If it is a gallbladder issue I hope it can be treated with medication and not have to be taken out.
While I certainly understand be aware gall bladder surgery is pretty routine and all done through a tiny little incision. As far as surgeries go it's way down on the scale of how bad it could be so I wouldn't get too worried about it.
I have been feeling better in the past day or so thankfully. My appetite is slowly recovering although I still get a weird congestion-like feeling after I eat. No more gas pain unless that's what the congestion feeling is.
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Gallbladder problems tend to end in surgery. Mainly because the causes of gallstones can be numerous and there is not an easy path to reverse them. You can live without one just fine, my last 3 months have been so much better then before.
For me at least gallstones were accompanied by significant pain though, in my side.
I have had reflux problems too, and they sound closer to what you describe. It started when I ate a lot of food, and over time worsened to almost any meal. I could eat 1 meal a day then feel gassy and bloated for like 6-8h afterwards.
Antacids are cheap and really low downside. (Don't take them for months unsupervised )
Try taking them around meals and see if it helps.
Once I told my doctor how much they helped me he prescribed them for 3 weeks so it gave my stomach lining a chance to recover, and that part of the problem disappeared.
Definitely see a doctor.
Another thing to try is some probiotics to rebuild anything missing in your gut. Things like activia yogurt (no worries on the dairy there, generally yogurt digests itself), culturelle etc.
Doctor said it's probably reflux and gave me a prescription to reduce my stomach acid. After all the initial tests I described my diet before my symptoms and he said "Yeah that would cause it". He didn't think blood work was needed but on my check up I might insist on it just to be sure.
So I'm giving up on carbonated beverages. Should I give up on dairy as well?
When's the last time you had blood work done? Most doctors order general chemistry/hematology testing every six months unless any abnormalities show up in the results. I only mention it because, while I'm sure your doctor will order labs for you at your insistance, if he doesn't have any good payable diagnosis codes for the tests you want you may get stuck with a bill from your insurance.
Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
When's the last time you had blood work done? Most doctors order general chemistry/hematology testing every six months unless any abnormalities show up in the results. I only mention it because, while I'm sure your doctor will order labs for you at your insistance, if he doesn't have any good payable diagnosis codes for the tests you want you may get stuck with a bill from your insurance.
I had blood work done about a year ago but this is a military doctor just to be clear. So insurance isn't an issue so long as I'm on orders but if they don't think i need it they won't let me do it I realize. If I feel the same or worse in a week or two they may do it of course.
Doctor said it's probably reflux and gave me a prescription to reduce my stomach acid. After all the initial tests I described my diet before my symptoms and he said "Yeah that would cause it". He didn't think blood work was needed but on my check up I might insist on it just to be sure.
So I'm giving up on carbonated beverages.
Be careful with that, if labs aren't justified by physician's notes, they might get billed incorrectly and your insurance might not pick up the tab.
The initial test for GERD is actually a diagnostic-therapeutic trial of PPIs - something that ends in -prazole, or an H2 blocker - something that ends in -tidine. If you're still having problems, then you go in for more invasive tests. The basic lab tests: CBC, BMP, LFT, PT/PTT/INR, UA, lipid profile, etc won't help rule out GERD in particular.
Given your weight loss, a good history and physical exam would be able to assess the risk of something constitutional going on, like inflammatory bowel disease or other rheumatologic disease, latent infection, or something oncologic (unlikely due to your age), and the doctor who saw you in clinic has much better judgment and context about how far to chase those geese than we do.
There is really no economically justifiable way to test your gallbladder function unless it is giving you gallbladder problems, which usually manifest in episodes of abdominal pain. Standard of care is to not intervene unless you become symptomatic.
So, how has your medical visit helped? If the medication and lifestyle changes work, you have the peace of mind knowing that it's most likely not masking something more sinister. If they don't work, your doctor will have the evidence of treatment failure needed to justify follow up tests; you're in the system.
Marty: The future, it's where you're going? Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Doctor said it's probably reflux and gave me a prescription to reduce my stomach acid. After all the initial tests I described my diet before my symptoms and he said "Yeah that would cause it". He didn't think blood work was needed but on my check up I might insist on it just to be sure.
So I'm giving up on carbonated beverages.
Be careful with that, if labs aren't justified by physician's notes, they might get billed incorrectly and your insurance might not pick up the tab.
The initial test for GERD is actually a diagnostic-therapeutic trial of PPIs - something that ends in -prazole, or an H2 blocker - something that ends in -tidine. If you're still having problems, then you go in for more invasive tests. The basic lab tests: CBC, BMP, LFT, PT/PTT/INR, UA, lipid profile, etc won't help rule out GERD in particular.
Given your weight loss, a good history and physical exam would be able to assess the risk of something constitutional going on, like inflammatory bowel disease or other rheumatologic disease, latent infection, or something oncologic (unlikely due to your age), and the doctor who saw you in clinic has much better judgment and context about how far to chase those geese than we do.
There is really no economically justifiable way to test your gallbladder function unless it is giving you gallbladder problems, which usually manifest in episodes of abdominal pain. Standard of care is to not intervene unless you become symptomatic.
So, how has your medical visit helped? If the medication and lifestyle changes work, you have the peace of mind knowing that it's most likely not masking something more sinister. If they don't work, your doctor will have the evidence of treatment failure needed to justify follow up tests; you're in the system.
My medical visit did help, and in truth I've felt better since Saturday evening.
Before you give up milk for good, I'd recommend letting your system stabilize over the next couple of weeks on your new regimen and give it a few trials when your gut recuperates. The parts of your small intestine responsible for breaking down and absorbing lactose are at the brush border tips of your villi, so whenever you have some sort of gastrointestinal event, they get scraped off and you become temporarily lactose intolerant. Whether they regrow or not is not really up to you, as the adult small intestine does not really care about keeping up its lactose metabolizing capabilities.
You can end up with a diminished yet existent capability to metabolize lactose, which will result in minimal symptoms unless you eat too much at once, at which point enough will escape to your large intestine to be converted to gas, pain, and diarrhea by your colonic bacteria and the absorptive properties of your bowels. If you still want to eat dairy at that point, you can use lactaid and/or stick to whole milk and hard, aged cheeses which are more fat than lactose.
Or you could become totally lactose intolerant or regain your ability in full, or there never was a problem in the first place and it was all confounded by the other elements of your diet. So again, wait a couple of weeks and if your GI system feels good, trial some dairy and see what happens. If this is really important to you, remind your doctor on your next checkup - doctors don't like to deal with more than 2-3 problems at a time, so if you have bigger things going on at that point, tests can wait.
Marty: The future, it's where you're going? Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Probably the last update, my appetite is continuing to improve but I'm still kind of struggling to eat well due to where I am right now away from a kitchen. I still belch a lot at night but again that's probably due to not eating the right things for reflux. The most annoying thing is the heartburn-like symptoms I still get on occasion.
Probably the last update, my appetite is continuing to improve but I'm still kind of struggling to eat well due to where I am right now away from a kitchen. I still belch a lot at night but again that's probably due to not eating the right things for reflux. The most annoying thing is the heartburn-like symptoms I still get on occasion.
If it's just once in a while and it's preventing you from getting sleep, try two teaspoons of baking soda into a cup of water. It's a good deal of sodium and not a permanent solution, but after a particularly rough meal or something it will sort you out like within seconds. It also tastes like ass, so drink it like you would any other gross medicine - quickly without trying to tongue it on the way down.
Edit: You will burp like a vicious beast as the gas is a byproduct of neutralizing the acid.
Probably the last update, my appetite is continuing to improve but I'm still kind of struggling to eat well due to where I am right now away from a kitchen. I still belch a lot at night but again that's probably due to not eating the right things for reflux. The most annoying thing is the heartburn-like symptoms I still get on occasion.
If it's just once in a while and it's preventing you from getting sleep, try two teaspoons of baking soda into a cup of water. It's a good deal of sodium and not a permanent solution, but after a particularly rough meal or something it will sort you out like within seconds. It also tastes like ass, so drink it like you would any other gross medicine - quickly without trying to tongue it on the way down.
Edit: You will burp like a vicious beast as the gas is a byproduct of neutralizing the acid.
Surprisingly sleep hasn't been a problem for me yet but I still might try that.
Posts
While I certainly understand be aware gall bladder surgery is pretty routine and all done through a tiny little incision. As far as surgeries go it's way down on the scale of how bad it could be so I wouldn't get too worried about it.
For me at least gallstones were accompanied by significant pain though, in my side.
I have had reflux problems too, and they sound closer to what you describe. It started when I ate a lot of food, and over time worsened to almost any meal. I could eat 1 meal a day then feel gassy and bloated for like 6-8h afterwards.
Antacids are cheap and really low downside. (Don't take them for months unsupervised )
Try taking them around meals and see if it helps.
Once I told my doctor how much they helped me he prescribed them for 3 weeks so it gave my stomach lining a chance to recover, and that part of the problem disappeared.
Another thing to try is some probiotics to rebuild anything missing in your gut. Things like activia yogurt (no worries on the dairy there, generally yogurt digests itself), culturelle etc.
So I'm giving up on carbonated beverages. Should I give up on dairy as well?
I had blood work done about a year ago but this is a military doctor just to be clear. So insurance isn't an issue so long as I'm on orders but if they don't think i need it they won't let me do it I realize. If I feel the same or worse in a week or two they may do it of course.
Be careful with that, if labs aren't justified by physician's notes, they might get billed incorrectly and your insurance might not pick up the tab.
The initial test for GERD is actually a diagnostic-therapeutic trial of PPIs - something that ends in -prazole, or an H2 blocker - something that ends in -tidine. If you're still having problems, then you go in for more invasive tests. The basic lab tests: CBC, BMP, LFT, PT/PTT/INR, UA, lipid profile, etc won't help rule out GERD in particular.
Given your weight loss, a good history and physical exam would be able to assess the risk of something constitutional going on, like inflammatory bowel disease or other rheumatologic disease, latent infection, or something oncologic (unlikely due to your age), and the doctor who saw you in clinic has much better judgment and context about how far to chase those geese than we do.
There is really no economically justifiable way to test your gallbladder function unless it is giving you gallbladder problems, which usually manifest in episodes of abdominal pain. Standard of care is to not intervene unless you become symptomatic.
So, how has your medical visit helped? If the medication and lifestyle changes work, you have the peace of mind knowing that it's most likely not masking something more sinister. If they don't work, your doctor will have the evidence of treatment failure needed to justify follow up tests; you're in the system.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
My medical visit did help, and in truth I've felt better since Saturday evening.
You can end up with a diminished yet existent capability to metabolize lactose, which will result in minimal symptoms unless you eat too much at once, at which point enough will escape to your large intestine to be converted to gas, pain, and diarrhea by your colonic bacteria and the absorptive properties of your bowels. If you still want to eat dairy at that point, you can use lactaid and/or stick to whole milk and hard, aged cheeses which are more fat than lactose.
Or you could become totally lactose intolerant or regain your ability in full, or there never was a problem in the first place and it was all confounded by the other elements of your diet. So again, wait a couple of weeks and if your GI system feels good, trial some dairy and see what happens. If this is really important to you, remind your doctor on your next checkup - doctors don't like to deal with more than 2-3 problems at a time, so if you have bigger things going on at that point, tests can wait.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
If it's just once in a while and it's preventing you from getting sleep, try two teaspoons of baking soda into a cup of water. It's a good deal of sodium and not a permanent solution, but after a particularly rough meal or something it will sort you out like within seconds. It also tastes like ass, so drink it like you would any other gross medicine - quickly without trying to tongue it on the way down.
Edit: You will burp like a vicious beast as the gas is a byproduct of neutralizing the acid.
Surprisingly sleep hasn't been a problem for me yet but I still might try that.
Spicy food, caffeine, alcohol - try to keep to 1 category a day, or 1 morning and 1 night.