It's that time of year again!
The Midday Toy Giveaway is back!
Send your best Christmas drawing to: Midday Toy Giveaway P.O.
Box 271 Columbus, MS 39703.
Be sure to include your name, age, gender, and phone number.
Troy thompson: welcome to on the beat, everyone.
I'm troy thompson.
Joining me in the studio today is dr. ricky johnson from gastroenterology and associates of columbus.
Today, we're talking all about gallstones.
Welcome to the show, my friend.
Dr. johnston: thank you, troy.
Troy thompson: okay, i want to ask you, i know this might sound naive, i know gallstones are not a great thing to have, but what are they and what do they look like?
Dr. johnston: well, they're- troy thompson: do they really look like little stones?
Dr. johnston: they really do.
They look like little stones, or depending on the size, they can look like little pebbles or even sand, if you will, almost sludge-like.
But they form in the gallbladder and they're made of different materials.
Some of them can have calcium in them, they can have pigment from the bile that's produced from the liver, but they're kind of oblong or irregular.
Troy thompson: and they're troy thompson: and they're painful.
Dr. johnston: in some cases, not always.
Troy thompson: okay.
Dr. johnston: so, they may or may not be painful.
Generally speaking, if you have asymptomatic gallstones, so if you have gallstones that are not causing you any problems that were found on some sort of x- ray you had done for another reason, we don't do anything about that, we just like to know that they're there in case you do have problems in the future.
But just because you have gallstones, does not mean that we need to do something about them.
Troy thompson: okay, i'm going to ask you maybe a pretty simple question and people may laugh at me at home.
What does the gallbladder actually do for you?
Dr. johnston: the gallbladder acts as a reservoir or kind of storage bag for bile.
So, bile is made in the liver and helps with digestion.
Well, typically when we're fasting, there's a little valve, there's a tube that drains the liver down to the small intestine.
Typically that valve is closed, and so the bile will backfill into the gallbladder where it waits until you need it.
So when you eat, there's a series of hormone reactions that will stimulate the gallbladder to squeeze, that little valve opens up and the bile empties into the intestine to help with digestion.
Troy thompson: gosh, the body's amazing, isn't it?
Dr. johnston: it's pretty incredible, yeah.
Troy thompson: how does one get a gallstone?
Dr. johnston: well, there's different risk factors for them.
Generally speaking, women who are 40 or older.
So female, 40-ish in age, fertility.
So women who've had babies, something of hormones of pregnancy can cause or provoke gallstones, obesity.
Troy thompson: really?
Dr. johnston: yeah, those are the main things we think of.
Troy thompson: is there a sign that i have one?
Dr. johnston: yes.
So, the biggest thing is pain.
So that's the biggest complaint we see, is people who have abdominal pain.
The gallbladder is located under the liver, which is in the right upper quadrant.
But most commonly we see pain more in the middle, and that's just because of the way the nerves supply that area or feedback to the brain from that area.
Dr. johnston: so typically, we'll see pain in the middle of the belly, upper abdomen, maybe in the right upper quadrant.
Sometimes it radiates through to the back.
So, patients will tell you it maybe goes to their shoulder or maybe goes through to their back.
So pain and then nausea, vomiting.
Troy thompson: okay, on a pain level, how do we know that we have them?
Dr. johnston: it varies.
Troy thompson: really?
Dr. johnston: i mean, really people may have very innocuous symptoms. they'll come in with a gallbladder attack where we have to do something about it, but they may have been having very mild symptoms for months before that.
Typically, it's provoked by eating.
It'll be a very classic, i eat and then a few minutes later i'll develop this pain.
Troy thompson: really?
Dr. johnston: it may be very mild initially.
People might think it's indigestion or may just think it's a bloat- troy thompson: tummy ache.
Dr. johnston: yeah, a little bloating or full sensation, or all the way up to very severe 10 out of 10 pain.
Troy thompson: and crippling pain.
Dr. johnston: right.
Troy thompson: how do we fix it?
See, i look at it like a little star wars machine- dr. johnston: right.
Troy thompson: and zapping all these little rocks.
Dr. johnston: yes.
So classically or years and years ago, there was medicines you can take to try to dissolve them, and there was different things you could do, but the best thing to do is just have the gallbladder taken out.
We don't need our gallbladder to function, we don't need it to live.
So the surgery for gallbladders nowadays is, i don't perform that surgery, would refer to a general surgeon, but it's a pretty simple, easy procedure.
I mean, outpatient takes 30 minutes or an hour.
Troy thompson: i had no idea.
Dr. johnston: yeah, and so you just take the gallbladder out and the stones are gone and you're done.
Troy thompson: but people say, "oh, i've just passed a couple of stones, i'm awake."
Dr. johnston: yes.
Troy thompson: do you feel the stones going- dr. johnston: oh yeah.
That kind of leads to where the complications of gallstones come into play.
Troy thompson: that's what we know.
Dr. johnston: yeah, so when you pass a stone, that's typically the complications.
Pancreatitis, infection, the gallbladder can get irritated.
Troy thompson: amazing.
Dr. johnston: yeah.
Troy thompson: you give me such great information.
Dr. johnston: i try.
Troy thompson: i swear i diagnose myself when we finish these interviews.
Dr. johnston: yes.
Troy thompson: if you want to find out more information, there it all is up on the screen for you.
Dr. ricky johnson from gastroenterology associates of columbus.
Back after this short break.
Mr.
It's that time of year again! The Midday Toy Giveaway is back! Send your best Christmas drawing to: Midday Toy Giveaway P.O. Box..
