THE MEDICINE CABINET
What Gall!
By Jean Sutherland
mexico4us@yahoo.com

     For me it started with “what they diagnosed” as gastroenteritis. In the early morning hours I started throwing up and passing out. Originally they suspected appendicitis but blood tests ruled this out. So without any further tests they diagnosed gastroenteritis and released me from the hospital with anti-nausea medication. It took nearly two weeks to recover from this attack.
     As time went on I continued to have problems with nausea and would often spend nights in the hospital being given Gravol shots to stop the nausea, none of which worked. After a couple of years the attacks were getting closer and closer together. The specialist I was referred to ran all the tests for gastric problems and could find nothing wrong. A few months later I was admitted to the hospital for two weeks, whereupon they ran every test they could think of to try and diagnose what was wrong.
     In the end, they decided it was my gallbladder and I was scheduled for surgery. At that time I did not know that nearly 25% of all people with gall bladder problems had test results that showed nothing wrong. Five days before the surgery was to be performed things were now so bad that I could not even keep water down and had to be admitted to the hospital as I was dehydrating.
     After the surgery the surgeon informed me that I had a badly diseased gall bladder. Ten days later I was released from the hospital with a horrible nine-inch scar and three months of recovery at home.
     Today things are very different. Some of the symptoms you should be looking for with gallbladder disease or gallbladder cancer are:
     Abdominal pain, most often this is in the right upper part of the abdomen with pain going up to the collar bone and even down into the right arm.
     Nausea and/or vomiting: At the time of their diagnosis, more than half of all people with gallbladder cancer report vomiting as a symptom.
     Jaundice: Jaundice is a condition that gives a yellowish color to the skin, the white part of the eyes, and tissues of the body. One-fourth to one-half of all gallbladder cancer patients have jaundice when they are diagnosed.
     Gallbladder enlargement: Sometimes bile duct blockage causes bile to accumulate in the gallbladder, causing it to become larger than usual. This enlargement can sometimes be felt by the doctor during a physical exam, and can also be detected by imaging studies such as ultrasound.
     Other symptoms: Less common symptoms include loss of appetite, weight loss, abdominal swelling, severe itching, and black, tarry stools. Although these are symptoms and signs of gallbladder cancer, it is important to remember that they may also be caused by non-cancerous diseases. In fact, hepatitis (infection of the liver by a virus) is a much more common cause of jaundice and there are many causes of abdominal pain that are far more common than gallbladder cancer.
     Nonetheless, people with these signs and symptoms should check with their doctor so that any health problems can be diagnosed as soon as possible, when treatment is likely to be most successful. People over age 60 are more likely to develop gallstones than younger people. People at risk are often women, people over age 60, native Americans, Mexican-Americans, overweight men and women, people who fast or lose a lot of weight quickly, and women on hormone therapy.
     The good news! The most common gallbladder operation is called laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Four tiny incisions. The cystic duct is cut and the gallbladder removed through one of the small incisions. Because the abdominal muscles are not cut during laparoscopic surgery, patients have less pain and fewer complications than they would have had after surgery using a large incision across the abdomen. Recovery usually involves only one night in the hospital, followed by several days of restricted activity at home.
     If you are at the point where you are drinking the Malox right from the bottle then it’s definitely time to see the doctor. There is no need these days to fear this problem as most tests and surgery are far less invasive than they were when mine was removed.
     The good and the bad of my gallbladder problems: first the surgery and recovery back then was hard and long. On the other hand I lost nearly 60 pounds. Because I had lost my appetite through this whole ordeal and lost so much weight I had a doctor who told me, “Just eat whatever appeals to you.” Cake, cookies, pies and anything sweet got my appetite back real quick.