Diet for Gallstones???

sillyvixen

mini_huny_money wrote: »

Hya all
Would just like to let folks know of my GB experience

Since my last post in June, after reading Van Maxrix’s post .I’ve now been hospitalized twice. First time I was in so much agony I couldn’t bear it, I reckon Ive got a fairly high pain threshold but this pain was immense

A&E staff were great but I had to see the on call surgical registrar before I could be admitted and TBH I felt he didn’t believe how much pain I was in. He asked several questions and then agreed I was in pain!!!!

My sis who’s a nurse later told me that some people say they have GB pain just to be admitted to hospital and access the pain relieving drugs!!!

After 3 days on 13th July I was discharged as the pain had settled down, in hindsight way too early as the next day I was again in pain. I held off until the following weekend, constant pain in my side but I was just like….ok I can wait till 4th August for my op

Saturday 18th July, I’d felt a wee bit better and had for the first time in a week felt hungry. I made a roll on tuna, no mayo just the tuna and ate 2 bites. AAArgh unbelievable pain but in a different area, right in the middle of my upper abdo. I reckon this was the stone passing thru into my bile duct..I was alone in the house and I did panic a bit. Rang NHS 24 who arranged for me to visit my local hospital 3 hours later !!!! I couldn’t wait so went to A &E again

Cut a long story short after a blessed injection of morphine I was admitted again
Hospital stay of 8 days including ultrasound and MRCP which showed that a 9mm gallstone had squeezed thru a 8mm duct…..no wonder I was in agony:D

ERCP 6 days later, of which I’d really been terrified and the 9mm stone removed from the bile duct leaving one other 9mm stone in the GB.

BTW anyone who dreads having an ERCP (as I did, as I have a wee bit of knowledge working in the NHS as I do) don’t worry about it. As my consultant said, “here goes the magic juice” , even though you’re semi conscious as you need to follow instructions re moving on the table. You really do forget about it afterwards. I can remember being intubated with the camera and it being withdrawn and a wee bit of discomfort in between. The procedure lasted 25 mins but I can remember nothing in between

I was discharged last week and this Tuesday 4th Aug I go in to have my GB removed

Can;t believe how much this illness has taken over my life as I’ve previously been in perfect health for the last 49 years, (touch wood) makes you really think about people who live with chronic pain

Sorry for the long post but I hope others who want info may benefit

good luck for your surgery on the 4th - i am glad you had a good experience with ERCP - i had it 3 times!! i had a bigger stone than you 16mm and i know it was obstructed ( i can remember the time of the obstuction as i had an appointment at the gp 1 hour later) my pain threshold increased to the stage of nearly passing out i was in bed and shook uncontrolably and the pain just stopped!! in the next 3 months the only pain was during ERCP when the gas was inserted and the obstruction was releived - untill the stone was retreived once the obstuction had been removed i started gettin pain again untill i had surgery 3 months later - but not the pain was not as bad as it had been!!

when i was admitted 1st time they checked my knee reflexes with the hammer and i saw my knee jerk reaction - but did not feel the hammer - mention that and see a junior dr panic!!!

all the best - let us know how you get on.

mini_huny_money

sillyvixen wrote: »

good luck for your surgery on the 4th - i am glad you had a good experience with ERCP - i had it 3 times!! i had a bigger stone than you 16mm and i know it was obstructed ( i can remember the time of the obstuction as i had an appointment at the gp 1 hour later) my pain threshold increased to the stage of nearly passing out i was in bed and shook uncontrolably and the pain just stopped!! in the next 3 months the only pain was during ERCP when the gas was inserted and the obstruction was releived - untill the stone was retreived once the obstuction had been removed i started gettin pain again untill i had surgery 3 months later - but not the pain was not as bad as it had been!!

when i was admitted 1st time they checked my knee reflexes with the hammer and i saw my knee jerk reaction - but did not feel the hammer - mention that and see a junior dr panic!!!

all the best - let us know how you get on.

16mm double the size of mine OMG....I feel for you....that mustve been so sore

The pain is unbelievable isnt it. Ive known people who have had GB pain and to my shame I didnt really appreciate how bad it was until I suffered it

The thing is , when I was in hosp I met a few girls/women who had their GB's removed but still get stones in their liver ducts. Im just assuming these people just went back to their old way of eating

The thing is I know I will have to live on a low fat diet but usually low fat diets are full of carbohydrates and I really prefer to low carb

How can I eat low carb and low fat at the same time

I'm a poster on the low carb thread here on MSE

Have you had any pain since your surgery

sillyvixen

hi mini-huny-money
i was not typical and now realise i had my first attack at 13 and my last at 34 (only 4 in total) and always put the attacks down to eating something that was not totally veggie (not known to me at the time of eating) i have been allergic to meat since weaning and every attack followed something that had hidden animal fat in except for the last time - which was the worst - i got ill and spent 24 hours throwing up after eating jacket potato and beans (same as a work mate) she was fine i had to leave work!! by the time i stopped vomiting i had began to go yellow - and the pain continued i thought it was due to the vomiting and was muscular - then i had the worst pain and shaking and it went - the stone blocked a nerve (and i had no pain from under my ribs to my ankles) - unfortunatly my new shoes still hurt!! and this remained the medics kept telling me i was in pain as when the 'tender' parts were pressed i reacted but i could not feel them pressing on my gallbladder area - all very odd!! by the time i did feel pain (after 3 ERCP's) i was on a low fat diet and felt the odd nigle when eating a sliver of cheese!! i am now pain free and can eat any thing - my op was 3 years ago!! and while it was no picknic (still not textbook - scared the dr half to death) i am alright no pain!! best thing i ever did - left a few more weeks my gallbladder would have become life threatening it was in such a state!

mini_huny_money

sillyvixen wrote: »

hi mini-huny-money
i was not typical and now realise i had my first attack at 13 and my last at 34 (only 4 in total) and always put the attacks down to eating something that was not totally veggie (not known to me at the time of eating) i have been allergic to meat since weaning and every attack followed something that had hidden animal fat in except for the last time - which was the worst - i got ill and spent 24 hours throwing up after eating jacket potato and beans (same as a work mate) she was fine i had to leave work!! by the time i stopped vomiting i had began to go yellow - and the pain continued i thought it was due to the vomiting and was muscular - then i had the worst pain and shaking and it went - the stone blocked a nerve (and i had no pain from under my ribs to my ankles) - unfortunatly my new shoes still hurt!! and this remained the medics kept telling me i was in pain as when the 'tender' parts were pressed i reacted but i could not feel them pressing on my gallbladder area - all very odd!! by the time i did feel pain (after 3 ERCP's) i was on a low fat diet and felt the odd nigle when eating a sliver of cheese!! i am now pain free and can eat any thing - my op was 3 years ago!! and while it was no picknic (still not textbook - scared the dr half to death) i am alright no pain!! best thing i ever did - left a few more weeks my gallbladder would have become life threatening it was in such a state!

You sound as if youve been through a lot

kinda scary that the jacket ptato and beans triggered an attck, mustve been the butter in it , cos potato and beans is low fat and hi carb

must smile at the shoes still hurt bit
tho

VanMavrix

Hello Girls:j
OMG !! you poor things, i feel quite lucky now:o
I've always considered myself to have a very low pain threshhold, don't know how you two managed.
The pain of a gallstone attack is bad enough without "monster stones" getting lodged in tubes and other organs !! Well done to you both for hanging in there.
Mini-huny-money, all the very best for Tuesday, hope all goes well for you.
As for your comment regarding food / eating after the operation, this is something i wondered myself.
Having gone totally fat free for 3 months before my GBoperation i lost nearly 2 stone in weight. After the operation i have indulged in everything and anything !!:D my scales are creeping back up.
But on a couple of occasions when i've bee particularly piggish i've noticed that i have felt a tad uncomfortable under my right ribcage and around my right shoulder. Followed by indigestion and nausea. Has scared me into eating healthy meals {low fat } for a couple of days .
Wondered if there was a possibility of stones re-occuring else where, and wether i will have to revert to my low fat diet ? just to be safe.:rolleyes:

myrnahaz

Gallstone sufferers should eat lots of apples. The pectin in apples helps soften gallstones, which makes them easier to pass through the bile duct.

mini_huny_money

Im not sure about eating after GB removal. Thanks to the above poster but apples are about the only fruit I dont like !!!

One lady who I met in hosp had her GB removed 3 years ago and has had 3 stones removed from liver duct....one each year !!! another had GB out 12 years ago and now had one in her liver, one other had GB out 22 years ago and now had a liver duct blockage

Maybe it was unusual that we were all in at the same time, then again maybe it is common and if we're prone to gall stones maybe we will gather them again

I just dont know but I'll probably eat low fat and low carb as much as possible, though I really find that very difficult

Ive also lost nearly 2 stone since May and am quite keen to keep it off.:j

Trying not to think too much bout tomorrow:eek: .

Hopefully I'll be able to let you know how I get on in a coupla days

sillyvixen

mini - if you are on a low fat diet before surgery stick to it after for a bit and introduce fat slowly - your system will have got used to being without it and your gall bladder has always helped in dealing with fat !! following my op the first food i was given was an egg sandwich and cheesecake (i come from a line line of cheescake lovers!!) and my mum was concerned when i could only manage a bite of sandwich and sent the cheesecake away (not to the ward fridge for later).. i was in hospital for 5 days and rarely ate as the food was horrid... when i got back to my mums she had got me a treat - cheesecake- i was starving and wolfed down a slice.... only to throw it up 20 mins later!! luckily i was sat next to my concerned dad on the new threepiece and he was reading the daily paper!! as i could not get up quickly i grabbed the paper and was sick on it (mum complained she had not done the crossword!!) better than ruining the new setee i though! after that i stuck to my origional pre opp diet no probs untill i had to take sick notes into work - mum bought me lunch out - again a disaster .... took a couple of months to build up to being able to tolarate fat.

VanMavrix

Thanks Mini-huny-money, sillyvixen,mymahaz,
Don't mind apples , so i will eat a few more:o
It seems stones can come back:rolleyes: so will have to be food aware, also happy if i can keep to my new weight so eating sensibly will help.:p
Also makes sense that i have overloaded my system with fatty foods since the operation 5 weeks ago, and that is why i keep getting bouts of illness:rolleyes: In the hospital i was given the same fatty foods as everyone else, pressumed that it was o.k to carry on like this at home as i wasn't told otherwise.
Back to the drawing board:o no more butter ! cheese ! pastries ! for a while.

myrnahaz

My mother had her gallbladder removed in 1960 - when she was 6 months pregnant! She never had a recurrance of stones, so it must only happen to some people.
My GB surgeon said (before op, 18 months ago) that the bile is still produced but that it's just a constant trickle onto every food type in the intestine rather than the flood of bile onto fatty foods that you'd get if the GB was still there, so there shouldn't really be any where for stones to build up in most people.

BTW, I'm currently on the Atkins diet, and I haven't had any problems eating fatty foods.