Liver/gallbladder/pancreatic cancer?

[pirossapkaskukta]

Hey, I just wanted to say that you are not alone in your fears. If you look at my one and only thread, you will see a history of my struggles with excruciating burning back pain after I eat. I knew something was up with my biliary tract (gallbladder and/or pancreas), and so I had an ultrasound, HIDA scan, and CT scan with contrast to see what was up, and all came back normal. More recently, when I had another pain attack and I went in, they found that I had elevated lipase and amylase (which means I was experiencing acute pancreatitis). I have an appointment with a GI coming up and I am going to push for an Endoscopic Ultrasound or MRCP since these are much more sensitive and will hopefully catch what is causing my pancreatitis.

Right now, my logical brain is saying it is either microlithalis (very very small gallstones that are being passed through the common bile duct and can't be seen with an ultrasound/HIDA scan/CT) or its gallbladder sludge or biliary dyskinesia/dysfunction. Hopefully, I can get my bile ducts cleaned out and my gallbladder removed and then all will be well.

A less happy prognosis would be extensive damage to the pancreas with no discernable cause (chronic idiopathic pancreatitis), in which case I would be stuck with this pain for the rest of my life (which would suck). Another fear is pancreatic cancer but that is doubtful since the CT scan was normal.

Needless to say, since I am not a zebra, the most likely cause of pancreatitis is issues with the gallbladder (and is thus most likely what is causing my issues).

Try to stay positive! Some gallbladder issues (like microlithalis/biliary dyskinesia) are not something that can be picked up with an ultrasound/CT scan, and sometimes not even with a HIDA. It is possible that your issues are one of those too. With microlithalis, you are constantly passing small stones so they won't ever have time to get big enough to be seen by an ultrasound, and even if they had gotten bigger, ultrasounds can still miss larger stones and/or gallbladder inflammation. I have been browsing a gallbladder subreddit, and have seen numerous posts from people who had their gallbladders removed due to stones and/or inflammation, none of which were seen on any test or scan.

Thank you for your reply! Your symptoms are totally different than mine, but it is reassuring that I am not alone with these thoughts.

[pirossapkaskukta]

Thank you! Blood results came back, everyhing seems OK, but ultrasound tomorrow... I am scared.

[pirossapkaskukta]

Hello 👋

i feel your your pain and am going through similar right now. The lovely AbbysalStars was lovely enough to point out similar above to me.

but I know how scared you are and I admire you for going to the dr as at this point, I’m too scared to. I can’t seemed to get my head around all the small things it could be and go straight to the large.

i hope your appointment goes well which I’m sure it will, and let us know or specifically me,lol, so I can see a positive thread.thinking of you x

Thank you! Blood results came back, everyhing seems OK, but ultrasound tomorrow... I am scared.

[Me180]

Good luck! I’m sure if bloods were good, nothing catastrophic would show up on the ultrasound. Be good to get it all done and see what happens... I just can’t seem to get myself over the line. We have a lot of advertising of these type of stories which send me crazy! So proud of you for facing your fears x