Gallbladder or Pancreas?

For a few months, I’ve had upper left abdominal pain. It started when I would eat or drink that had some type of sugar in it. My doc did some tests and concluded that I didn’t have diabetes. After he told me good, maybe I’ll stop eating and drinking stuff w/ sugar in it. Now, the left side hurts when I eat or drink anything and I become nauseous. Just w/in the last 4 days, I noticed an unbearable pain on my upper right side of my stomach. I don’t know how to describe it. Sorta like someone stabbing you repeatedly and you can’t stop it. It wakes me up at night and the early mornings if I’m able to sleep. It radiates to my right shoulder but, it’s not constant. My stomach is bloated and it looks like I’m a few months pregnant. My heartbeat races anytime I lay down. My breathing becomes labored. Actually, my stomach hurts worse when I lay down. The pain moves into my chest.
I’m going to make an appt. w/ my doc. Or, should I go to the ER? How serious could this be?

Right upper abdominal pain with radiation to the right shoulder blade area does sound like a gallbladder problem. An abdominal ultrasound would help here. Typically, this would also be associated with nausea, that you also described.

The abdominal pain that moves up to your chest might be due to acid reflux. You can take Prilosec OTC from your local pharmacy (best before breakfast and dinner) to see if it helps. The left upper abdominal pain and bloating that you described may also be related to the above problems, but one could not say with any reasonable probability based on the information provided.

Reasons why you should definitely go to the ER are symptoms such as fever, jaundice, and dark urine discoloration that would be the bile pigment (bilirubin) spilling over to the urine because of bile duct obstruction.

The decision whether to go to the ER rests with you. Even if not an emergency, sometimes the blood tests and ultrasounds that they arrange through the ER can help diagnose the problem quickly. Other times, they may just examine you and check your vital signs before letting you go home, depending on their first-hand impression.

It is also possible to get pancreatitis with gallbladder stones. When a gallbladder stone passes through the bile duct or gets stuck at its end, it can cause gallstone (or biliary) pancreatitis.

My impression is that you have a gallbladder problem plus/minus acid reflux. The good news is that both problems can be treated effectively. If you are getting worse, a trip to the ER is definitely reasonable.

Good luck and get well soon.

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