Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction?

Hi everyone, its been a rough week and this weekend is going to be tougher, I'm afraid...for me anyways (hopefully those of you that celebrate Easter, have a nice holiday).  Since I posted last, I was still waiting for my CT scan results.

This past Monday I had my first visit with the surgeon my gastroenterology specialist is working with. He went over the scan and even pulled it up on his computer so my husband and I could see it.  As usual, it was normal. It did show some loops of redundant distended colon, but he doesn't believe that is causing my pain. The x-ray tech noted a small benign lesion on my liver, but this doctor believes its actually a bruise that hasn't healed yet from my last surgery, so no worries there either.

So, onto more tests.  On Monday, April 9th, I am scheduled for a Hida Scan. He thinks I may have a problem called a Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction. I couldn't find a lot of information regarding this online, since its pretty rare, but I do know there are clinical trials for bariatric patients that have had their gall bladders removed. For some reason, it seems this happens to a lot of people that have their gall bladders removed with or without bariatric surgery. According to the surgeon, and I may be a little off on understanding this, but this little muscle controls the flow of bile between the duodenum and the intestines.  It causes a form of spasms within the biliary tree which equal the majority of my symptoms. The problem will be, if this turns out positive, they have no way of getting to it to repair it, since I had gastric bypass.  Normally a patient with this problem can have it fixed with a scope, but the scope won't reach where they need to go on me anymore. Guess we'll have to wait and see. I will get these results when I go back to the gastro specialist on the 18th.  He also had me double the amount of Prilosec I'm taking, since he believes I may still have an ulcer, but in the lower portion of my stomach that doesn't receive food anymore.  They have no way of viewing this part of the stomach any longer because of my bypass surgery, so its guess work. My biggest fear right now is Sunday though, since in order to have the test, I have to be off all narcotic pain medications for 24 hours.  This is not going to be fun, since lately, pain has been my life.

Now, another update, although I was quite against seeing a pain specialist, I did yesterday.  I had the old opinion that when doctors suggested this, that they were treating me as though the pain was all in my head---now granted, I have had doctor's say that outright, but that isn't the case now. Seeing the pain specialist actually wasn't at all what I thought.  This doctor is actually going to work with my gastro specialist and he is even going over all of my past medical records to assist in figuring out what is wrong with me.  In the mean time, his job is to manage pain.  Up until now, the doctors that have prescribed pain medication have only tried one...a version of Vicodin and no one has tried anything else. He changed my medications yesterday and although this will take some adjustments, he is going to try to give me a life free of pain, which I haven't seen in almost 3 years. He believes I have chronic neuropathic pain. My understanding is, this is when the nerves become over sensitive or damaged and it signals to the brain pain, even when there isn't a reason for it. I've had so many abdominal surgeries, its possible this is happening. So now, in addition to pain medication (which he switched to a different kind and will probably switch again) he also added a nerve block medication. I believe I will figure out if this is helping over the next few days as it gets into my system.  Although he didn't prescribe it yet, he is also considering adding a anti-depressant. I'm not depressed or at least I don't think I am, but anxiety and depression can lead to abdominal pain and these medications also help to calm the nerves down when they are hyperactive. Anyways, we'll see what happens once he figures out what my body needs to be pain free.

Hope all have a great holiday, if you celebrate it, otherwise a nice weekend. And, I will update again, once I know more :)