Hi,

After struggling 3 months being sick here I have recently started to think I might have a gall bladder problem. It's been a real mystery illness and I've been treated for many different things but I think there might be a connection to the gall bladder.

My symptoms started with what I thought was a bad stomach flu. Bad diahreah, lots of pain in my stomach, chills, no fever, low level nausea. It lasted about a week but I got better. Then after a big holiday and lots of eating, I relapsed with it and had the same symptoms. I also had slight nausea, but never threw up.

I also had this burning in my throat and kind of a strange taste. The burning throat was bad and it made me think I had strep throat.

This has been going on since March.

I finally saw a GI and she wants to do an upper endoscopy. I am doing a bunch of stool tests right now and I am putting off that upper endoscopy until the end of July.

This last weekend we were away on a vacation and I had been having a couple of really good days. I was also taking nexium because we thought my burning throat was from acid reflux and my doctor put me on 10 days of Nexium. At the end of that vacation I had a milkshake and 6 chicken fries from burger king. I immediately had that stomach gurgling and I had horrible diareah and chills the next day. I called my doctor and spoke to the receptionist (she's also a nurse) and she mentioned gall bladder. She said the upper endoscopy would also check that.

So for the past 24 hours I have been on an extremely low fat diet and I feel much better! I don't have that awful burning and the funny taste in my mouth.

Does this sound like it could be gall bladder related?

Is the upper endoscopy the only way to tell or are there other less drastic tests? The idea of going under general anesthesia if it's not entirely necessary worries me.

Would appreciate any thoughts on my symptoms.

Thanks in advance,
Steve