Question for gallbladder-free people

[Pooh Girl 71]

I had my gall bladder taken out 15 yrs ago. I have the same issues. I didn't realize it was connected to that but it makes sense now.

 

[llij]

Lucky me, I'm scheduled to get mine out on Monday!

Good luck with your surgery, Laurajean!


I had my gallbladder out 7 years ago and every once in awhile I have the 'run to the bathroom' issues. No weight gain from the gallbladder being removed though.

 

[luvsmickeymouse]

Gee, I just had an ultrasound on mine this morning, and I have gall stones, and the Dr. at the walk in said that mine should come out. I am going to my dr. next month and will see what he thinks. I have only had one attack, didn't even know I had gall stones. I have been on a diet and went off it for a couple of days and wow, never again, I was in alot of pain. So back to the diet. I have lost 57 lbs. so far. I am undecided as to what I should do.

 

[chell]

Lucky me, I'm scheduled to get mine out on Monday!

Just remember that laying back and sitting up will be a bit difficult the first day or two. Roll to the side to lay down and to get up and you will be just fine.

 

[Ava31]

I had my gall bladder taken out 16 months ago, three weeks after I gave birth to my DD. I did gain weight, but it was because of comfort eating after my brother passed away. After the weight gain, I went on a strict diet. One day, I went out to eat Mexican and I ate very carefully, except for a couple of dips in the queso and a fried tortilla. Boy, did I regret that. I spent a good part of the next week sitting on the toilet. I'm convinced that it was related to my gall bladder, or lack thereof.

Gee, I just had an ultrasound on mine this morning, and I have gall stones, and the Dr. at the walk in said that mine should come out. ... I have been on a diet and went off it for a couple of days and wow, never again, I was in alot of pain. So back to the diet. I have lost 57 lbs. so far. I am undecided as to what I should do.

I had my first attack when I was 9 months pregnant and it was definitely uncomfortable, but I could deal with it (which was a good thing because there was nothing they would have done at that point, anyway). The next one (at 2 weeks post-partum) had me throwing up bile, white-knuckling the toilet, and in excruciating pain on the bathroom floor all night long. Now, I have a pretty high pain tolerance (I had 2 babies without any drugs of any kind, completely natural), but that was a pain that I never wanted to experience again, so I made an appointment the next day to have the surgery done the following Monday. All I'm saying is that I hope you never have that defining gall bladder attack that sends you to the emergency room (if it wasn't for my 2-week-old DD nursing, that's where I would have been). When the stones get to a certain size, even a low-fat diet won't abate the pain.

 

[Chattyaholic]

My dearly beloved gallbladder went to its final rest twenty-four years ago. (They weren't sure what it was at first, because I wasn't 40 and female )

I wasn't 40 either, only 20, when mine came out.

I'd had my first attack when I was about 5-6 months pregnant with DS, and my doctor said "Oh, it's just the baby pressing up against your rib cage."

Had another attack after he was born. I'd eaten a can of Chef Boyardee beefaroni and spent 24 hours in pain and barfing (20 times!). The only time the pain would subside was when I was barfing.

Had testing done and my doctor called and said I had a big rock pile, so out it came.

I do have the "bathroom issues" but it's weird enough that I can't really determine WHAT actually causes it. Sometimes I'll "go" 3-4 times during the day and other days, not at all. I used to think it was fast food, but yesterday I had a filet o' fish sandwich and fries from McDonalds and it didn't bother me at all. Go figure.

Usually if we're on vacation and I'm eating more regular meals I don't have much of a problem. Sometimes even coffee will send me to the bathroom though.

DD is going Wednesday for an ultrasound, she's been having pain and discomfort and her doctor thinks it could be her gall bladder. She's 27. Hopefully if it is, they can do the newery surgery for her. Mine was done the old fashioned way (that's all they knew way back then ) and I have a nice 8" scar (they went far enough to take the appendix too) and spent a week in the hospital and 5 more weeks recuperating. Not fun.

 

[DVC-Don]

I lost about 10 pounds just prior to having my gall bladder out. I since gained about 5 of it back, but then had a couple of bouts with diverticulitis and have lost another 10 pounds. So, I'm still down overall about 15 pounds.

 

[kami2199]

I'm not sure about the weight gain, but bathroom issues definately. I had mine taken out when I was about 29 weeks pregnant with my daughter. I had lost so much weight and was in so much pain that they could not wait any longer. And...I didn't have the lapro - imagine the scar I have now from my belly expanding for the baby. They actually started it (lapro) but I can't remember why now they had to go the other route. I was in surgery for 6 hours. I didn't show (pregnancy) until after I had mine out and then boy did I ever start to grow. I agree with the posters - I would never want that kind of pain again.

To the poster whose doctor told them it was the baby...mine did the same thing until I crawled in there one morning after having been up 2 days with horrible pain. The nurse started pushing around, I screamed, then she yelled GALLBLADDER. I was seeing my surgeon within hours. Initially, once that attack subsided, they wanted me to wait until after delivery. I had another attack within a day or two and was very dehydrated as I could keep nothing down. They went ahead and did it after that.

 

[mtblujeans]

I had mine removed in Billings in 1987. I heard I was one of the last patients to have the surgery to remove it. I had stitches and staples; the whole shooting match. I guess they started doing it without the full surgery after my big scar event.....of course!

 

[babiesX2]

Mine was removed about 4 or 5 years ago and I'm still in the "gotta run to the bathroom 5 minutes after I eat" phase! I lost too much weight in the initial post-op period, but quit smoking and slowly gained back up to my pre-surgery weight. The only time I haven't had a problem with going to the bathroom was during my pregnancy with the twins, and I had the opposite problem.