A painful ache in the right abdomen. The first symptom a person experiences when suffering from gallstones is a pain. The exact location can differ from person to person, but with most the ache will be centered on the gallbladder. This is located just under the liver, so the pain will be centered below the ribs on the right of your body. The intensity of the pain will depend on the intensity of the condition, ranging from very mild in the initial stages to a deep agony in the right abdomen if the condition is more serious.

Bloating, gas, and problems with digestion. When you have a gallstone, this blocks the bile the liver produces from entering the digestive tract, and thus directly impacts the digestive process. You will have problems with digestion, and experience bloating and flatulence. The body will also be less able to absorb crucial nutrients and fats from the intestinal region. This is accompanied by pain and is medically known as biliary colic. The pain can radiate out from the upper right of the abdomen into the shoulder region, and into the upper back area.

Pain radiating into the upper right-hand side of the back. When one suffers from a gallbladder attack, due to compression of the nerves leading to the upper right of the back, one can feel considerable pain in this area. Different people can experience this effect in different ways, with the pain extending between the shoulder blades, towards the lowest point of the right-side shoulder blade, or to the top of that shoulder. This pain, though felt in the back, is actually pain from the abdominal area radiating into the back. This pain might not necessarily be consistent and could even appear and disappear sporadically, with the intake of food sometimes making it worse.