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Family History And Gallbladder Attacks

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Gallbladder, Gallbladder removal, symptoms, gallbladder disease, family history, hida scan, xray, ultra sound of gallbladder, catscan, radiation, testing, operation, surgery, kids, adults, teens, pain, right side pain, clamminess, sweating, chills, fever, stabbing pain, dana vento

This is my son, he is 15 years old and he is resting and recuperating after a truly well-fought battle against his Gallbladder.  Yes, at age 15 Gallbladder Disease and infection can happen and it does.  The attacks of gallbladder are just the same as those we have as adults, just that it is in a child that has to fight their way through the pain, until surgery can be justified or until you can find a Doctor or a hospital who will help your plight.  My story is not too different from a story that takes place in many other homes across the World. My story today is the fact that I would not accept when a doctor told me that there was no problem with my son’s gallbladder and sent us on our way.  I know my family’s history with this disease, and I know my son never complains, two things that were needed for me to keep my head in the game and press on to get an answer as well as resolve to his situation.  My child was sick, and this created a large plate of worry for me, I ended up with many sleepless nights, with a child that was up multiple nights in pain, and a few a trip to the ER. This is my story of lavishly living life out loud, advocating for my son, empowering myself to step out of what was not working for him and find a doctor who listened.  Family History And Gallbladder Attacks can often go hand-in-hand and our story is a concrete story that plays right into this.  Doctors who listen are the most powerful force there is, as their patience get the needed medical care and heal.  This is how I took control of my son’s healthcare and got him the medical attention he needed. 

The Gallbladder Is Attacking My Child
I arrived home one evening, not too long ago, to find my son rolled over, grasping his side and looking quite green. The pain was on the upper right quadrant, the pain was not radiating anywhere else. I immediately thought the worst: kidney stones, gallstones, I was not even sure that it was not his appendix. What did I know though I am not the doctor nor do I pretend to be, but I knew my son was in pain. I grabbed everything we needed, we ran out the door to the emergency room at our local hospital for children. I simply refused to endorse this place at all as we have never once in about 10 trips there over the last few years gained any help or satisfaction, rather we have become further agitated and aggravated from the lack of help from this facility.  15 is a tough age, it’s that in between age where you are not quite old enough to go to the regular hospital, but you are just a wee bit too old for the children’s type hospitals.   We got to the ER room, and things progressed of course quite slowly as we were put on the least priority.  We had to wait until the cops settled a problem in one room, and until a few social workers handled a case in another room.  The rooms in a ginormous facility were all filled and it was going to be a long day, a 12 hour day. My son sat, in pain until they finally came in to help, and determined he was not only in pain, but dehydrated from not eating and drinking.

ROUND ONE

 While all the in between details are not important, we were finally seen by a very thorough  nurse who asked us a lot of questions, and then followed up with the Resident, who also a lot of questions. Other than these pesky cramps and nausea that has been recurrent, over the last few years, after his meals, my son has been a very healthy.  We really did not know that  what we thought was possible acid reflux was actually gallbladder.  I totally missed the signs, because it always seemed to happen a few hours after dinner and he drinks about 1/2 gallon of milk.  With nothing to go by on his medical record, they began to run test, including x-rays of the in test time to make sure that the bowels were not backed up, checked liver gases, got an ultrasound of the kidney, and of the gallbladder. However the kidney ultra sound was not ordered but when we went upstairs technician felt that the kidney should be looked at and he did a very thorough ultrasound of it as well. Nothing showed up in these tests, and we were given additional blood test, and he was given boluses because he was dehydrated. As everything had been ruled out at least all the bad stuff, they decided that with pain management medicines such as something for cramping, as well as nausea, we could go home. We should also reach out to our PCP and see what suggestions he might have?
My ask to the hospital staff  was, “do you think it is his gallbladder?”  Explaining then my daughter’s previous medical history as well as my own because my daughter had just had her gallbladder out and had presented exactly the same with all of the same symptoms, and it was now out and she is fine.  For three years she suffered, and was given medicine she did not need, sent to doctors she did not need to go to, and suffered while her gallbladder continue to attack her. We had been to this hospital EVERYTIME she fell sick and each time, her situation was written off as ‘GI Issues’  The response they provided:  “well that’s not up to us to decide as long as we can send him home with some pain meds to manage that would be up to you and your doctor but we’re going to recommend that you go see a G.I. specialist.”  Here we headed down the wrong road once again and I refused to go see a G.I. specialist because we had already “been there done that” with my daughter. My son at this point is sitting there sick as can be, and not being treated, so a Great Big THANKS for not listening to the patient or the parents! Kudos!  You see, this hospital prefers to send you to all of their clinics, and everything is ‘GI Dr.’s and psychologists, because surely there is something bothering you deep down or there is a problem in your home causing this stomach issues, because we all know the body AND its organs never malfunction(eyeroll)!   When you get to the G.I. doctors, they like to present you with amitriptyline and they believe everything is controlled through the psyche. There is no way that a child could possibly have pain, at least this is how they make you feel!  This is the presentation they have made to me over and over when we brought my daughter in for help and since we were not one of those  “bigger” cases they like to find to headline the news, we were pretty much shucked off.  That’s it, they dismissed us home and I was headed for a second opinion as my child continued on in pain, and not eating!

ROUND TWO

Our PCP is very good at what he does and we been going to him for 15+ years.  He looked at the records and said, “this is gallbladder. He did indicate that we had to prove it, so he wanted a HIDA scan. Unfortunately, the ER Dr.’s slowed this process down for three more days, as explained to me by the technician that was providing the Hida Scan.  The ER doctors apparently don’t know protocol and should not have given my son Bentyl medicine because you cannot take this medicine for up to 72 hours before you get a HIDA scan. Bentyl is the medicine that is given for cramping. Our PCP scheduled this so he could go as soon as that 72 hour time frame was up! So for an additional 3+ days for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday my child continued to cramp over, get Hot, cold, and clammy, and feel sick while waiting to go get this test.
I personally knew how the test was going to turn out, just as it did for my daughter.  The test would show, nothing was wrong with the gallbladder, however that was not what I was looking for nor was it what my PCP was looking for.

What we already knew from Family History. Family History And Gallbladder Attacks 

You see just because the HIDA scan does not show an irregular functioning gallbladder, or one that does not empty properly there are other pretty tell-tale signs that we had a problem.  Again, I am not a Dr., but after three people in my house have had exactly the same symptoms and same results to tests, I know what works for my family.  Do check with your Dr. to learn the telltale symptoms of gallbladder disease. In our case, each person had been through the test and in each case, all of us, got sick, during and after the test, from what was injected into our body.

Our History – What Worked For Us

 In 15 years my son has had nothing really wrong with him other then really bad stomach cramps over the last three years which have pretty much gone untreated other then a little bit of medicine for acid reflux. We were not thinking about all the times that he cramped over with the same symptoms nor have we ever been to the hospital for them whenever we went into the ER this time. We had a rather healthy child, and thought it odd that nobody really wanted to listen to our problem. The ER would not give him a HIDA Scan that evening, they wanted to refer us out to G.I., the FIRST surgeon we visited was downright rude to us, and really didn’t care what his symptoms were or that he had taken my gallbladder out a few years ago with the same symptoms.  Our PCP pressed on and he got us to the right person and I followed through because the pain was getting worse and my son was losing weight from not being able to eat. Family History And Gallbladder Attacks are something that need to be looked at, and discussed by an appropriate provider.

 ROUND 3

Gallbladder, Gallbladder removal, symptoms, gallbladder disease, family history, hida scan, xray, ultra sound of gallbladder, catscan, radiation, testing, operation, surgery, kids, adults, teens, pain, right side pain, clamminess, sweating, chills, fever, stabbing pain, dana vento
The right person was the person that sent in the nurse that asked a few questions, then the doctor came in and he asked a few questions, he didn’t study family history which had been provided to him, and actually read a lot about our son’s medical history including the acid reflux that was being questionably treated. He saw that he had never been to the hospital for other procedures he knew there was something definitely wrong. He touched the area where my son was complaining and My son almost fell off of the table from pain. The doctor knew what needed to be done and had seen many of this in his surgical lifetime is he had been doing this 35+ years.
Yesterday, I am very happy to report that my son went and had his gallbladder removed. The surgery was very simple, the care was outstanding, and we spent time at Allegheny General Hospital. Our nurse Heidi was outstanding and remarkably attentive to my son our surgeon was out of this world fantastic, personable with my child, and spot on with the diagnosis as I already had known. When he removed the gallbladder, the Dr. in fact found that it was infected and it showed marks that proved that several other times the gallbladder had been infected too, looking like that of a rather old person. There was no question what was making my son sick it was just a question of finding somebody that would help us, and listen to us.
My son needed help. Our PCP found him help, and the surgeon was outstanding. Our son, can now carry on with his life, not live in a compromised lifestyle by not being able to move around and always feeling sick after he ate. It is refreshing to know that you can lavishly live life out loud, and find a doctor that will actually listen and help. There is nothing worse than being a distress because you cannot find help for your child. I have learned how to truly advocate and push for answers and I went outside of the normal facilities.  My child is no longer suffering, he is already beginning to eat, and he is walking all over the house, just one day after surgery, making it such a positive experience! My forehead can now be swept of worry and of course my thanks will forever be to the Doctors that listened to my son’s symptoms, and then provided resolve and a path to heal! The power of communication is grand and key to helping a sick person out of the sickness and Family History And Gallbladder Attacks should be discussed at length as it may play into the problem being overlooked.

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Comments

    • Dana Vento says

      My son is so much better, and so is my daughter and me. We all had issues with this and each one happened a year separate. Thank goodness this chapter is over with. thank you for asking

      Reply

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