Anyone have experience with gallstones/gallbladder removal, etc?

[glassgirlw]

This isn’t totally anxiety related, so I wasn’t sure where to post this, as far as category - but I’ve searched for answers on the internet with not much success. We have a fantastic group of people on NMP so figured I’d try here!

I’ve been on a weight loss journey since May 31st of last year - am down 102 pounds! I really don’t eat fatty, greasy foods anymore - but about a month ago I went out to dinner with my husband and ordered two pork ribs. They turned out to be pretty fatty, but I ate them anyway. About 2:00 am I was woken with a bad burning pain right at the bottom of my ribcage, above my stomach. I had read that extreme weight loss could cause gallstone formation, so I kind of assumed this was probably it. The pain lasted an hour, and I was finally able to get back to sleep. Intended to call my doctor the next day and make an appointment, but got busy and kind of forgot lol. Wednesday night I ate a crispy chicken BLT and within about an hour, the pain returned - tenfold worse than the time before. And after two hours with no relief, I headed to emergency. They ran full bloods and did an ultrasound of my upper abdominal region and my kidney. Turns out I have “multiple small gallstones” but no infections, and all blood work was normal - and they recommended I get in touch with a surgeon. So I made that appointment for Wednesday this week. This was Thursday night. Yesterday I felt kind of bloated, and upper abdominal muscles were sore. Today the bloating is improved, but still there - and muscles still sore. Sorry for the long post, but anyone that has had gallbladder attacks, did you notice excessive bloating and sore muscles around that area in the following days? Any thoughts how long that lasts? I have no pain thankfully, it’s just a tad uncomfortable. It makes sense that the area would feel sore, with that level of pain I’m sure I was all kinds of tensed up for the several hours the attack lasted.

Definitely anxious at the thought of surgery, don’t think I’ve ever been put under before. But I also don’t want to go through that pain again, so in a way I’m also looking forward to getting it removed!!

Thank you!

[Catkins]

I had gallstones when I was 40 and after quite a while and a bout of pancreatitis I had my gallbladder out.

The pain is incredible and to be quite honest I would rather have given birth again.

It took me quite a while to get diagnosed (about 6 months in total, I was apparently too young), lots of trips back and forth to my GP practice and an awful lot of sleepless nights with bouts of pain, until one doctor had the wonderful idea to send me for an ultrasound and hey presto - gallstones. I had to have an endoscopy just to confirm there wasn't anything else going on - they also found a hiatus hernia. Then the wait for surgery was for another six months.

The surgery itself was keyhole, so I only have a few small scars. I was sore for a while afterwards but I was very relieved when it was done because I could eat!

In the meantime, the best thing to do is cut out fat. It's the fat that set off the attacks, I could really tell when I'd eaten something I shouldn't have done. In fact I think it was probably a chinese takeaway that brought on the pancreatitis.

Honestly the surgery was fine and I was up and about the next morning (I had it late afternoon), I even went on a coffee run for other patients on the ward to the hospital coffee shop.

[glassgirlw]

I know what you mean about the pain!! I most definitely would rather give birth than deal with that again lol. I’m hopeful when I meet the surgeon on Wednesday, he’ll get the surgery scheduled asap. I’d really like to get it done! Half scared to eat anything in fear of another attack. I’m being so careful to not eat anything with fat in it, and I just don’t have much of an appetite anyway.

Thanks for your response! Always nice to know I’m not alone in this!

[.Poppy.]

I can’t speak to the pain, but my mom had her gallbladder removed about 20 years ago. She said she had a couple of really bad attacks and just had a ton of gallstones. Surgery was really quick, and she took us to soccer camp two days after (she just watched), but said she felt totally fine. She’s not really all that tough with pain so she really must have felt fine lol.

[glassgirlw]

Lol Poppy that’s good to hear!! I’m glad her recovery was speedy. Everything I’ve read seems to say the same thing. It has to be better than the pain from the attacks for sure! My husband had his out over 10 years ago, he recovered quickly too. His gallbladder didn’t have stones though, he had other issues. So he’s not been much help for me to ask about the discomfort after the attacks pass, because he never had attacks lol.

[glassgirlw]

Whoo hoo I met with my surgeon today and my surgery is next Friday the 8th!! Definitely nervous about the anesthesia part but other than that I’m ready to get this thing out of me!! Causing so much pain and anxiety over the pain. Ugh. Ready to be done!

[Catkins]

Gosh, that's so quick! Which is a good thing, much better than months of waiting.

[glassgirlw]

I’ve been doing a lot of reading and it seems like people in the US get surgeries done on average much quicker than over on your side of the pond. The downside to that is, we pay a small fortune in health insurance premiums and then still pay a portion of the treatment! I suppose it’s a trade off, not long to wait for certain procedures but I can almost guarantee this will be around $10,000 by the time all is said and done. I won’t have to pay for all of that out of pocket, probably only 10% or so.

[glassgirlw]

Had an awful attack Thursday night that landed me in the ER on morphine. On the bright side, they got my surgery moved up to tomorrow. I have some butterflies in the stomach today over it, but I figure that’s to be expected having never had surgery before. All I know is, I’m going to be so glad to be able to eat solid food again and not be in horrible pain!!

[.Poppy.]

Good luck! It will go great I’m sure.

[Catkins]

It's great that it's been moved up! It'll be such a relief once it's over and done with.

[ckelley116]

How did the surgery go? Are you feeling better?

[glassgirlw]

I’m so much better!! Had it out 4/4, and today there is hardly any surgical discomfort left, pretty much back to eating my healthy pre-gallbladder diet lol. Was a breeze, I stressed myself out for no good reason, as per usual!! Thank you for asking!

[Carnation]

Pleased to hear you had a successful Op glassgirlw and eating is more pleasurable.