I'm no expert, but I've had minor gall bladder issues most of my life and thought attacks usually involve pain and are usually triggered by eating fats (even good fats). Maybe it's the salad dressing that bothers you, not the lettuce.

Alisande, thanks. I don't eat salad dressing. But I did have onion rings at lunch and fries at supper. They don't usually bother me. What makes me think it's the lettuce is that I've had problems after eating salad at restaruants before. There was lettuce on the lunch sandwich. Maybe it's what it's treated with when they get it, I don't know. I'm not in pain really, just "full" feeling. Only vomited once, but still rocky. I will be mentioning this to the dr tomorrow tho.

Tami

Gall Bladder Symptoms

Moderate to severe pain under the right side of the rib cage
Pain may radiate through to the back or to the right shoulder
Severe upper abdominal pain (biliary colic)
Nausea
Queasiness
Vomiting
Gas
Burping or belching
Attacks are often at night
Attacks often occur after overeating
Pain will often but not always follow a meal with fats or grease
Pain may be worse with deep inhalation
Attacks can last from 15 minutes to 15 hours

I hope you are feeling better soon Tami.

Oh my gosh, I've been feeling flu like symptoms for the past couple of weeks and keep complaining about a pain on my right side below where I think my stomach is. It comes and goes. I've been taking swigs of Pepto Bismol! I even emailed my aunt the other day to ask her what a gall bladder attack felt like.

One of my prescription meds is Prilosec OTC, so then I thought perhaps it wasn't helping my acid reflux anymore. So far no vomiting, but very tired, headache, sinus drainage, runny nose..ugh. I too am due for a six month check up, think I'd better schedule one. Hope you feel better, tami.

When I had gallbladder attacks, it was in the center of my abdomen, which is somewhat unusual. But it was always after eating something greasy. Nothing helped it, and it would gradually subside. My doc said it would continue to happen and the attacks would be getting worse and worse. So I had it out. Now I get diarrhea after eating greasy food. But no pain.

Schoolhouse, That sounds like diverticulitis. I suggest you see a doctor because it will only get worse if it is.

Gall bladder is quite similar to a heart attack pain. DH went thru that several years ago and the ER thought it was heart, but turned out to be gall bladder--had it out and what a change.
As to lettuce, he cannot eat the iceberg stuff as it does not dissolve in the stomach like romaine or other lettuces.

When I had the first gall bladder attack, it was in the middle of the night. The pain was awful and in the middle of my chest. I thought it could be a heart attack, because I had never had pains like that. I was taken to the hospital and they diagnosed Gall Bladder, gave me a couple little white pills, and a bottle of them, and told me to take them if I needed them. Sent me home and I slept the rest of the night. Had a fun day the next day with some of my family who was visiting. We went to a great buffet and I ate a lot. No more pain until a week later. It hit again and I was in surgery two days later. No doctors even asked what I had eaten.

I've always eaten anything I wanted and still do. Never heard about the greasy food thing. If hamburgers could do it, I would have been gone long ago. LOL

Sue

Methinks that you got a case of food poisoning from contaminaed lettuce. There has been frequent mention about that here of late. Even prepared and packaged lettuce salads have been found contaminated.

Gallbladder attacks are very painful......I think the possibility of lettuce causing a gallbladder attack is very slim, especially if you can eat onion rings and french fries without right upper quadrant abdominal pain radiating into the back.
Sounds more like contaminated lettuce.
Hope you feel better soon.

I get to go have an ultrasound of the gall bladder on Fri. morning. Fun fun. Liquid supper Thrus night. I've had food poisoning, and this is different.

I experienced a low grade fever, pain under the ribs and vomiting bile. Not fun. Hope you are better soon.

I had large gallstones and when one tried to pass and blocked the "tube" it was a pain as strong and bad as the contractions in child birth. Many say it is a worse pain than child birth, I never gave birth but I can not imagine pain much worse than I had on the occasions a stone tried to pass. Gallbladder was removed, they saved the stones for me to see them they were quite large. Unfortunately I am one of the ones that developed Bile Dumping syndrome after the surgery which is nearly as bad as the gallbladder problems. Surgery was many many years ago and still have the bile dumping syndrome. Since I had mine out and found out about bile dumping I have since run into so many people that had the same thing happen to them, including my nephew. Very unpleasant and painful, and the powder to drink for it is nasty tasting.

Normally gall bladder attacks do have pain upper right quad.

I would highly consider MSG allergy. Some places still put in lettuce and on vegetables. Also found in MANY salad dressings. It is a preservative. That is exactly what happens to me. Monosodium glutamate.

It is in tons of stuff to enhance flavors.
Just a thought

Oh Tami, you poor baby! DH just went down this road, CT scan that was inconclusive and then forced him into an Ultra Sound. That was so uncomfortable, drinking 32 oz of water and having it done on a full bladder.....YOWZER!

Andy had the typical pain in the right quadrant shooting to his back.

I wonder if you have a sensitivity to whatever they are using to prevent the lettuce from browning. I have a problem with the lettuce at one particular restaurant, exactly as you describe plus gas and I think that is the culprit.

all of my pain was in my back. I used to get my chiropractor out of bed in the middle of the night until I found out what it was

Hello: I ended up in emergency on Sunday morning around 2:30 am due to a painful attack.

I had a lovely steak and caesar salad dinner and a few martinis Saturday night around 7:30 pm. After dinner I sat down and watched a movie and had another martini and then fell asleep on the couch. I woke up around 12:30 am and thought, "Hmm, I'd love some hot buttered popcorn with parmesan cheese" and so I made it and ate it. About half an hour later, I found myself writhing in pain. I felt pain just below my sternum which radiated to my back and shoulders. I felt like I was going to vomit, I made it to the washroom only to see myself in the mirror! Pale, sweating, shaking and I thought I was going to faint. I picked up my phone and called my daughter. I live alone and lost my best friend this year on February 4th to 100% blockage of the heart but I called my daughter because I had a panic attack a few days after my friends funeral. I thought I was having a heart attack.

At any rate, I called her, I guess because I needed a wake up call and kick in the ass as I never did anything when I had my panic attack. My Dr. gave me crap for this. I realized I needed to call 911. I was terrified. Emergency response stayed on the phone with me until the ambulance arrived. They had me hooked up for an ECG so quickly but I could not sit still for it. I was in that much pain.

So they moved me out to the ambulance and strapped me down. Hooked me up with an IV and gave me some gravol because I kept thinking I was about to vomit. The IV medication acted immediately and my pain diminished by 90%. I was ready to get off the ambulance and go to bed but they would not let me go.

By the time I arrived at the hospital 15 minutes later, I was in excruciating pain again. For the next 4 hours, I was monitored by means of blood pressure, temperature and repeated ECG's. They took blood, urine and told me I could not have anything to eat or drink until I was assessed by a Doctor. I guess because my vitals were okay, they didn't think that I was in any danger. My attacks of pain were constant with about 15 - 20 minute breaks in between. Finally, around 6:30 in the morning, I was assessed. I was told that my gallbladder didn't seem to be too happy. So, I was sent off for an ultra sound but not before I was finally given some more gravol and a very powerful pain reliever. The first thing I did was finally cry. I was relieved to find out that it was probably just my gallbladder. HUH!

Anyway, long and short of it here... I don't have any gall stones per say but I do have sludge (miniscule gallstones - likely the size of grains of sand) and I have thickening of the gallbladder wall. This inflammation is what was causing the pain (worse than child birth). It was also discovered that I have a bit of a fatty liver. This is caused from chronic alcohol abuse. I probably indulge too much, particularly over the last two months - a sad way of dealing with grief.

I eat pretty healthy most of the time but I probably eat too much and when I treat myself, I treat myself. Vodka and red wine - bad. I am here to tell you, since my girlfriend passed away, I have probably not taken very good care of myself. I noticed that I was having these strange feelings (uncomfortable feelings) of being excessively full after eating - even if I ate a light snack. This fullness feeling also caused me to feel out of breath when walking to work or using the stairs. Sometimes I'd wake up feeling like I had indigestion or heart burn. All of this actually, was the build up to my inevitable gallbladder attack.

Change in lifestyle is the number one thing that will help me deal with this now. I still have one more test to go through to determine whether or not the flap of my duct is operating correctly but I intend on doing all that I can to not experience this again. Do your research, learn all you can about this and if you ever experience the kind of pain, get yourself to emergency. Gallbladders can burst, get infected or inflamed. At any rate, medical attention is necessary in order to determine what the problem is.

I wish you luck - don't fool around with your health. Eating french fries and onion rings is contributing to the problem (gallbladder problems can take years to develop) - read up on what fatty foods do to the gallbladder (cholesterol and bile are a bad combination). Loose stools after eating salad is an indication that your digestive system is out of wack. Gallbladder produces bile (when it's healthy) bile is what helps break down fatty foods which aids in digestion.

Anyway, enough - take care of yourself.

Sandy, thank you for sharing. I don't often eat fries anymore, onion rings either, tho more often than fries. Most of my fatty foods have gone away also. I was diagnosed with diabetes 2 1/2 years ago, and have changed my diet quite a bit. Maybe not as much as I should, but I eat much better than I used to. I just had blood work. Cholestrol is great, A1C was 106, which is the highest it's been since Dec. 2008. I was sick most of Feb, which accounts for that. I have an order for more blood work if I vomit again. Ultrasound is Fri. am. I was lucky and not in pain at all. The fact that I had the onion rings and the fries in one day may very well be the problem, but I've had problems with salads in restaurants, so MSG could be the culprit also. I do have some food allergies, so it wouldn't surprise me. You bet I will get myself to the ER if it starts again! My dad's heart attacts manifested as heart burn/indigestion. I won't mess with it.

Tami

I feel better today - finally. No more upset stomach, headache or weird pains. My sinus even feel much better. Hope everyone gets to feeling better,too.

Severe abdominal pain, sweating, slight fever, nausea, overall feeling of pending doom accompanied by a pinicky feeling. The antibiotics are a fabulous idea so there will be minimal infection risk.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gall Bladder Symptoms