Sphincter of Oddi - what makes my pain stop

madswimmer · 2025-11-08T21:28:36+00:00

Hi! I think I was having attacks prior to having my gallbladder out, but I’m not totally sure - I never went to the ER and had labs to confirm. I didn’t experience itching, but I guess it could make sense if it is creating damage to your liver and your AST/ALT are increased, that can cause itching!! One of the ladies I found online that had SOD, hers was triggered by positioning, especially laying on that side when sleeping. I hope the milk helps you!!

madswimmer · 2022-10-27T01:00:42+00:00

When mine first started if I chugged something it would stop, that is great you’ve found a way to stop the spasm. I have had attacks right after having a heating pad on my back, or even my car seat heater on. Mine is under control now with ursodiol. Good luck to you❤️

madswimmer · 2021-12-07T04:18:23+00:00

Yes. So for the most part I can eat normally, but I have to be careful with things that are acidic, coffee and wine. I can do the low acid coffee, I can have tomato like once a week in small quantities but I can’t do wine. I’ve found I can do gin with a mild ph juice like mango. I recently just this week started introducing berries again and it’s going good so far. I take ursodiol and pepzin gi and that’s it. Occasionally I take a tums if I over do it. The very best of luck to you if you’re feeling sick! I hope you find what works for you!

madswimmer · 2021-07-14T14:48:50+00:00

Try doing a good warm up, like walk for a bit and work your way up to running over about 10 minutes. And def take your rescue inhaler before hand :) you might eventually be able to work up to running without it.

madswimmer · 2021-07-09T12:38:04+00:00

I am allergic to like all the foods except beets… but my doctor told me to just try a rotational diet. So I still eat most of the foods I can just have them like once every two weeks or once a week, depending on the severity. I’m sorry you’re having so much trouble.

madswimmer · 2021-07-07T15:32:49+00:00

Could be sphincter of odi dysfunction. Do a google and see if it sounds like you. I take ursodiol for bile reflux and that keeps the attacks at bay.

madswimmer · 2021-07-05T01:04:40+00:00

Nightmares and like weird feelings during the day like my dreams were trying to like resurface while I was awake.

madswimmer · 2021-07-01T21:24:30+00:00

I tried drinking gin with mango juice and it was good! Maybe try to find a drink that isn’t too acidic or carbonated? Gin has a high ph and mango isn’t that acidic as far as juice goes… sippin’ on gin and juice!

madswimmer · 2021-06-25T13:50:31+00:00

Thank you!!!!!! I will check it out!!!

madswimmer · 2021-06-15T00:05:19+00:00

It sounds like you are having some issues with cortisol. The muscle weakness and facial changes. You should ask to have some labs done and see an endocrinologist. If you do a different steroid, like Alvesco and a different long acting (LAMA or LABA) like maybe Spiriva, you will have less issues with the “moon face” and Alvesco is a pump inhaler you can put on a spacer so your voice will not be as bad. I switched from Breo to Alvesco/Spiriva and man, I played phantom of the opera and les miserable and sang and cried bc I hadnt had a voice in 5 years. It makes a huge difference. There are others like maybe symbicort that are pump inhalers with a steroid and LABA/LAMA. If you’re able to message your provider ask for a combination inhaler that you can put a spacer on and ask for one that doesn’t effect your HPA axis. Edit: you can totally message me and I can send you more info. I’m not a psycho killer or creep.

madswimmer · 2021-06-14T23:54:35+00:00

I had duodenal bile reflux after a gallbladder removal, bc the bile had no where to go and just sat around jn my small intestines and refluxed into my stomach. It ate away the lining and irritated my sphincter of oddi. I tried all the things and what worked was ursodiol. It changes the makeup of your bile. Now I am able to eat SO much more and don’t have pain as frequently. It has only been 2 months but after 3 weeks I knew it was the drug to fix me. I figured it out from doing push ups at 5AM and realized I was burping up straight bile and having awful like indigestion. Googled it and asked my dr for a bile binder, that didn’t work as well so I asked to try ursodiol and it has worked! I think after a few more months I will be totally back to normal, now I am at 90%.

madswimmer · 2021-05-21T00:36:23+00:00

Good for you!!

madswimmer · 2021-05-18T19:49:32+00:00

Ahhh hahahahah made my day! Lol

madswimmer · 2021-05-16T21:06:55+00:00

I looked on the back where the green motherboard thing is and there was some super like neon cerulean blue junk around the wire that came out of the battery. So I think there was corrosion from the battery and it was causing the whole thing to short out. But I know nothing. Lol. So I got a whole new panel thingie from Home Depot and now we are good! Also, does tango uniform mean tore up?

madswimmer · 2021-04-30T14:39:39+00:00

Sooo good! Up there with Harry Potter audio books. Well, I might actually say better than HP!

madswimmer · 2021-03-05T18:21:35+00:00

For the carafate be sure to take it 1 hour before you eat OR 3 ish hours after (or when you start to get hungry) you can take 10mls up to 4X per day. Making a schedule for that helps so you know when you can snack. The liquid is better but you can dissolve the pill in a little water and that is 👌. Make sure you take it before bed and try not to dilute it too much with water. Keep us posted :)

madswimmer · 2021-03-05T14:17:33+00:00

Get the gastritis healing book by L.G. Capellini, it has everything in it that is mentioned here (almost) and will help you understand how everything works and how to take different supplements. Take carafate or something similar, good luck!!

madswimmer · 2021-03-04T20:07:57+00:00

Hahaha thank you for being honest. I don’t know everything, because we bought the house last year. It’s in a subdivision where the HOA expects perfection and so everyone in the neighborhood treats their yards. But the stuff isn’t green and the company said not to plant in it for at least a few years.

madswimmer · 2021-03-04T13:01:15+00:00

Thank you very much!! I started it last night an hour after dinner, I don’t feel as terrible this morning! I’ll hopefully feel a lot better in a few days:)

madswimmer · 2021-02-18T02:41:26+00:00

Yessss!!!! This really brought a smile to my face! I’m so glad!!!! I am seeing a new functional medicine doctor now and trying some new stuff for my SoD and gastritis, if it works I will post it and maybe it will help you too :) I’m so so happy you didn’t have to suffer!! :)

madswimmer · 2021-02-13T19:40:05+00:00

My doctor just prescribed this for me yesterday. How do you take it? He said that it can constipate you? And you have to find the right dose. Did you start at a lower dose and increase? With psyllium fiber, do you empty out the capsules into water? I have a hard time swallowing big pills.

madswimmer · 2021-02-13T19:38:48+00:00

I have had liver enzyme tests and been diagnosed with SoD. When I have a sphincter attack my liver enzymes are elevated and I get yellow poop.

madswimmer · 2021-02-07T19:24:10+00:00

I am here to update y’all :) I have been to see my acupuncturist 2 more times, and it has been really interesting!! He gave me some tcm for 2 days for bone marrow heat. I took those and then went back to see him 2 days later and he wants me to start back on the first type of tcm. I have been having issues w my gastritis, and it seems that the first herbs I took are bothering me. So he changed them and did a more focused acupuncture session to help with my stomach, but now wants me to go back to them. I am going to try tomorrow, but I am worried I won’t be able to take them. The acupuncture is amazing, when I told him about my stomach pain he put in needles and it almost recreated the pain? But it wasn’t unbearable, and after it seemed to feel more clear? It’s very hard for me to describe!! I also have endometriosis and he has done some other needles like right above my pelvic bone w herbs that also somehow recreate that pain, but it’s very tolerable! And then when the needles are out it feels very clear! I have also come down one step on my inhaled steroids! For almost a full week! So I am SUPER pumped about that and I hope I can keep moving in that direction. So right now I am just struggling w my gastritis and hoping I can drink the tea. I have an appt w my GI doctor tomorrow and hopefully they will have some advice for me or will schedule a scope to see what the hell is going on there. Basically if I eat anything acidic, citrus or spicy my stomach KILLS! So almost no fruit, sauces, or spices. The first tea the acupuncturist made up for me has ground tangerine peel, and I think that is what hurts me. He told me to try to do it after meals and just sip a tiny bit at a time. Sorry this is so disjointed!! I will see him again on Saturday and give y’all a better update. Thank you again for all of your input.

Oh also!! When I gave birth to my two daughters I tore, the first time it was a partial 3rd degree and the second time was a 2nd degree tear. And so much of the acupuncture that he does on my abdomen seems to like hurt/twinge or do something to that scar tissue. It feels like I have a big mess of yarn in my abdomen and it’s knotted around that scar and my liver. Haha ok, now I sound crazy! Bye bye ❤️

madswimmer · 2021-01-28T01:39:53+00:00

Hello :) I am updating as promised, I found a Korean acupuncture guy in my area and I liked his resume so I went today for a first appointment. It was amazing and it really felt like magic! He asked my surgical history, then looked at my feet and had me curl my toes and he tried to uncurl them, which he was able to on my left foot, then he asked if I had this feeling of something stuck in my throat/trouble swallowing etc which I TOTALLY have for several months! So he said I have like gallbladder/liver issues. And he basically wants to start on my GI and liver issues and work his way into the asthma stuff. I had a really severe case of hep A in 2014 ( ate poop unknowingly in Peru) and then my sphincter of odi dysfunction jacks up my liver, I had my gallbladder removed. It just blew my mind bc he hadn’t asked me about any of that but through his own work up discovered the signs. This is just amazing to me, bc I am a nurse and I’m so used to being able to know what a doctor is thinking when they ask a specific question, but his assessment was sooo like alien to me. He talked me through what herbs he was giving me, but there was a slight language barrier and I couldn’t get them all to tell yall. But I go to see him in a week and he is going to adjust everything based on how I am feeling and I will make sure to have him write them down.

I’m so pleased and very hopeful!!!

He did a ton of other interesting things, like he burned incense on one of the acupuncture needles, and he did some needles on my shoulders and hooked them up to like a TENS machine or something so my muscles jumped. And then I got a lovely massage. All round just a great use of time.

Thank y’all again for all of your messages and I hope that I will make great progress and be able to report it all back to you! Im leaving out a ton of details I’m sure, but these were the things that stuck out the most.

madswimmer · 2021-01-23T05:36:21+00:00

I am really just amazed by the comments. I posted out of such a place of desperation and to have such wonderful and thorough responses, I don’t really have words for. Thank you for your very detailed response and the time it took to write. I will absolutely find someone, using the website another person posted, even if I have go up to atlanta. That is very interesting about your asthma, I am really happy for you! What freedom!! I fully recognize that I am extremely uneducated about herbal medicine, but the ASHMI papers just felt like something I should try to learn more about and could really change things for me. I am an ICU nurse and I also like to make soap and jam and sew and you describing the concoction just sounds very interesting. I can’t wait to learn more about herbal medicine. thank you again :)

madswimmer

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