Hi r/loseit <3
I'm here to tell you a scary story about how I neglected my health!
Some background: I started dieting several months ago losing ~2lbs/week and I am down a little over 30lbs. Well a few months back I started noticing that I was getting heartburn almost every day after eating breakfast. I don't have much experience with heartburn. I can only remember a handful of times when I had suffered from it before this so I didn't really know much about digestion/what could be causing it. It wasn't that big of an issue for me and it normally went away pretty quickly so I just ignored it.
Well a couple of months ago I started getting a back ache occasionally between my right shoulder blade and my spine. To me it felt like I had slept on it funny and my back needed to pop. So I started stretching it and using the foam roller on it which didn't seem to help very much but it would only last for a few minutes and then subside so I didn't think much of it.
Then around a month ago I had an attack. My back started hurting and I was experiencing heartburn. I went to lay down and stretch my back and I cracked it and had my husband rub my back but nothing was helping. My husband got me tums and cup of oat milk and I took the tums and downed the oat milk. That was a bad move, the pain went from a 5/6 to a 9. I had no idea what was going on. The pain was in my breast bone radiating to my back and under my breasts. I actually thought I might be having a heart attack or something. It lasted for about 45 minutes.
The following Monday I went to a doctor and talked about what had happened and what I had been experiencing for the past month (heartburn and back pain). They ordered tests and an abdominal ultrasound. Long story short: I found out I had symptomatic gallstones. My doctor referred me to a surgeon.
Because health insurance is annoying (my health insurance had an open enrollment period right when all of this happened and even though I elected to continue my coverage there was a processing period where it was showing that my coverage was cancelled) I didn't get to go to the surgeon right away. My symptoms worsened and I had multiple other attacks. I got to the point where it was painful even to drink water. I was scared to eat and drink. It was awful.
I went to the ER after a really bad gallbladder attack (Which lasted an hour and a half and the only thing that helped was a hot shower. It was 10/10 on the pain scale-this hurt more than when I got hit by a truck a few years back breaking two bones in my leg, tearing my MCL, and giving me nerve damage) but unfortunately I had the bad luck of going on a Friday afternoon and the doctor told me "we're not going to get a team together to do a surgery on a Friday afternoon" then said I should try to drink small sips of water if it was hurting to drink water quickly.
Anyway I finally got my gallbladder removed last week after a lot of suffering! I can finally eat again without being scared. You might be wondering why am I posting this in r/loseit? Because losing a significant amount of weight drastically increases your chance of developing symptomatic gallstones which is treated with surgery. I had no idea that this was something I should be on the lookout for and maybe that's my own fault for not educating myself more but I just hope that this post can help other people be aware of this issue. I hope that someone else reads this and seeks medical attention sooner if they start experiencing symptoms. I just wish that I had gone to a doctor about the heartburn months ago instead of ignoring it. If this helps even 1 person who goes through this then that will be worth it.
<3
TLDR: Losing weight puts you at higher risk of gallstones and you could need surgery. Don't ignore your symptoms.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/puaqaa/the_sudden_onset_of_heartburn_can_be_a_sign_of_a/
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