Gallbladder pain - go to ER?
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Anonymous
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My 19 yo is at college 800 miles away. She told us about some pain she has had for months that has become more frequent and lasts longer. Based on chat GPT and my own experience having a gallbladder removed, we are pretty sure she has a gallbladder problem. University services can’t give her a sonogram until Thursday so they sent a referral to the hospital. Of course, they are closed now for scheduling.
I am concerned about her and think she should go to the ER. Am I overreacting? We also have a 20 day international trip planned over the holidays and I am worried she is going to have an attack and have to have surgery either right before or while we are overseas. Thoughts? Suggestions? |
Anonymous
| Is she having acute symptoms? If not then that doesn’t sound like an ER trip. If the university health service thought it was urgent they would have said/sent her to er herself. |
Anonymous
| Symptoms come on soon after eating fatty foods and have lasted as long as 6 hours recently. Sometimes pain is bad but doesn’t sound unbearable yet. |
Anonymous
| I would not travel with this happening unless you are in a place where you trust the medical care and your ability to access it. |
Anonymous
| Is she having an attack right now? |
Anonymous
| Other things can cause pain there. I understand your concerns and the intense pain level involved. Thursday is just a few days from now. I’d advise her to eat lightly, no fatty or processed foods, no booze, no Tylenol, and plenty of water for now. |
Anonymous
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is she throwing up? if yes, go to ER
If no, then get her to sip mint tea, lay on her stomach on a hard surface (stretching helps) and maybe a hotter bottle, if she has one, to ease the pain. |
Anonymous
| ^^. hot water bottle is what that meant to read |
Anonymous
| My local walk in clinic does sonograms. |
Anonymous
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Ultrasound is not perfect in detecting or ruling out gallstones. I had them done twice, with clean results, at a major research hospital. They saw no stones and as a result I experienced 10 years of gallstone pain. It culminated in gallstone pancreatitis and 8 days in the hospital NPO waiting for it to recede so I could have surgery.
If you think this is gallstone pain, I would not plan to leave the country for 20 days over break. It’s not going to have been dealt with by then. But there are a lot of things that could cause intermittent severe abd pain in a college-age kid, and I would not take any of those out of the US undiagnosed either. ER or not will not make the difference unless she already has pancreatitis, and if that were happening the pain would be severe enough that she would not be on the fence about going to the ER. |
Anonymous
| Is she grossly overweight? When I was younger, I thought I was having gallbladder issues, but it turned out it was a burst ovarian cyst. |
Anonymous
You can have an ovarian cyst burst without being overweight. I had one before I started my period at a normal weight. Upper right quadrant pain? |
Anonymous
+1 and eat low fat to manage. |
Anonymous
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Symptoms usually wax and wane and can be avoided by noting her triggers. For me it was McDonalds. Other fast food didn't bother me as much, but for some reason any amt of McDs would cause a flare up.
If it were me, I would wait until Thurs and go on a very strict diet until then. If it doesn't improve and she's still in major pain by Wed, then maybe go in to the ER. FWIW my advice is based on never having a flare up/symptoms for more than a few hours. They always subsided, so I've never been in pain for days on end. |
Anonymous
A strict diet can actually trigger an attack. |