Gallbladder Symptoms. 10 Symptoms of Gallbladder Attack and Pain

A painful ache in the right abdomen. The first symptom a person experiences when suffering from gallstones is a pain. The exact location can differ from person to person, but with most the ache will be centered on the gallbladder. This is located just under the liver, so the pain will be centered below the ribs on the right of your body. The intensity of the pain will depend on the intensity of the condition, ranging from very mild in the initial stages to a deep agony in the right abdomen if the condition is more serious.

Bloating, gas, and problems with digestion. When you have a gallstone, this blocks the bile the liver produces from entering the digestive tract, and thus directly impacts the digestive process. You will have problems with digestion, and experience bloating and flatulence. The body will also be less able to absorb crucial nutrients and fats from the intestinal region. This is accompanied by pain and is medically known as biliary colic. The pain can radiate out from the upper right of the abdomen into the shoulder region, and into the upper back area.

Pain radiating into the upper right-hand side of the back. When one suffers from a gallbladder attack, due to compression of the nerves leading to the upper right of the back, one can feel considerable pain in this area. Different people can experience this effect in different ways, with the pain extending between the shoulder blades, towards the lowest point of the right-side shoulder blade, or to the top of that shoulder. This pain, though felt in the back, is actually pain from the abdominal area radiating into the back. This pain might not necessarily be consistent and could even appear and disappear sporadically, with the intake of food sometimes making it worse.

Queasiness and vomiting when the stomach is full. In the initial stages, a gallbladder problem will manifest as queasiness and nausea – this will be very persistent, and may lead to actual vomiting, usually just after you have eaten. This may be the body’s way of providing relief, as many people suffering from this condition find that it helps with the gas, indigestion and stomach issues associated with gallbladder attacks. However, as the condition worsens, the patient will develop fevers when the attacks of vomiting occur. The most intense attacks of nausea and vomiting will occur after you eat difficult-to-digest meals, as also during the night. Some physicians believe that attacks at night are caused by pressure on the organs during sleep.

Severe issues with the digestive tract. Flatulence and problems with queasiness and vomiting, as well as discomfort in the abdomen, are common symptoms of a gallbladder attack. However, there are a great number of ailments that can cause these symptoms. As the condition progresses, however, these relatively mundane symptoms escalate into intense vomiting and severe indigestion that eventually leads to diarrhea. If these symptoms are accompanied by intense pain to the right of the abdomen it is a relatively definite indicator of a gallbladder attack and a visit to your physician is strongly advised.

Lack of appetite. Gallbladder attacks can make eating a traumatic experience – taking in a major meal fraught with feelings of nausea, and even outright vomiting directly after the meal. As if that were not enough, the biliary pain experienced by the patient is also directly associated with the meal. As all this is centered on the act of eating, the patient eventually associates the discomfort and trauma with eating and begins to avoid it. In an infection that remains untreated, bile from the bile duct can be prevented from entering the digestive tract completely, almost entirely disrupting the digestive process. Issues with the gallbladder are far more pronounced in people whose immune systems have been compromised.

Running a temperature and shivering. Fevers are usually linked to infections. People suffering from gallbladder attacks do not usually experience fevers. However, if the other symptoms of a gallbladder attack are prevalent, and the patient is suffering a fever, it is indicative of the seriousness of the condition. Fevers usually occur when a gallbladder attack escalates into an infection (cholecystitis). At this point, the patient will not only be running a temperature but will also be vomiting at intervals. This is a serious condition that could well prove fatal, as gangrene may set in, or the wall of the gallbladder itself might be breached.

Symptomatic and visible changes in urine. One of the most powerful indications of gallbladder disease is passing urine of an indicatively dark color. Such urine can range in color from a deep brown to a deep brown with a yellowish tinge. This dark tinting is actually bile pigmentation induced into the urinary tract by the disease. This is an extremely clear indicator that the disease is present, and is a fairly early warning that something is wrong, and if treatment is sought at this point, many more serious consequences of the disease may be avoided. Discolored urine can also be indicative of conditions arising from the bladder and even the kidneys.

Liver dysfunction and Jaundice. In more serious attacks of gallbladder disease the bile duct can actually become infected or blocked, and inevitably, an excess of bile builds in the liver. Waste products (bilirubin) begin to accumulate in the blood, causing the classic symptoms of jaundice. Thus, jaundice, while it can be indicative of a wide range of health conditions, is also an indicator of severe gallbladder disease. The skin acquires a yellowish tinge, as does the white area in each eye.

Irregularities in color and texture of stools. Gallbladder disease causes blockage of the bile ducts, causing unusually large amounts of fats to get eliminated within the stool, causing a noticeable alteration of not just the color, but also the consistency of the stool, making it come across more yellow and clayish rather than brown and solid. If left unattended, this disease could eventually lead to very loose stools, which at times can result in volatile movements of the bowel accompanied by a rotten smell, symptomatic of a gallbladder attack.

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