Medical lecture from Doctor Prunepicker.

I have fallen victim to food poisoning at least a half dozen times in my life. The last time was a horrendous case I caught in Las Vegas from eating in a casino.  The typical case is where I get very sick 2 to 3 hours after a meal. I throw up and have diarrhea. After I am empty I am sick for several days.

I consider myself somewhat of an expert on recognizing food poisoning in myself. You eat bad food, and get very sick two or three hours later.

I recently had these symptoms. But I did not have food poisoning. It was a gall bladder malfunction.

The gall bladder is a bladder that holds bile made by the liver. On signal the gall bladder puts bile into small intestine. (It takes bile to digest steak.) The signal is generated when a large body of fat is being digested. If the gall bladder gets infected and is not working right it can be removed and the liver will keep bile available for the small intestine. Usually there are zero or very small effects caused by the absence of the gall bladder.

My recent attack by food poisoning symptoms was really a gall bladder failure.  I had a fever. My gall bladder was infected. I also had a large stone, which was blocking the gall bladder opening.

That is why I had gone to the emergency room and requested an enema. Thank goodness the hospital ran a cat scan and found the problem. The surgical removal of my gall bladder solved the problem.

I was so sure of my diagnosis. How could I be so sure and so wrong?