by dhwriting

Created on: December 11, 2008

Back Pain May Not Be A Problem With Your Back!
Don't dismiss upper back pain as a simple muscle pull if it's a sharp pain that persists for more than a day or two, or if it returns over and over again. It just might be your gall bladder, and if it goes on too long, it can be life-threatening. I found out the hard way.

If you've ever had a sudden pain in your upper back that starts in between your shoulder blades, don't be quick to dismiss it as a muscular ache or strain, because it could be much more. Here's my story.

In my case the pains would start three or four hours after eating a heavy meal, usually one with a higher fat content such as a pizza or hamburger. The pains would start as a dull ache and then intensify quickly. They usually started in the upper back and then radiated down along the right side of my body and across into the upper abdomen. The pain was sometimes extreme and incapacitating. It would typically last anywhere from a few hours up to twenty-four hours or more. On two occasions, incredibly intense attacks sent me to the hospital emergency room - I was concerned it was a heart attack, even though the pain was not located in typical heart attack locations. On both occasions the doctors ruled out a heart attack after testing.

So what was this mysterious pain? None of the doctors at the emergency room (on either occasion) volunteered an opinion. They sent me home with pain medication and that was that.

At first the attacks were very widely spaced, often months apart, although over time the periods in between started to diminish. I foolishly still dismissed the attacks as some sort of indigestion or muscular back pain and it took one more severe attack to convince me otherwise. This episode was different as it hit very quickly and sharply on my right flank, and this time it was accompanied by vomiting. Tests the next day confirmed the culprit. By then my eyes had turned yellow (jaundice), my urine had become very dark and my stools were gray. My liver functions were dangerously abnormal. An ultrasound revealed that my gallbladder was full of gallstones and one of them was probably blocking my bile duct.

In many cases gallstones do not produce any symptoms, but I was told that when a gallstone flows out with the bile and gets stuck in the bile duct you end up with the symptoms described here. If the stone moves back into the gall bladder or is forced out into the intestines then the pain ceases. This would explain why the attacks came and went, and also their duration.

The moral of the story is to go see your doctor if any of the symptoms in this article sound familar. Don't wait too long like I did and end up having emergency gallbladder surgery.

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