It is March 20, 2011 and I am still in pain.
After reviewing my normal blood work and since my pain has been chronic the surgeon I saw did not feel my pain was related to Gallbladder. He said that it could be removed to see if that helped, but it was not his recommendation. He suggested I get checked by GI doctors. Thank God I feel he was honest and caring.
I saw a GI Doctor and did not get along so well with him. He was insisting on an endoscopy and I wanted other less invasive testing first. Two things he thought were possibilities were Costochondritis or ulcer. Those were on my list of possibilities when I went in to see him.
My general doctor agreed to test for Gluten sensitivity (It came back negative.) and he asked me to try the OTC drug Prilosec to see if that improved my pain. Sure enough my worst night pain was immediately better taking Prilosec 20.6 mg/acid reducer! He suggested I stay on this 6-8 weeks and then see if I would need to stay on it longer. I agreed but began to study alternative helps for ulcers. I did not understand since I had not had any symptoms of heartburn or indigestion. I kept wondering but stayed on the Prilosec and got off after 6 weeks and began to get worse again. Started back on Prilosec again but after 10 days was not getting any better so I stopped it and began looking for other help.
Went to a homeopathic MD and am now taking some pretty heavy doses of:
DGL complex (I am taking DGL chew-able tablets)
Glutamine powder
*Digestin
Broad Spectrum Probiotic
MSM Complex
Aloe/200X 500 mg
Mastica 500 mg
I was told to avoid caffeine, alcohol, chocolate, strong mints, excessive fatty or fried foods, calcium containing and aluminum containing antacids. I was not ingesting those anyway.
(*I am dragging my feet on taking the Digestin because of the HCL and pepsin in it- I really believe that taking three digestive supplements (back in August) an enzyme plus HCL and HCL Activator may have caused my ulcer in the first place. I don't think I was low on stomach acid to begin with and I was eating a Vegan diet at the time - I think my supplements were wrong for me and that they may have actually caused my ulcer which they think is a Duodenum ulcer. My mistake I did not think they could hurt me.
I have been on the ulcer healing routine about a month now and I feel it is helping- I can almost feel something tightening (like a healing wound) in the area of my pain. Michael McEvoy, a metabolic nutritional counselor that I meet with told me that it takes 6 - 8 months of serious work to heal ulcers. He suggested adding raw green cabbage juice and I've been doing that about 2 times a week - I've added raw potato juice too but I am hesitant to take too much cabbage juice since it may be counterproductive for my hypothyroid condition. Anyway, I also added a little Manuka Honey Bio Active 10+ and Pine Nut Oil based on things I've read on the Internet and am using a little GI & Muscle Helper (L-Glutamine, N-Acetyl-D-Glucosamine w/FOS), GI Soother (Immunoglobulins and Lactoferrin) and Pyc 50 Grape Seed Extract) that one of my supplement suppliers recommended.
I am so very tired of being in pain. This all seems to be helping but I was pressing on my area of pain which is just under my right ribcage. I really do have some specific sore spots. I began thinking that I really needed to get checked out muscular and skeletal system wise. So I went to see a Physical Therapist and she really thinks this pain is from a strained abdominal muscle. Gee Wiz-- A third diagnosis to work on!
I hope that this helps someone wondering about undiagnosed Upper Right Quadrant Pain like me -at least it may give others some other things to consider. When I researched Upper Right Quadrant pain there are many sites online that discuss endless trials of folks getting tested and drugged and misdiagnosed trying to get to the bottom of their pain. Just like me.
My mother always said 'God and Time' and I totally agree!
Will update again as things progress.