So I had my HIDA scan on Friday... It wasn't as bad as I had feared, but it was still yucky and my stomach felt off for the rest of the day. My Dr. is most concerned about the gallbladder function part of the test, which was the part that had me the most worried. I have been having a lot of stomach pain, nausea, and acid reflux lately. The reflux has been going on for a few years, but it's been getting progressively worse, and has been pretty bad recently.
Essentially what the HIDA scan does is watch how your body processes things. They injected me with a radioactive tracer first. The syringe for the medication was metal, METAL! Luckily it just went into my iv, but the sight of it really threw me off. The first hour of the test they put you under a camera that catches the gamma radiation you are now emitting. (According to John, "Jessie smash!") This part was easy, boring though. They watch and see how it flows from your liver, to the gallbladder, and finally into the small intestine. If your gallbladder does not show up during this then they give you a nice dose of morphine (I was soooo hoping for that!). Unfortunately for me mine did show up. I got an iv dose of a synthetic hormone they called the cheeseburger and fries. What it does is simulate you eating a large fatty meal and forces your gallbladder to contract. They gave it to me over the course of a half an hour and watched how quickly my gallbladder contracted to deal with it. I was full of questions during my procedure, and apparently years ago they used to give you the dose all at once; that caused people to have all sorts of really bad reactions to it. Mostly horrible nausea and vomiting (joy!) It was weird feeling like my stomach was full even though I hadn't eaten. About 10 minutes into that part I started feeling a little nauseous, but by the 20 minute mark the feeling had mostly gone away. Although my stomach did feel somewhat off the rest of the day. I was very thankful that my reaction wasn't severe (I was soooo worried it would be). The nurse who gave me the drug assured me that it really doesn't bother most people and shouldn't make me sick. The man who did my test (from nuclear medicine) told me that if the gallbladder functions at 40% or greater than it is considered normal. If it functions at 5-10% then the Dr usually recommends having it removed. If it functions somewhere between those percentages then they usually talk about changes to diet and lifestyle to try and help make you feel better.
I should hear back from my Dr this week, hopefully before the 4th of July. If my gallbladder is functioning normally then I will probably need more tests. If it isn't really functioning then I would have to have it removed. Boo for surgery, but then at least I would know what's wrong and could finally start feeling normally again. I really don't want to fall into the diet changes category. I'm tired of having to be careful about what I eat. Fatty, greasy, acidic, and fried foods all upset my stomach pretty nicely. Depending on the food I can only eat them in small amounts. I have given up orange juice all together, it just makes my stomach hurt too much. But some days no matter how good I am my stomach will decide to completely freak out. I get super nauseous, and once that passes I feel like I am recovering from the stomach flu. I have to eat bland foods for a few days until my stomach finally settles back into relative normalcy.
Hopefully I get some sort of answer soon.
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