My girlfriend has been in the hospital for 9 days now, she is experiencing
nausea and pain just below her sternum,  they have done a X-ray, ultra
sound, colonoscopy, ct scan (drinking barium) and of course {*filter*} work.
they have found nothing, they have ruled out crohn's disease though and
they don't think its a virus or bacteria.  her white {*filter*} cell count was a
little high at first but now they say its as low as possible and still in
the normal range.  She has had two laproscopy exams the ones that go
through just below your belly button, her appendix and gallbladder have
been removed in the past four years.  The X-ray's showed that one of the
surgical clamps had fallen off of her gallbladder and that there may be
some bile leakage but they don't think this is a problem as her white {*filter*}
count is normal.   I should also mention that she had an ileus when she
first went in, I am not sure if she still does but they have taken her off
of the IV (sodium chloride with dextros) and she can keep cooking.net">food in as long
as there is no grease or fat otherwise she has diahrea.  This is a
reacurring thing for her and as she is a single mom she needs to get out of
the hospital as soon as possible.  I should also mention she is a waitress
who doesn't smoke she is in excellent health otherwise and maybe a bit on
the skinny side for her size.

I hope that one of you reading this will have seen this before and be able
to help me point our doctors in the right direction I am only a paramedic
and this is beyond me.

Could this be stress related?
Does her inability to proccess fatty foods mean anything?

and a hell of a lot of other uptight pompous bull.
The original poster is apparently a paramedic who has noticed his
girlfriend is not getting better after almost 2 weeks in hospital, so
he's a bit desperate. Really great, laughing at someone looking for
help. Get a life..

Jason, if she's off the IV and may eat now thats a sign that the ileus
is over. This is important, otherwise you are looking possibly at major
surgery. Now if she has had her gallbladder removed, then obviously the
"clamps" cant fall off it later, right? What you possibly meant was that
the metal clips used during surgery to ligate the stump of the cystic
duct have migrated elsewhere in the years following the operation. This
happens occasionally. Important to find out how long she has this
problem with fatty foods, and to know if the gallbladder was removed by
laparascopy. If she had it since the operation, then, well maybe the
surgeon clipped the main bile duct coming fron the liver to the gut. Was
she a bit yellow after the operation? Is she yellowish now? How long has
she been skinny? Stool color? Pale stools are a sign that she has too
little bile in her gut, black stools are a sign of upper GI bleeding.->
Simple stuff like stomach/duodenal ulcers been ruled out? Are the
surgeons planning to close the bile leak, if there is one? If not, why
not? She needs the bile in her gut to digest fatty foods, without it she
wont be able to put on weight and will continue to get diarrhoea when
she eats fat, and bile in the wrong place is pretty dangerous. Try to
locate a friendly radiologist who is good with ultrasound, and let him
check out the upper abdomen, after showing him the CT scan and the {*filter*}
results. Pancreas, liver, bileducts important. Does your girlfriend
enjoy a drink, may go with the job? Then think of pancreatitis,
gastritis. Email me if you need more specific stuff.
Good luck to her. Yea, careful with patient data. Let her sign something
that says you have the right to pass on her medical details to 3rd
persons.