Just spent eight hours in the ER.......

[seano732]

For no reason, apparently. Long story short, woke up on monday morning with a sharp stabbing pain upper right abdomen. That's odd, i thought, but since I'm an ignorant middle aged dude, i figured I'd ignore it and it would just go away, right? Got worse throughout the day, Wed morning I wake up and it's worse, and now radiating to my right lower back. No bueno, so I call my primary, he sees me about 430 yesterday afternoon, pokes around my abdomen, hits the spot where my gall bladder is and i nearly passed out from the pain. Dude, that's your GB, you need to go to the hospital, like, now. Fuck. Call Mrs. Seano, get to my local ER about 6. TOTAL SHIT SHOW. Didn't see a doctor till after 10; they run an ultrasound, CT scan, bloodwork, EKG, the whole shebang. And........nothing. Doc says everything looks normal, here's some pain meds, follow up with your primary tomorrow (today). Seriously, WTF. Feel a little better today, but it still hurts like hell. Any of the resident dental collective care to weigh in? This sucks.

[Name Redacted]

Did the same thing last year and it ended up being constipation. Luckily insurance covered a lot of it.


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[detrusor]

Biliary colic is painful and can be somewhat “hidden” on imaging etc.

Is it worse when you eat? Regular slaying of the work bathroom?
Change in stool etc?
Been on any real raging binges lately? Stretch on glisan’s capsule (surrounds liver) is very painful to palpation and can be from liver inflammation (can be viral etc).

First thoughts.

Goat?


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[old goat]

Biliary colic is painful and can be somewhat “hidden” on imaging etc.

Is it worse when you eat? Regular slaying of the work bathroom?
Change in stool etc?
Been on any real raging binges lately? Stretch on glisan’s capsule (surrounds liver) is very painful to palpation and can be from liver inflammation (can be viral etc).

First thoughts.

Goat?


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Definitely keep following up if pain continues. US is very good for detecting gallstones, not perfect.
One other thing to consider, especially if Seano is older than 50, would be shingles. If so a rash should show up in the area of the pain in a day or two. I assume they checked urine--no blood to suggest kidney stone.

I expect to see a post in the PR shortly about the bill. Hope insurance is good.

[Meadow Skipper]

Vibes, and stay on top of it. I ignored a sharp pain on my left side...until my appendix finally ruptured. No hilarity ensued.

[seano732]

Thanks for the quick feedback, gentlemen. D, no significant changes in bathroom slaying; no changes for better or worse after eating; knocked a few back while watching ND get curb stomped by Miami on Saturday night, but no Fear and Loathing- type shenanigans, so there's that. Goat, I'm 46, have had shingles once, so I know what that looks/feels like. They did check urine, nothing unusual. And yes, I've got good insurance, but it's frustrating for sure to not know wtf is going on. Pain yesterday was prolly 7/10, it's about a three now, but that could be relief due to pain meds. Going to see primary (again) on Monday morning, we'll see what happens......Upside, at least it's not a tumor or some shit......

[seano732]

Vibes, and stay on top of it. I ignored a sharp pain on my left side...until my appendix finally ruptured. No hilarity ensued.

Thanks, appreciate the vibes....Ruptured appendix sounds VERY no bueno.....

[Alaskan Rover]

*For no reason, apparently."

No....there was definitely a good reason you were there. And that was to check out a possibly life-threatening situation. You did exactly the right thing.

Hope you feel better.

And no, I don't value your opinion any less, Doc. Interwebz diagnosis are very difficult!

People around here value your opinion! I bet you are right WAY more than you are wrong! You provide a great service to the he Mag community!! 👍👊

[Toadman]

Not gallstones maybe? Or you possibly you have pancreatitis? You would need some serious Rx pain meds to deal with that kind of pain...

[old goat]

Not gallstones maybe? Or you possibly you have pancreatitis? You would need some serious Rx pain meds to deal with that kind of pain...

I'm sure that would have been checked with his bloodwork.

[bagtagley]

I was in the ER for 8 hours, and felt the need to put this somewhere...


Woke up feeling painfully bloated. Tried fart position, which only made it worse. Got up cause the pain got sharp and immediately realized I was having a repeat of an attack I had a couple years ago. Woke the wife up, got dressed, pain got worse, so she called an ambulance to expedite the ER process. Peaked out in the ambulance. Full on level 10 pain with shallow noisy breathing, yelling and carrying on. Felt a gurgle in the gut as I got up from the stretcher, which began a slow release over the next hour. I was cooked and tired of being in pain, so gladly accepted the Morphine they were offering. Imaging showed a 2 cm gallstone flopping around in there. Doctor handed me some papers and said "you're fine, pussy, beat it and go talk to a surgeon", or something to that effect.

I keep alternating between fearing a return of horrible, edge of death pain I felt from a fucking gallstone (roll eyes), and frustration over the fact that I'm in my 40s, eat better than anybody I know, and still ended up with a huge fucking gallstone.

[/diary]

[old goat]

I was in the ER for 8 hours, and felt the need to put this somewhere...


Woke up feeling painfully bloated. Tried fart position, which only made it worse. Got up cause the pain got sharp and immediately realized I was having a repeat of an attack I had a couple years ago. Woke the wife up, got dressed, pain got worse, so she called an ambulance to expedite the ER process. Peaked out in the ambulance. Full on level 10 pain with shallow noisy breathing, yelling and carrying on. Felt a gurgle in the gut as I got up from the stretcher, which began a slow release over the next hour. I was cooked and tired of being in pain, so gladly accepted the Morphine they were offering. Imaging showed a 2 cm gallstone flopping around in there. Doctor handed me some papers and said "you're fine, pussy, beat it and go talk to a surgeon", or something to that effect.

I keep alternating between fearing a return of horrible, edge of death pain I felt from a fucking gallstone (roll eyes), and frustration over the fact that I'm in my 40s, eat better than anybody I know, and still ended up with a huge fucking gallstone.

[/diary]

It happens. While eating a lot of fat increases the risk of gallstones, they can happen to people with good diets as well. Lots of people get diseases they have no particular reason to get--lung cancer in non smokers, heart attacks in healthy athletes. Glad you're feeling better. Gallbladders and hernias are what keep surgeons in business. No reason to wait for another attack before you have the gall bladder removed. In the meantime, if you do have the impulse to eat something fatty, oily, etc--don't. It will increase the likelihood of another attack.

[sb]

Dude that sux.

Hope you feel better.

Can they do ultrasound to break up Gstones?

I have heard of cleanse for Gallbladder but once its full of stones it maybe surgery time. Vibes

[Dantheman]

No reason to wait for another attack before you have the gall bladder removed.

Once you get it removed though, aren't you basically locked into a low-fat diet for life? My MIL had hers removed, did not change her diet at all, and gave herself acute pancreatitis. I don't remember just how her her lipase levels were, but her doctor freaked. She's now limited to a max of 10g of fat per meal and 20g per day.

[old goat]

Some people have trouble eating fat after surgery, most dont. The likely cause of pancreatitis after GB surgery is a small stone left in the common Bile duct that blocked the pancreatic duct as it passed. I never told people to modify diet after GB surgery unless they has symptoms.

[TBS]

Shit I once spent 12 hrs in ER waiting to get a broken arm splinted and a scrip for enough pain killers to get me to an appt with a surgeon. This is after I drove myself 90 min from resort clinic to hospital.

I was there so long they had to re-admit me. Twice

It was a freakin cold nite and about 20 homeless were in the lobby of ER. Two of em got in a fight over a leftover cheeseburger somebody left behind.

They took new xrays even though I walked in with a set from 90 minutes ago.

The resident on call kept wanting to reduce the fx, even though the mountain clinic doc (who happened to be my rotator cuff surgeon - works in the clinic for a pass) said it was gonna need fixation. I’m not your practice dummy asshole!

[Meadow Skipper]

Here’s my ER horror story. Bad, bad gut pain that turned out to be a ruptured appendix. My dear wife drove me to the ER around 3 am, and they took me pretty quickly - I must have looked rough. So, they’re doing MRIs and CT scans and all that and at one point they give me an enema with something to light up the imagery. After that I’m lying in a gurney, strapped in, and oh hell yeah, I gotta get to a toilet. So I call someone over and they insist that they can’t let me out of the gurney. I’m pleading when, boom, my sphincter lets loose and blows out all the stuff that was up my rectum.

“Have fun cleaning that up” I told the asshole that wouldn’t let me out of the gurney as I walked over to the bathroom dripping shit fluid as I went.

[Gepeto]

...“Have fun cleaning that up” I told the asshole...

another funtastic moment by you today... you are definitely on form

eta: we'll... in a 24hr cycle at least?

"I tried riding, running, exercising, all that shit, but the ice kept falling out of my drink so fuckit."

[old goat]

Shit I once spent 12 hrs in ER waiting to get a broken arm splinted and a scrip for enough pain killers to get me to an appt with a surgeon. This is after I drove myself 90 min from resort clinic to hospital.

I was there so long they had to re-admit me. Twice

It was a freakin cold nite and about 20 homeless were in the lobby of ER. Two of em got in a fight over a leftover cheeseburger somebody left behind.

They took new xrays even though I walked in with a set from 90 minutes ago.

The resident on call kept wanting to reduce the fx, even though the mountain clinic doc (who happened to be my rotator cuff surgeon - works in the clinic for a pass) said it was gonna need fixation. I’m not your practice dummy asshole!

Orthopedists are spoiled. If you've got a fracture that could be definitively treated with a cast then and there the orthopod oughta come in and do it. If it's gonna need surgery they ought come in, admit you, and get you on the surgery schedule. The system is run for the convenience of the docs, not the patients. That will change when Bernie's president.

[old goat]

A horrible ER waiting story from my residency: guy comes into a very busy ER complaining of abdominal pain. He has stable vitals, doesn't look too sick, so they put him in the hall where he waits for six hours before an ER doc examines him and decides to get a surgery consult. I come see him, pull back the sheet that's covering him. He is blue--from lack of oxygen--from the waist up and white--from lack of blood flow--from the waist down. He had clotted off his aorta and was basically dead from the waist down. After six hours the damage is permanent but we felt we had to try to restore blood flow on the chance we could save his legs and pelvis because otherwise he was going to die. We were able to restore blood flow, but he died from the poisons coming from his legs.

[skaredshtles]

Here’s my ER horror story. Bad, bad gut pain that turned out to be a ruptured appendix. My dear wife drove me to the ER around 3 am, and they took me pretty quickly - I must have looked rough. So, they’re doing MRIs and CT scans and all that and at one point they give me an enema with something to light up the imagery. After that I’m lying in a gurney, strapped in, and oh hell yeah, I gotta get to a toilet. So I call someone over and they insist that they can’t let me out of the gurney. I’m pleading when, boom, my sphincter lets loose and blows out all the stuff that was up my rectum.

“Have fun cleaning that up” I told the asshole that wouldn’t let me out of the gurney as I walked over to the bathroom dripping shit fluid as I went.

Dammit. I tried not to lol. But I lol'd.

[adrenalated]

Just spent 5 hours in the ER with my fiancee for what ended up being gallstones. Apparently, it does it fact feel like you're going to die.
She is a nurse and was at work, so fortunately she was already at the hospital.