Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction

My Mother: Maybe She Had This Problem:Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction

For most of her life, my mother was ill. She suffered pain in her back and stomach almost everyday. She was also very nauseated much of the time. For years she had been going to the Dr. and they could not find anything wrong with her. She had to rely on pain meds and never getting to do all the things she wanted to do.

Last night I was watching Mystery Diagnosis on the Discovery Health Channel. It told the story of a young woman who had pain in her back and stomach all the time. She was constantly nauseated. She went to many Doctors year after year and nothing helped. They finally took out her gall bladder and appendix. She felt ok for a while but then it started all over again. She was so sick she wanted to die. Doctor after Doctor told her nothing was wrong. They thought it was all in her head.

She had begun to throw up so much that they had to hospitalize her. The tests again showed nothing. Then they performed some sort of special MRI for the ducts from her pancreas to her duodenum. They noticed that there was something mechanically wrong with the ducts. They were twisted and obstructed. The medical tests she had had did not reveal that. It was probably congenital but did not show up until sufficient obstruction had occurred. So now they had a source for her pain. In exploratory surgery, they cannot see those ducts. This is called Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction.

They were able to operate on her and fix the ducts and drain them. She was better from then on. It was such a simple problem but one that was almost impossible to find. Had she not had the right Dr. finally do the right test, she would still be suffering today. The doctors said this problem would not have killed her, but it caused her to have a great disability with all the pain and nausea which she would have had all her life.

My mother wondered why she always was in such pain but never enough to kill her. I don't think her doctors ever did the test above and maybe if they had, she would not have suffered all those years.

I wish you were here Mom, so I could tell you about this and you might be able to finally get some help.