gall bladder issues

My gallbladder quite functioning several years ago. I had lost about 50 pounds and the problems started right after. I suffered terrible pain for two years. They kept doing ultrasounds and saying I was fine because there were no gallstones. Finally I saw a new doctor who ordered a HIDA scan. Anyway my gallbladder quit functioning and he didn't give me an option really. He just told me I needed it removed. I won't lie sometimes I am still in the same sort of pain but not nearly as frequently. So basically it's not a 100% cure but it's at least 85% better than it was. If I had the decision to make again I'd still go for removal.

im not bashing the cleanse whatsoever

but, in the event that you do or do not

you need to eat really healthily, i don't know the details, but both my mother and my grandmother had gallstones removed, their gallbladders have issues processing fats thus should not be eating buttery, oily, fatty foods in excess, because it will just make it worse

it is really a lifestyle change

I recently went on a strict version of Atkins....no carbs at all even cut out good carbs. That was my down fall. After I had my "head start" on Atkins I started counting calories & had some homemade Tacos. Well I thought I had food poisioning b/c I was sick as a dog for 14 or more hours were I couldn't stop crying really loud. My husband wanted to take me to the emergency but I couldn't even move at all!!! He brought me 1 of my pain pills for my back & that is what helped stop the pain. I thought I was going to DIE:sad: I went to my Dr. she scheduled a ultra sound & they found 3-4 stones. I asked the surgeon at my consultation if he thought the Atkins greasy protein contributed to it & he said definately. Well I did not want another surgery after just having back surgery so I opted for these pills that dissolve them so that's what I'm doing now. He said if I didn't change my diet that they would come back. So no fried or fatty foods for me. That pain was like giving birth without pain reliever. So maybe skip the french fries etc. Your surgeon should explain everything to you or you could Google it. Nothing to mess around with. My mother had hers removed & says she is fine now. But I also heard that the "bile" goes directly into your intestines instead of your stomach which is gross due to bathroom issues (I've heard). Keep the Gall bladder if you can & change your diet. :flowerforyou: But you need to do what's right for you.

I recently went on a strict version of Atkins....no carbs at all even cut out good carbs. That was my down fall. After I had my "head start" on Atkins I started counting calories & had some homemade Tacos. Well I thought I had food poisioning b/c I was sick as a dog for 14 or more hours were I couldn't stop crying really loud. My husband wanted to take me to the emergency but I couldn't even move at all!!! He brought me 1 of my pain pills for my back & that is what helped stop the pain. I thought I was going to DIE:sad: I went to my Dr. she scheduled a ultra sound & they found 3-4 stones. I asked the surgeon at my consultation if he thought the Atkins greasy protein contributed to it & he said definately. Well I did not want another surgery after just having back surgery so I opted for these pills that dissolve them so that's what I'm doing now. He said if I didn't change my diet that they would come back. So no fried or fatty foods for me. That pain was like giving birth without pain reliever. So maybe skip the french fries etc. Your surgeon should explain everything to you or you could Google it. Nothing to mess around with. My mother had hers removed & says she is fine now. But I also heard that the "bile" goes directly into your intestines instead of your stomach which is gross due to bathroom issues (I've heard). Keep the Gall bladder if you can & change your diet. :flowerforyou: But you need to do what's right for you.

Oh I forgot to mention that I don't ever "throw up" well when I had this attack...I did. It was awful:sad: :sad: I can't stress enough to watch your diet & you will feel better. I'm really trying now. And thank you to "loathsome" I will check out that website she posted a little closer. Very interesting reading. I didnt' know that coffee, chocolate also contributes to gallstones. Tamara:smooched:

Thank you so much for the posts. It's good to hear some success stories after the removal and treatment. I had the scan and the ultra sound and I don't have stones. I know that you can disolve stones and get away with not having the gall bladder removed, I'm just unsure about options when it's not functioning perfectly without stones. I don't really even know if 16% is that bad. Like I said, my doctor didn't tell me much except to not trust the websites I've been researching, which is really all that's helped me. The website that loathsome suggested is the website that I've been referring to for my "gallbladder diet." It really has helped me a lot! I'm definitely willing to eat like this as long as I can keep my gall bladder.

Did any of you guys experience the dizziness and/or feeling out of it after eating. My "attack" symptoms are gone, except for the weird daze I'm in and I am sticking strictly to the diet.

Maybe you should have more testing or see another Dr? I haven't had any dizziness but now my stomach hurts:laugh: :laugh: I ate cauliflower & that's on the websites list of No No's. Geeez we can't eat anything:sad: . That alone should bring us to the "Skinny Side" Hope your feeling better soon

You really should get it removed! This happened to me a year ago and it got so bad that no matter what I would eat I threw up and got such bad pains that I would pass out. I actually had gall stones that popped out of my gall bladder. Having the surgery was the best thing that I could have done! I do have to take a prescription heart burn/acid reflux medicine, but that is all. I have never felt so good since I got my gall bladder removed, and I am so glad that I did. It is not going to get better, trust me, until you get the gall bladder removed. You dont need your gall bladder, so why have so much pain caused by it? Plus, you will have to live on that diet forever, because anything with any fat or grease in it is going to make your gall bladder flare up and you will be in pain, and with me, the attacks would last days! Good luck!

If you can avoid having your gallbladder removed, I would highly recommend it. Your body doesn't handle food the same way without the gallbladder. A lot of people experience chronic diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems after gallbladder sugery. Sometimes you can barely make it through a meal. Food seems to digest almost instantly. Very troublesome!

I would definitely try to ease your symtoms with diet and other measures, and consider gallbladder removal as your very last option.

I had mine removed 2 years ago and i say good riddance to bad rubbish lol.

All jokes aside though, I'd had back pain for years which all the drs contributed to my weight, then the bad attacks started and within a month I was in hospital with a failing liver! Some stones had moved from the gall bladder and into my bile duct causing the bile to back up. I was a mess. To be fair, it would never have happened if I hadn't had such a bad diet prior to it all kicking off. Since leaving hospital i have changed my diet, I don't eat as much fat for a start, but even if I do have an off track kinda day I still don't get any pain, any bathroom problems, nothing.

When my surgeon explained what was going to happen to me, he said that the function of the gallbladder is to regulate the release of bile from the liver into the stomach, by contracting (when you have stones...there's the pain) without the gallbladder, bile is continueously released into the stomach, so short of going nuts on the fat, you shouldn't have any problems.

My experience with the gall bladder removal is a positive one. :flowerforyou:

My sypmtoms lasted about 1 week before I went to the dr and started tests to see if my gall bladder was bad. My symptoms were: sharp stabbing pains in my chest and back. I couldnt take full breaths. I noticed that I had lost my appetite and was losing weight. Then I woke up one day nauseous. That's when I called the doctor. He put me on a bland diet, although I didnt really need it because the only thing I would eat was raisen bran because I felt so bad. The first thing they did was bloodwork, which showed issues with my pancreas. Next they sent me for an upper and lower GI - Nothing. Then they did an ultrasound which showed absolutely nothing. From there they finally did the gall bladder scan (which I think is called the HIDA scan). This is what finally showed my gall bladder was not functioning. At this point I had lost about 15 pounds. When they removed my gall bladder they said it was worse than it even looked in the scan, they don't know how I hadn't had symptoms earlier. My gall bladder was solid scar tissue. Any way, I had it removed and of course was out of commission for a while (2 weeks). I continued on the bland diet for a while after that. I made the mistake of eating Chipotle one day probably 1.5 months after the surgery. :sick: I would say that my stomach is definitely more sensitive than it used to be before the gall bladder attack and surgery, but I haven't had the nausea or sharp pains at all. Of course, I am eating a lot better now than I used to. I would continue to see your doctors and request the Gall Bladder Scan. This is just my experience... Good luck to you.

How interesting that I was thinking about searching for "gall bladder issues" on this forum today and found this very active thread on the topic!

Let me jump in with my story. In 2001 my gall bladder "burst". I couldn't tell you exactly how or when. I started having the extreme pain attacks that others have described here. One attack, after eating a particularly greasy fast-food burger, I really thought I might be dying. I nearly passed out from the pain. Prior to that attack I had seen a clinic doctor and he had tried to pass the attacks off as irritable bowel syndrome or a urinary tract infection. After the big attack, my family doctor sent me for an ultrasound. They discovered my gall bladder was "burst", as they put it. Non-functional. There was no stones and no saving it.

Not too long after that it was removed. My doctor, who was otherwise very helpful and good, only told me I'd have to "watch my fat intake" and that there shouldn't be anything else to worry about.

Unfortunately, he was wrong there.. I'm one of those who have struggled ever since it was removed. The pain is completely gone, but there are other issues.

About three years after it was removed I started to have symptoms that I thought was lactose intollerance. In the end, it was actually a "fat" intollerance. I had thought I was doing okay with "watching my fat intake" but there's surprisingly a ton of fat in many types of food. Up until this year it had gotten so bad that it didn't seem to matter what I ate, fat content or lactose or what. It seemed to come in a rotation, for a week or two I was fine and then I'd have about a week where no matter what I ate, I ended up feeling sick and having diarhea.

I didn't know about a "gall bladder" diet. I cut down as much as I could on fat and don't eat fast food burgers (some chicken burgers or veggie burgers seem to be fine, depending on where they're from). I don't eat beef or red meat in general. I used to have a bit sometimes, but not any more. My body hates it.

This year I haven't had the cycle of problems for a week. Now, it seems to be somewhat random. Sometimes after I eat I'm almost immediately not well. Most of the time I'm fine.

The other side-effect has been that my body doesn't process fat very well at all. That whole mechanism where the bile goes straight into the liver or whatever doesn't seem to help me much. I have gained nearly 50lbs over the past four years. Although that was also due to poor exercise habits and eating habits in general, but some of it is related to the missing gall bladder. I've read that for some people this is common. Others go the other way after a removal, losing a lot of weight instead.

I'm going to research this "gall bladder diet" and see if that, combined with this site, will help me lose the weight I need to be healthier and keep my attacks away.

Maybe there should be a "gall bladder support group"? LOL!

*Update*
Just read the info at http://www.gallbladderattack.com/ and it's quite interesting. Apparently I'm the type of post-surgery person who has the "dumping" problem - my liver creates too much bile for my body and "dumps" it almost immediately after eating (sometimes). And apparently this is one of the hardest side effects to manage. Yay.


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My doctor told me if your gallbladder is functioning at less than 30% on the HIDA scan that it needs to be removed.

I agree you do need to watch fats because of the dumping problem. I've had issues where it backs up into my stomach and caused gastritis.

Really, the gall bladder removal is a very simple procedure. It's about 45 minutes and I recovered very well.