Anyone have their gallbladder removed?

My ex-wife had hers taken out when she was 16. She has a really big scar... in the next few years after that, they came out with the technique that leaves a very small scar. You'll have to change your diet afterwards, as the gall bladder does have a purpose.

My mom had just a small scar from her gallbladder removal. They recommend changing your diet but she never did.

I had a gallstone attack last night, worst pain I ever felt in my life, assholes didn't even offer me any pain killers at the time but gave me a prescription of percacet.........

Yep and it's no big deal. They should be able to a Laproscopic Cholecystectomy and you should be up and moving within a few days. There is about 5 small incisions and it's all done on an outpatient basis. And it's amazing how much better you feel afterwards....

Thanks for the graphics, puts my mind at ease

Yeah I had mine out about three years ago. I'd lived with gallstones for three years and the pain is like nothing on earth.... I was getting addicted to some pretty strong painkillers and then even they stopped working. Eventually mine was taken out under emergency surgery as my gallbladder had abscessed and my bile duct had blocked.

I had keyhole surgery, and I havefour very small scars which I cover up easily with make up if I'm wearing a bikini. I'd recommend you have it done sooner rather than later - the op is routine and if left untreated gallstone "could" cause a lot of problems.

In the meantime - I found the easiest way to deal with attacks was to get into a bath of hot water - as hot as you can stand without scalding yourself. The heat from the water helps the muscles to relax and the bile duct to relax and it helps the attack pass quicker and less painfully.

If you need to chat about it further then hit me up on icq #53842444

Good luck

My sister had hers removed a couple years ago & it was a piece of cake. She had the small incisions, minor scars. Definitely gotta watch what you eat, though. She can no longer eat gravy, sauces or anything greasy or, as she so elegantly puts it, her ass explodes.

I can still what I like... doesn't make my ass explode LOL

When her ass explodes, is it like "*******"?

Thanks for the info, I will hit you up on ICQ about it sometime... Is there anything you noticed that triggered an attack? For example certain foods, beverages? I had a pretty big dinner which I thought might have caused it.... They recommend I eat small meals... Also I was drinking a lot of caffeinated pop. I am now trying to drink only water...... I actually had that idea of taking a hot bath last night but the pain just wouldn't stop as I was laying on my side. I had a few much more minor attacks last weekend after I ate an unusual amount of fattening foods because I was visitng home and my mom likes her sweets. Also about a year ago after eating hot wings and strawberry daquiris together....Finally after 4 hours it just vanished. The same time the guy took my blood, maybe because I was then concentrating on the needle and not the pain....

Wow, cosis. Best of luck, pain sucks..

Do eat several small meals per day instead of 3 large ones or even 1 large one after you've forgotten to eat all day. So many people do that.

A regular routine is a good thing all around.

LOL I am a very warped individual, but not that warped. I have absolutely no desire to find out. I'm pretty sure ya won't find any pictures of it in her members area and if there is, I don't want to see them. lol

cosis.. I'm suprised at your doctor not giving you more info about this!

Fat (mainly animal fats but also some vegetable fats like olive oil) will trigger it. The only way I dealt with it for three years was to eat virtually no fats as even a small amount had me screaming my head off within twenty minutes. Your fat tolerance will vary but I couldn't eat more than 0.2g of fat over a twelve hour period without triggering an attack.

Caffeine rich drinks such as coffee used to trigger it. Not sure how the mechanism works but I believe coffee is said to increase your blood fats.

The gallbladder is basically a sack we use to store bile until we need it to digests fat. When it's needed the bile is expelled by the gallbladder squeezing on itself.... this is when a stone is thrown into the bile duct causing the pain.

So.... keep off that fat and caffeine for a while... oh yeah.... grapefuit juice used to help too. Not sure I understand why though

there's a way to get all the gallstones out of your system if your symptoms aren't that bad......something like drinking a shit load of olive oil and lemon juice...next day you will see the gallstones in the toilet....if you do a search on the net you can find it....they give a detailed step by step explanation on how to do it.

hehe the doctor didn't mention this one - I sure hope they don't come out in piss

I found a website
http://www.sensiblehealth.com/gallbladder.html

Very interesting indeed

Absolutely without a doubt, WRONG.

Nothing changes, it's pretty much a vestigial organ, that only helps capture fats thereafter digestion. With or without it, it's as needed as your appendex.

Funny to see this. My mom just had it done Tuesday morning and I've been at the hospital with her all week, 24/7. She got out yesterday morning and I'm still at her house right now. I haven't even been home since I left Tuesday at 4:00 am.

She had to have one other thing done as well, so she was supposed to get out Thursday morning. She was running a temp so they kept her an extra day. She has a few small incisions on her abdomen with staples and she's really sore, but nothing too bad. It's hard for her to get up and down because of the soreness.

What other thing did she have done?

I had the laporascopy done to remove my gallbladder. It was one month after having a baby. Each time I was breast feeding I would have attacks but it was also right after the combination of foods that were fat and acidic. Ex. Burger and pop or Steak and tea. The gallbladder spits out bile to counter the effect of the fat and acid. It goes into high gear and yes a stone gets stuck.

Never thought about hot water bath during an attack. I always felt very ill and the hot water would probably have pushed me over the edge. I dealt with the pain each time it happened and it caused me to stop breast feeding my first child and when I stopped the attacks stopped. Saw a surgeon at that time and it would have been optin surgery...my decision. There was no way I could make that decision. They even say its better to have it out then to be in precarious health and need it out.

Sure enough I was 8 months pregnant with my daughter, in a high stress time because I was training a replacement at my work and my son had an accident that required him to stay one week in the hospital and have some mouth surgery. I guess I wasnt watching my diet and bang...attack. I went to the emergency for the first time during an attack and good thing as it had brought on premature labour.

Needless to say they were right that I should have opted to have it out when it was not a crisis. I have recently read that bit about cleaning out the stones with olive oil etc. I think I would have tried that.

I know what you mean about the pain just disappearing....used to freak me out. I think you feel extra high because of the adrenalyn rush. I always wanted to go out and do something after an attack. Very weird.

My surgery was very easy...afterwards in my room they asked if I needed pain relief and I said no. They wanted me to take atleast a tylenol 3 and I said no. They said you will have to get up and go to the washroom I said no problem. I wasnt dancing around but I was not in any pain either.

You can look me up if you have questions.

Some female stuff. They figured out she had a lot of gallstones while they were doing the work up for that, so they decided to go ahead and remove her gallbladder since they'd be in there with the laparoscopic stuff, anyway.

Could this be *******'s secret revealed?

I had the operation last year when I was 25. They 'rushed' me through the system here... 4 months between diagnosis and operation... trust me, that is quick for the NHS. Why? Cos I didn't fit the 'gallstone profile' of female, forty and fat.

Pretty sure mine came because of my lard addiction...

And I will vouch for the whole exploding ass thing - it's truely like nothing you've seen/done before! I like my fatty foods too much to give them up unfortunately so will always make sure I'm within running distance if lapping up a tub of KFC gravy.

I had the keyhole surgery - left just 5 very small scars which are now barely visible. I was in and out of the hospital within 2 days, and aside from some 'ripping feeling' while stomach muscles tied themselves back together it was painless and no worries whatsoever. The surgeon even paid me a visit to tell me my gallbladder was 'diseased' and 'disgusting' and 'full of puss'. Excellent. As I was wheeled into the operating theatre I asked if he would videotape it, but he couldn't find any MiniDV tapes to stick in his machine, dammit.

Below are the stones they got out anyway, once they'd hacked away at my gallbladder!




Don't worry. You'll be fine

Damn those look like marbles dude, did you try anything else before the surgery, such as changing your diet?

Mine was removed about 4 or 5 years ago. I had been going to the Dr. for years and years because of an excruciating pain I had been having, but none of the Dr.'s I saw could find what was wrong with me. I went through several tests and several types of doctors and nobody could seem to tell me what was wrong. In fact, people started telling me it was just all in my head.

Then one day, the pain got so unbearable that I found myself doubled over on the floor, unable to move. My step-father had been on his way to pick me up to bring me to a family function we were suppose to have that day, but ended up driving me to the ER instead.

The entire time I was screaming and kicking at the windows in his car, the pain was so unbearable.

Where I had been at the time was an hour away from the hospital, so it was quite a ride, to say the least.

When we finally got to the ER, I tried to explain to the admittance lady how much pain I was in, but no matter what I said, it didn't seem to matter. She said that I would have to wait like everyone else.

So, I sat in a wheelchair in the ER waiting room, my step-father was making phone calls to other family members, so I was alone.

I was able to catch the attention of a nurse that was passing by and I pleaded with her: "Please, I don't need to see a Dr. right now, just please let me lay down."

At that time I was so tired of all of it... I just wanted to lay down and close my eyes.

She immediately rushed me to the back and they started doing tests on me. Not long after my mom came in to join me and the Dr. followed soon after her.

He told me that I was very lucky I had gotten back there when I did because if I had waited even five minutes, I would have died.

As it turns out, my gall bladder was full to the top with gall stones and I had acute pancreatitis.

I spent two weeks in the hospital. They had to wait for the infection in my pancreas to go away before they could preform surgery.

I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything, not even water.

I was hooked up to an IV and I had a push button demerol machine too. And they came to draw my blood every day. I got poked with needles so many times I looked like a junkie.

Then after the infection went away, they had to preform a procedure to make sure that none of the gall stones had left my gall bladder and ended up some place else. I woke up during that procedure and started gagging on the tube they had down my throat.... That really sucked...

This surgery was the first(and only) surgery I had ever had, so I was pretty nervous about it while I was waiting for them to wheel me back there. The surgery is like nothing though... You lay on the table then the next thing you know you open your eyes and it's all over.

Except when I opened my eyes, I didn't see any doctors standing over me, just me on a cold metal slab.... Kind of felt like I was in the morgue for a moment there.... Until I saw the Dr. at least.

I have three small scars on my stomach. I was never told anything about having to change my diet, I haven't changed my diet, and I have no exploding ass either. LOL I have heard the same thing from other people, but I don't experience anything like that. I can eat whatever I want to and it doesn't effect me one way or the other(as far as not having a gall bladder is concerned.)

It does feel weird after surgery though... Kind of feels like you have a hole where your gall bladder use to be...I mean...you can feel it. It's not bad pain or anything, you will feel sore though. I know the pain killers they gave me helped a lot though, so maybe that's why it wasn't very bad for me after surgery.

If I were you, I'd have it done. The longer you wait, the worse it'll get. And then you may not have a choice anyway.

Good luck!

First off, I was only relaying information I was given by my ex-wife. Secondly, did you not read any of the other posts in this thread that explain in detail what the gallbladder does, and how diet may need to be modified for some people?

Get a grip, dude.

I know what you mean about feeling weird. Everytime I have a high fat meal I swear to god I can feel a phantom gallbladder squeezing away - not painful, just *weird*!LOL

There are alternative to surgery. I was determined not to have surgery and eventually my doctor decided to let me try oral dissolution therapy. You take handfulls of meds every day in the hope that you can dissolve the stones. All it did was make mine more irritable and more likely to get caught up in my bile duct during an attack.

Go for the surgery.... it's really worth it

LOL Yeah, I agree, but I felt mine mostly when I would move around and stuff. I can't feel it at all anymore, everything feels normal. I don't feel weird when I eat something or anything like that. *smiles* I'm really happy about that. No more pain and no side effects. Definitely worth it.

I did, yeah. I had the same pains as you start back in Jan 03... eventually diagnosed in April, op in August. I couldn't eat anything fatty in that time without triggering the pain. Needless to say, since the day I had it all out, my diet has been disgraceful.

One other positive thing though - when I walked out of casualty after my third attack and reached for my cigarettes - I put one in my mouth and sucked on it - it tasted like shit compared to the morphine I was on at the time. Haven't smoked one since, and that was a 9 year addiction

I had another attack tonight, lasted 5 hours... I took 2 percosets and they didn't do shit...... Suffered in pain

How much was the surgery by the way? I think my health ins. covers something like 80%.........

Thanks

how does the doctor diagnose you with gall stones? is it through x-rays that they can see the stones? i have sharp pains on my lower right side where sometimes i break out in cold sweats and the doctors haven't been able to find anything wrong with me either.

Nope they give you a ultrasound just like a pregnant woman would get..... Is it a very strong pain? Just below the right ribcage? Maybe your doctor doesn't have the machine. I had to get it done at the hospital.....

bump for the stones

I've done it (note: not 'had it done'), and it's a relatively easy routine procedure. Don't worry about it.

ultrasound, certain lab tests

I did that gallbladder flush, check out one of the stones I passed

Mine was removed.... easy procedure..