's never made me vomit save for once, when my mesalamine allergy developed and nearly killed me before I figured out what was happening). You'd likely be passing a hell of a lot of blood, it would be kind of obvious.

[feuervogel]

Yeah, no blood, which pretty much rules that out. But IBS is still a maybe, except that I can't definitively link it to any foods, or foods at all.

A mystery!

[anacoluthon.livejournal.com]

I know a handful of people who found out when they were gluten-intolerant in their 20s to 30s. Not that that's necessarily the culprit, but I know they all had periods of mysterious sickness before figuring it out.

[warpig1979.livejournal.com]

I don't think celiac disease causes that kind of nausea and vomiting, though.

[amakarie.livejournal.com]

:/ it sounds like gallbladder to me, but considering my stepmom had it, I may be biased. Whatever it is, I hope you guys figure it out and get it treated properly soon. >: