Gallstones anyone?

Hi!

I really feel for you! I suffered with gallstones for (at least) 2 years before finally having my cholecystectomy last month. I seem to have a totally different story to everyone else as I put on a lot of weight! The reason for this is because I was prescribed stupidly strong painkillers and I lived on them. Suddenly my pain was bearable (just about) and I would comfort eat. I used to sit on the sofa in the evenings, heavily dosed up, holding a heat pad against my side (heat is really helpful btw), scoffing junk food. The problem I had was it got to the stage where I had virtually constant pain so it was no worse when I was eating anyway. As a result of that I managed to put on a stupid amount of weight and am now trying to shift it. Are you planning on having the op? It sounds as though you need to, you cant keep suffering. I'm so glad I did. The post op pain was bad but nothing compared to the gallstone pain.

All the females in my family have had our gallbladders removed.Don't let them make you suffer! I felt like crap for years before they found my gallbladder was not excreting bile necessary for digestion.Now I feel great and have lost 22 pounds even though I quit smoking last January!

Gallstones suck. I had my first bought about a month or two ago. I got mine because I lost so much weight, then on a cheat night I ended up in the ER. Problem is I have a lot more to lose before the surgery. I’ve been reading and researching Gallbladder disease and have learned a lot. I’m still trying to find out all the do’s and don’ts with food. I get the fatty fried stuff. I have a friend who’s a naturalist, he has me on AF Beta Food. I haven’t had another attack. Maybe I can help with the food, I’m a cook, I use to chef out at our local country club and did my own catering. I just need to learn everything I can. I also have to have a low carb/sugar. I’ve been doing the eating right thing for over a year.

I had three gallbladder attacks before I had mine out in October. Turned out it was half full of gallstones. I don't think I've ever hurt so much in my entire life as when it was hurting. I try to eat low fat foods. So far so good.

I was 22 when I felt that pain, extreme awful, I don't know what this is! Pain!
Took an ambulance ride to a hospital, got there about midnight and they said it was Gall Stones.. they put me in an operating room at 4 pm the next day.. while I waited, I suffered. While they wheeled me into the surgery I saw my surgeon and asked him if when I woke would this pain be gone? He said, yes, but you will have a new pain from the surgery. I said "I don't care if you kill me, just stop the pain!" So obviously I survived and the recovery was almost as bad as the initial attack.. because, my gall stone removal turned into being a full gall bladder removal and well, this was back in 1986, not a good year to end up having to need two blood transfusions on top of the Gall Bladder being taken out.
I thought I would have a restricted Jello and broth diet for the rest of my life, but I didn't. I can (not that I would now) but I can eat anything, french fries, greasy stuff, etc.. seems like the gall bladder never did do what it was supposed to I guess as it is supposed to break down fatty foods.
My friend had a scheduled gall bladder removal.. she got the little lazer surgery dots by her belly button, unlike mine. She recovered much faster and she too does not have to restrict her diet, nor live with that kind of pain anymore.
I would say schedule a surgery, remove the gall bladder. That pain is not something you can "learn to live with"
Good luck

I had some misdiagnosed VERY severe gallstone/gallbladder attacks a few years ago- thank goodness you know what's going on It happened to me after I lost my first 60lbs or so, I was only 20 so the doctors were VERY surprised. I wound up in the ER, hospital for a week and they took it out- SO MUCH BETTER I cannot express.

Until you have it removed you will probably find that fats and heavy/rich foods will be terrible for you, but after you have it removed no diet modification is expressly required. I have had no problems since, but have stayed far away from heavy foods or ones with a lot of animal fat (cream, butter, etc) and I go for olive oils instead.

Best of luck to you- Hope you're feeling 100% soon Feel free to add me!

I actually went about 10 years before I had my gallbladder removed. When I first had episodes, I had no idea what it was. Went to the doctors office, they couldn't find anything. Then, the episodes stopped for about 5 years. Went to a different doctor, told him the type of pain I was having, the symptoms, etc. They did an ultrasound and finally found some stones. They took my gallbladder out 13 months ago, and have resumed a normal life and diet. I didn't drastically change my diet except for soda- don't drink it at all anymore.

I went into the ER with pain and they said it was inflamed gallbladder to watch what I ate also gave me a list of items to eat and do the no-fat low-fat diet. So a year later watching what I ate and still having a flare up every 1-2 months I finally gave up and went into the ER again. To tell me last time I had stones and lecture me as to why I didn't see a specialist. I did a follow up and was admitted the same day. Emergency surgery to remove that bad boy. What they told me was a half an hour procedure turned out to be almost 3.5 hours!!! Doc said he had the hardest time getting it out. Had to open the incision in my bellybutton bigger to get it out. My boyfriend at the time was so worried and asked and asked but they wouldn't tell him anything since he "wasn't" my husband at the time. Walked out a few days later with a tube hanging out to catch excess fluid. Really wish I knew that I did HAVE stones and taken that thing out sooner.

Got the battle scars to prove it.

Now, with a laparoscopic approach (which is much preferred by surgeons), the surgery is shorter, recovery time is only a couple weeks, and you will be back on your feet without pain sooner.

Exactly 4 incisions they are in and out and you are on the mend. Don't wait like I did.

I agree completely. I had mine out with the laparascope/4 tiny incisions and I was working from home the next day.

i had my gallbladder out last year. i had a few attacks until a major one landed me in the ER & i was diagnosed w/ gallstones. at that point i had lost about 50# and my doctor said that may have been what caused them. something about cholesterol causing deposits. anyway...i definitely recommend getting your gallbladder removed!

I gained 70 lbs with both of my pregnancies. After the first, I lost my appendix and after the second, the gallbladder. I would never make another choice but to get that sucker out ASAP.

According to my doctor I was one of the rare cases. I had my first gallbladder attack at the end of January in 2011, they just said it was an ulcer or something like that, Sent me home. Few days later while visiting my in-laws I had another attack, went to ER and the doctor said it was anxiety. I didnt get another attack until near the end of February, I went back to the hospital and while I was being checked out my heart rate dropped to (I think) 30 something, the nurse came in asked how I was feeling, I said fine and she rushed out to get a doctor, doctor came back in and said "yeah, we better check and see what's wrong with you."
I was admitted for a week and a half. I was released and in the middle of march while I was visiting my in-laws again I had just finished supper and had a very hard attack. She rushed me to the city hospital while my father-in-law watched my 7 month old daughter. I was admitted, they did tests and they came back saying I was having a severe Pancreatitus attack. I was in the 5% of people whom they didnt know if they would live or die from it. I even developed a cyst in my pancreas from it. I got my gallbladder out in May of 2011 after having the run-around and being cancelled on (while I had already waited 1 1/2hours in the hospital) for 2 months, and have had similar gallbladder attacks which is being caused my the cyst in my pancreas, since. i put a lot of weight on since I initially started getting the attacks, but with working hard and eating healthy I have managed to lose almost 50lbs. The doctors are debating on doing surgery to remove the cyst.

It took me about a week to recover from the surgery (4 small incisions) mainly because I was trying to do more than I should, chasing after a 9 month old who just learned to crawl, she had kicked me in a few of the incisions so I even developed minor infections. But they healed up okay.

But mainly what I'm trying to say if you are in a lot of pain, dont let them make you wait. If they wont do it soon, try and find another doctor who will help manage your symptoms. The pains dont always go away with surgery, like mine for instance. & You dont have to be completely fat free because your body needs some of the good fats.

Hope they get yours dealt with and that you dont have to deal with the attacks for long.

Had mine removed 45 years ago. Get rid of that sucker.

I suffered through what turned out to be gall stone attacks for about 3 years. If felt like getting stabbed just under the sternum, but the pain went away after 20 minutes so I didn't worry about it. This was back when I was unhealthy and obese. I didn't pay attention to what I ate so I didn't have any idea what foods may have caused it. I was also stupid about not going to the doctor. The worst case of stupidity was when my son was born. He was born at 7:47 PM so they kept my wife in for a second night. I got us McDonalds for dinner that night. I had a Quarter Pounder, fries, and a McFlurry. Then I finished my wife's McFlurry. (I feel fat just typing this.) I woke up in the middle of the night, in a hospital, and just waited until the pain stopped and never said anything. And I was in a hospital. I guess I felt like I needed to stay there for my wife and new baby and not worry about stomache pains that went away. That was in the summer of 2000 and I was 28 years old.

One night on Labor Day weekend 2002 I woke up with HORRIBLE pain, way worse than my usual pain. What had been gallstone pain was very localized and would go away. This was my entire abdomen in severe pain, and it went on for hours. I still waited for my wife to wake up and then she took me to the hospital. They quickly determined it was gall stones through an ultrasound, but that I had also developed pancreatitis. That was the extreme pain. They admitted me, put me on antibiotics, pain meds (dilauden?), and I coudn't eat a thing. I received nutrition through a PIC line but couldn't eat a bite. They had to wait for my pancreas to get better before they could take out the gall bladder. I was admitted Sept 1 and had the surgery on Sept 10. The first few days not eating didn't matter because the thought of eating was horrible. But after a week I got my appetite back and had to watch countless pizza commercials during football games that weekend. I seem to remember this being the time that Dominos starting offer Buffalo wings.

My surgeon told my wife that it was the most infected gall bladder he had seen with around 200 stones. He made it very clear to hear that I could've easily died from this. The stones can block the common bile duct that the GB and pancreas share, causing pancreatitis.

The gall bladder surgery was nothing compared to any of this. It was done lapriscopically. I think I ended up with a 5th incision. Ten years later I can't even find scars from all of them. The recovery was no big deal. I think a lot of people on this site can imagine the pain when you decide I need to do situps for the first time in years, do 100 of them, and wake up with very sore abs. That's comparable to the GB surgery. I don't even think you need to stay over night for it. I couldn't imagine that someone would need to miss more than a week of work from it.

That started a long process of getting healthy for me. My all time high weight was around 275 lbs. I was in the 250's at the time of the surgery. I lost weight in stages over the years, getting to about 205 about two years ago. I then joined this site and lost the rest of my weight to reach my goal of 188.

I have recently had gallbladder problems. The first attack hit at mile 2 of a 5K! I thought I was going to die!! I have no health insurance, so I sought out natural remedies. I did the gallbladder cleanse...terrible, but it worked to remove stones. I had muscle testing done at an herb shop. Since taking the supplements that was recommended, I haven't had any more problems. I do feel a bit sore from time to time, but I haven't had any more attacks. If you would like to know the herbs and supplements I take, message me and I'll be happy to supply the list.