Health SOS
The best health advice for you and your family
I’d been ill for months and put it down to IBS. But it turned out there were hundreds of reasons why I was in pain
Sitting down to eat lunch with my mum Maralyn, I felt a terrible pain across my side.
‘I need to lie down on your bed, Mum,’ I said.
Within minutes, I was struggling for breath and was in the worst agony of my life.
I staggered to my car and somehow managed the short drive home.
I’d been feeling ill for a while, but I always felt too busy to see my GP and had put the discomfort down to IBS.
As I walked in the house, my husband Russ took one look at me and said: ‘I’m taking you straight to hospital.’
Blood tests showed that I had an infection, but I had to wait hours until a CT scan revealed what was really wrong.
‘There are hundreds of gallstones in your gallbladder, your abdomen and blocking your bile duct,’ the doctor told me.
He explained that I’d need a procedure where a tube would be inserted via my mouth into my stomach and beyond.
‘The stones and debris will be extracted through the tube and out through your mouth,’ he explained. ‘Anything I can’t extract will be flushed down and out through your bowel. Then a few days later, we’ll remove the gallbladder.’ I was shocked, but relieved that the problem was treatable.
