I was officially diagnosed at Johns Hopkins Hospital two years ago. My diagnosis was based on symptoms and not any lab tests. I have a history of having pain over a long period of time and no positive lab tests. For two years I begged for the removal of my gallbladder because of the terrible pain. A sympathetic and believing surgion removed it and only under a microscope did the diseased state of the cells become apparent.
I suspect my gallbladder was affected by my pancreas, which I have read can occur. My pancreas pains have gone on for twelve years, becoming quite bad in the last nine. It took until 2002 to finally receive a diagnois of a disease I had determined I had years earlier. I wonder how often this happens with this illness.