Question:
I have a question about really awful upper back pain. This "back pain" has happened 5 or 6 times now, and I'm kind of worried about it. I write an on line diary and I wrote about it on that, and a few people told me that it sounds like my gall bladder. I have my 19 week OB appointment on Wednesday, so I plan to discuss this with him, but I was just wondering if any of you know anything about gall bladder problems during pregnancy.

This is what my pain is like:

It happens at night, and it usually either

prevents me from falling asleep, or wakes me up from my sleep. The pain runs from underneath my shoulder blades to around and under my ribs. I've told my husband that it feels like I'm going to explode from the inside out (which is why we thought maybe it was gas?), but it is so intense and painful that I become short of breath and I vomit. The pain lasts for 2-3 hours and then goes away. Nothing helps. I've tried Tylenol, Tums, exercise, yoga, even cutting out foods that I ate that night, just in case they were the cause.

My last "episode" was this past Saturday night, and it was not as bad as the previous one, and I'm learning to just breathe through it and sit straight up and still while sipping water and concentrating on not getting too scared. The previous episode was so bad, I was sweating, vomiting and crying (and I can't imagine how I will get through labor if it is worse than that experience).

Has anyone had problems with their gall bladder during pregnancy? Does this sound like that type of problem...and if so, why me? What causes this? Also, if anyone has had this type of pain, please let me know what you did, because I'm at the point where I'm living in fear of the next time it happens (and the worst part is, I can't predict it!)

Now I'm really frightened of the implications to my baby...I mean, is this bad for him/her?

Answer:

sounds very similar to what I was going through, but my pain was a bit lower (starting right around the bottom of my rib cage). I was having a kidney stone attack though, but I've heard the pain can be quite similar to gallbladder attacks, so I really feel for you if that's what you have. (And if not I feel for you anyways, because PAIN is PAIN.)

My attacks sounded just like yours too, they would last a few hours and then subside. A friend of mine had gallbladder problems during her pregnancy and she described them just like that. But she also got really irritated after eating anything greasy. (have you noticed that at all?)

The only thing I could do during my episodes was make myself as comfortable as possible in a soft chair (anything hard hurt my back more) and BREATH. It didn't help much, but that's all I could do to get through it.

Make sure you bring this up with your ob, and don't let it just get brushed off. Really make sure you get your point across about how much pain you've been in. I hope that's not what it is, but if it is I hope you're able to come to some sort of resolution with it, at least for the rest of your pregnancy.

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