My wife started experiencing severe pain associated with her biliary system in mid February. An ultrasound revealed dilation in the CBD (about 1.5 cm) as did the MRI. An ERCP and hydoscan showed that the cystic duct wasn't taking up bile. She was admitted and the first doctor recommended removing the gallbladder. We went to a major university hospital for a second opinion.

That doctor recommended a percutaneous cholecystectomy tube to drain the gallbladder. There was abnormally high levels of pain from the tube after placement for about 1.5 weeks, but after that subsided she was ok for about 3-5 days, at which point the GB pain came back, although not as severely as before. The tube needed to stay in for a total of 7 weeks, as after 2 the wound channel had not sufficiently healed. After the tube was removed, her GB pain went back to its previous highs. They did notice that the CBD didn't seem to be draining.
The first doctor we saw removed the GB. He did find thickening of the walls and some erosion. That seemed to relieve her symptoms for about 1 week.

The symptoms did return, although not at the original highs. The GI doctor recommended a sphincterotomy to aid in draining of the CBD.
Another GI doctor did the ERCP. After performing the sphincterotomy, the CBD wasn't draining as quickly as he liked, so he also placed a stent. The stent is to be removed in 3 months.
When the stent was placed he could see the CBD draining quickly. This was on May 27th.

My wife was sent home about 1 hour after the procedure was finished. In addition to the normal gas pain, she began experiencing a twisting, stabbing pain in the center of her abdomen behind her rib cage. She said it felt like it was coming from her stomach and it felt like it was doing flips. The intense pain would come frequently and would typically last for anywhere between 5-15 seconds. It can be intense enough it could bring her down to her knees. In addition to that pain, she also feels as though she's been punched in the stomach. This is definitely different that the pain that she had been experiencing prior to this.

The night after the ERCP (May 28th), we went to the ER. They checked her blood levels, and aside from borderline lipase, were normal. On May 29th, after speaking with the doctor that performed the ERCP, he scheduled an emergency CT. The CT didn't show any pancreatic inflammation. He said the CBD's dilation had gone to 6 mm (from a max of 1.6 cm).
While the twisting/stabbing pain aren't as frequent as they were the two days after the procedure they still come just as intensely. They don't seem to correspond with eating or not eating. They come whether she is laying down or standing, although a trip to the store last night (June 11th), brought them on much more frequently. So even though they come when laying down (in the neighborhood of 10-20 per day), being up and active brought about 15-20 in a 1 hour period.

On the chance this was caused by a muscle spasm, her original GI doctor prescribed dicyclomine (10 mg, 3 x daily). The first day there were less, but that may just be coincidence as it doesn't seem to be affecting them now. She still has the "punched in the stomach soreness" as well.

Her doctor says he hasn't seen/heard of anything specifically like this (been a GI doctor for ~30 years). The doctor that performed the ERCP just referred us to the original GI doctor.

She's scared as we don't know what this is or what is causing it. Is this typical following an ERCP, sphincterotomy, and stent placement? Will the symptoms go away on their own? Will they go away when the stent is removed? Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated, we haven't been able to find much information about this.