3) Nausea, vomiting
In the event of abdominal pain or discomfort, nausea and vomiting might be a leading symptom to suspect gallstone problems. Some patients would have gallstones for a couple of years, and they do not get stuck in the bile duct. Instead, they tend to block the bile duct when the gallbladder contracts to release bile into the intestines. In this case, nausea might not be severe, and may even go undetected.
However, it is not the same thing when the gallbladder starts to get inflamed in the event of a gallstone blocking the bile duct. In some cases, the gallbladder would start getting infected, and the severe inflammatory response might cause intense episodes of vomiting that would even lead some patients to dehydration, especially when other organs such as the pancreas gets involved.
Severe nausea in the event of gallstones should make a clinician suspect of involvement of the pancreatic tissue. When the gallstone gets stuck in the common bile duct, the bile and pancreatic juice start flowing backward and causing severe inflammation of both organs. Additionally, the pancreas would start releasing a series of enzymes that destroy the organ from within, and nausea and vomiting become even worse.
