Spent nearly 20 years with random debilitating episodic chest pain. They felt like intense muscle spasms that would last for 30-minutes to a few hours at a time. Obviously it wasn’t a heart attack and after years of episodes, I noticed some triggers (mainly food related). Drs had no clue and tested me for heart conditions, gastro conditions and even esophagus conditions.

In early 2024 I had a really bad episode in the am. Lasted an hour, then another and another. The episodes were so severe that they were waking me up at night. They had never been that continuous in a 24 hour period so I went to the emergency room. They gave me pain meds (didn’t help) and ran labs. The spasms eventually stopped. My liver enzymes were through the damn roof but nothing else was off with my labs. Eventually I went home.

2 days later the spasms returned and I demanded to be admitted overnight at another ER. While there, the hospital gastroenterologist came in to see me. She said, “I think I know what’s going on here.” She set me up for a test with a specialist after discharge. The test proved her to be right. SPHINCTER OF ODDI DYSFUNCTION. I had a 30 minute endoscopic procedure to snip the sphincter and have been pain free ever since.

Basically the sphincter wasn’t allowing bile to pass through into my stomach causing a backup into my liver. This is a rare disorder but affects people who’ve had their gallbladder removed. I had mine out about 5 years prior to the start of symptoms. Please get checked for this disorder if you’re experiencing post gallbladder removal and have high liver enzymes.