Gallbladder Surgery

lloydrt

bump for later , good post

OriginalWhatTheHelen

My diet was clean, by the way. Hardly ever any fried foods (my entire life), no foods that are typical of gall bladder disease. I was about 30 lbs. overweight the first time and very fit the second time.

BrendaLee

I am one of the unlucky ones who still has attacks of abdominal pain following gallbladder removal. I had my gallbladder out 17 years ago, and I still have attacks of severe pain. I believe it may have something to do with bile reflux or other bile-related issues following the surgery. Severe cramping/diarrhea, especially immediately after eating (or even before you finish the meal) are also pretty common side effects to gallbladder surgery. There are medications that can dissolve the stones if you're not already at the critical point where it has to come out. I wish I had tried to save mine.

robert65ferguson

It's not an easy decision to make but on balance removal seems to be infinitetly preferable to some of the complications that can develop. In a family of 6, 5 of us have had problems with our gallbladders, both parents and 2 out of 3 siblings. I was the one with the complications. Both parents and both siblings have had no problems and followed a normal healthy diet with few limitations.
Be advised by your medical team and take their advice. Do not put it off. It's much better to deal with the situation under controlled conditions than to be faced with a sudden emergency.

dwmorton

I had my gallbladder removed about 3 years ago and my symptoms have completely gone. Also the heartburn I suffered daily for the previous 20 years. I haven't found any foods which I can't eat after I had it removed.

My surgeon told me that once you have had gallstones, there is a high chance of them returning. There's also a risk of stones escaping and blocking your liver or pancreas which can be life-threatening.

Keyhole surgery is relatively straightforward with little scarring and a short recovery time.
Speak to your doctor for advice.

fudgebudget

As a previous poster said, sometimes you can still have problems afterwards if they fail to remove all of the stones. I had an emergency ERCP for a stone that was lodged in the common bile duct two years ago and was making me jaundiced (fun times!), and then they went ahead and removed the gallbladder since it was clearly throwing stones and was infected. I have had a few minor digestive issues since then, but nothing bad, certainly no pains that even compare to the gallbladder attacks.

All the liver does is manufacture the bile - if your surgeon makes sure to clear all of the ducts connecting the gallbladder to the liver and stomach then you shouldn't have recurring problems.

For the record, your gallbladder has to be pretty crazy infected for them to not be able to do the laparoscopic procedure - mine looked terrible (they showed me the picture afterwards - normal gallbladders are green ... mine was white) and they didn't have to do the big incision. If you don't have to have an emergency procedure like I did then you'll also be able to check out your surgeon ahead of time and make sure that they know you want the less invasive procedure.

Some other things that can throw off your gallbladder - changing your diet drastically, and doing anything that will cause the gallbladder to contract less often thereby allowing more stones to form (this includes eating very little, losing a lot of weight, and taking hormonal birth control since estrogen has the anti-contraction effect).

Dogwalker1989

If you're questioning whether or not to have it out then the pains haven't got as bad as they could be.

It took a long time for me to get diagnosed because I'm youngish (21 at the time), then with NHS waiting lists etc, it took months for the operation. To the point where any fat was causing an attack and 3 trips in one week to A+E I ended up being rushed into surgery because of how inflamed and diseased my gallbladder had become and how low my liver function was.

If it's costs you're worried about surely it would cost more to be rushed in as an emergency and need open surgery, opposed to getting it done laproscopicly as an elective.

Is it worth waiting for it to get worse?

As for the after effects - my body cannot tolerate fat very well so I keep my intake low. It's not like before where fatty food would have me running to A+E, just uncomfortable enough effects in terms of bloating and diarrhea to have me think twice about getting takeaway, but I know lots of people that have little problems

I have also felt gallbladder pain a couple of times since I had it removed. Once it was very intense and and I was taken to hospital. Once it was explained to me that having your gallbladder out has been linked to codeine sensitivity/ allergy and can result in bile duct spasms for people who have had their gallbladder removed - giving phantom gallbladder pains. Since then I've not had any medicines with codeine in and I haven't been ill again.

jennifeffer

I had mine out nine months after my second child. I kept putting it off bc i was afraid to have an anesthetic. The day i had it out, the doctor said it was a good thing we did it bc it was about to rupture. I felt so much better after, like instantly. Don't put it off. Get it out. I didn't realize how sick i was until it was gone. Never looked back.

bademasi

I had my gallbladder out about 8 years ago. I didn't have gallstones. Mine just stopped functioning all together. I had major pain all of a sudden. I thought it was a hernia but was so wrong. I had surgery the following morning. They did it the new way Laparoscopic and only have a few tiny scars. I cant eat greasy foods now. But I don't want to anyway!

Good Luck to you!

Laurielronic

I had mine removed and have not had any more symptoms or problems. I had heard rumors from others of having to run to the bathroom after eating certain foods, but I have not encountered that problem.

chipper15173

had mine taken out in 08. i know now when i have heartburn, and it's not the gallbladder. mine was so infected, it started falling apart when they were removing it, and i had over 136 stones. some they lost in my body. my doctor kept telling me i had acid re-flux. even a night in the ER with pain so bad i couldn't breath, they sent me home with re-flux meds. i too have to be careful of fatty foods. sometimes it's like a built in ally pill. lol.

good luck

icklecyberfairy

i had mine out last year. I had severe bile reflux which started about 2 months after surgery. I'd cough it up and it caused my gums to blister and bleed. The doc recommended eating a super clean diet for a week (think it was more like 2) with some meds and it sorted itself out. Now i am not on the meds but if i go out drinking, I have to be very careful in what i eat the next day. For me the triggers are alcohol and cheese.

I started having issues after I started dieting.

NCTravellingGirl

I had my gallbladder removed 6 years ago. I had gallstones that got stuck to the point of jaundice, so they went in for removal and found my gallbladder to be infected. Since they were already in, they removed it, but I had to stay in the hospital 6 total days making sure the infection didn't spread. Before all that happened, I really only had 2 attacks so it was a shock how quickly it accelerated. I don't like going to doctors so in my case, it was probably good that it got bad fast because who knows how long I would have avoided surgery if it was an option.

Even with my extra weight (I was probably 280 at that point), they were still able to do the laproscopic version so I had three small incision marks under half an inch each. Two of the three I can't even find any more, and one is very minorly visible.

I can share that like others, there were fatty foods that just seemed to go right through me for the first 6 months. Since then, I've had no recurring issues but do still watch the fat to prevent that sudden need to run to the bathroom, haha! Good luck!