Anyone had their gallbladder out - share your stories

masonsmum

Hi everyone

When I was 10 weeks pregnant with my now 15 month old son I was rushed to hospital with agonising pains which I thought was me losing the baby but was found to be gallstones, I soldiered on through my pregnancy with them and when baby was 3 months old I got my gallbladder removed. I thought this would be the end of my troubles but doesnt seem to be as I have had nothing but trouble ever since.

I have now been back at the doctors for the umpteenth time as I still experience the "tightening" feeling under my chest and between my shoulder blades, I have been prescribed ranitidine and omneprazole so now I have been told I need a more detailed scan or maybe need to get the camera down into my stomach to see whats causing the problems.

Can anyone share their experiences of going through similiar?

browneyedbazzi

I haven't had gallbladder issues but my best friend did for years. She eventually had her gallbladder removed about 4 years ago (by keyhole surgery). She experienced pains/cramping on a fairly regular basis after the surgery but that did eventually go away - I think she was expecting everything to be much better immediately following the surgery so the ongoing pains were a surprise. It took about six months before she stopped getting any pain and has been fine since.

I hope you feel better soon!

Callie22

I had my gallbladder out years ago and haven't really had any issues since, but I do notice that if I eat the 'wrong' stuff (i.e. way too much fat, or a *lot* of stodge) then I can get what I would call mild gallbladdery symptoms - that sort of tight, crampy, heavy stomach pain and that sicky feeling like I'm going to heave. Not pleasant, but it does go and it's possibly a sensible reminder to me that I do need to be a bit careful with what I eat, and how much, and when.

NickyBat

I had mine removed 18 months ago after it turned gangrenous - not nice. Since the op i have been fine, occasionally like Callie said if i have ate say a pizza with lots of cheese i can go to bed feeling fine and wake up having what i call an acid attack where i get a rush of acid in my throat which leaves it burnt.

So although i can eat most things i do need to watch out.

Pinkylouloubell

Hi OP,

I had those same pains at first last April, so bad I was laying on the floor screamig and had to call an ambulance.
They thought originally that something had burst in my stomach but later diagnosed pancreatitis and gallstones, along with raised liver levels.

After a few A&E visits and almost a month in hospital (2 occasions) I finally had it out in June last year.

All good or so I thought.

Recovered well, then a few weeks later had the same tightening and pain that got progressively worse and got so excruciating had to call ambulance again.
The only thing that seemed to stop the pain was morphine injections.
They always gave me tramadol, paracetemol, buscopan and diclofenac before I would be literally begging them to help me.

I had so many scans, tests and recently had the gastroscopy done.

I now have erosive gastitis which they have put me on omepazole, buscopan and have told me to literally drink gavison when needed and always before bed.
One Dr I saw at A&E was VERY patient and helpful and actually took the timw to sit down and talk to me.
I explained that I always seemed to get it around 6-7am and he said this was probably where the acid was rising up my stomach while I was alseep so he told me to put a pillow upnder my matress to make a slight elevated sleeping position.
He also said to take a big gulp of gaviscon before I went to bed to stop the acid coming back up.

I seem to think Im OK and then after a couple of months it will come back.

I also get a feeling like I have a water infection a few days before.
drs dont seem to think its related but it always happens, like an uncomfortableness.

My last episode was about May time so Im praying the Omeprazole are doing their job.

I have another gastroscopy booked for end of August.

Its actually quite comforting to know that there are others out their who have had siilar symptoms and when I was researching this made me feel nrmal again and not a freak who had something wrong that the Dr's couldnt work out what it was.

NickyBat

Hi pinky, one better than Gaviscon is Kolanticon, i find that works wonders.

Desperado99

Hi,

I started with gallstone symptoms end of last year (New Years Eve to be exact), and to begin with I just put it down to food poisoning/stomach bug etc.

Finally went to the GP in april after a particularly bad bout. Had an ultrasound in may, followed by an MRCP, and an endoscopy (OCD) with a few A+E visits and a stay in hospital in between. I went back into hospital in july after repeated pains and a+e visits over 5 days, this is where I was lucky as they took it out there and then as an emergency. I was discharged the next day, the first week was not pleasant mostly because my throat was really, really sore - OH went to the chemists and got me a numbing spray which helped a lot.

I've been home for nearly 4 weeks and everythings healing OK, I should be back at work in 2 weeks time (manual work, otherwise I'd have been back after 2 weeks). I don't seem to have any side effects from surgery, although if I eat too much cheese I do know about it.

NickyBat

Yeah it's cheese that seems to bother me, even the low fat one.

dandy-candy

I had my gallbladder out in march this year. After the initial recovery period of feeling cr*ppy I was absolutely fine. Then 5 days ago I started having a tight feeling under my ribs on the right, acid tummy ache and upset tummy (the trotts basically!). I went to my GP and she said its probably a virus etc.
I suspect it is my diet, I had been eating out and binging on greasy stodge, ice cream, choccies etc for the last 2 weeks. I really need to kick a strict diet into gear.

torbrex

I am on the list to have my Gall Bladder removed but I have yet to receive a date.
I have only had one really bad incident but the surgeon thinks it would be 'prudent' to remove it due to the quantity and size of the stones in there.

I will freely admit to being petrified of the op, even if it is the keyhole one, I hate hospitals and no amount of comforting words about how much better I will feel afterwards and how simple the op is will go any way to ease my fears.

I had a gastroscopy when they were doing the investigations and I did not like that one bit, I could not stop wretching the whole time.
The only thing they found with that exam was a slight hernia in the wall of my gut and some tears probaly as a result of the episode of sickness and wretching that I had the week before.

I wish I had not seen this thread as it has made me a bit more aprehensive about the op :eek:

NickyBat

Speaking from my own experience the op is fine, you'll know nothing about it and by the time you come round all will be fine. The worst thing is a bit of back pain which actually turned out to be wind, the wounds are just damned uncomfortable - just take it easy.....................and at the end of the day none of it is as bad as having "one of those incidents".