Is Gallbladder removal worth it? Do you get horrible gas/bloating really bad after eating now?

I recently had what I think were symptoms of gall bladder problems -- pain on my right side that lasted for about four days, and lots of cramping above where I would normally get cramping. Also lots of burping and gas. I had an ultrasound test last week but haven't gotten the results yet.

Unlike you, I'm very overweight, and I think gall bladder problems are generally more common in people like me. Let me know how things develop with your situation.

I had mine removed 12 years ago. Can’t eat certain foods due to it (popcorn is one) but my doctor did tell me that gallbladder issues do run in the family. My mother had hers removed when I was child. Mine was full of stones though, it had to go.

I had mine removed 20 yrs ago and never noticed any difference except that I no longer had that horrible pain. I recommend that if you have symptoms you get it out. Do research and get a surgeon who has done tons of the laparoscopic procedures with very rare or no conversions to open.

If you have very tiny stones or sludge, you could try taking actigall for awhile to see if you can dissolve them. This doesn't work if the stones are not tiny.

OP, I get horrible bloating after I hear Tramp.

When mine came out, I had them saved for awhile. They looked like small concrete marbles.

It ruled out ever eating something with gravy on it ever again. I have to flee to the toilet, where it does a fast eject. My body has no tolerance at all anymore for any food that is fatty. I never cared for fried foods to begin with, but that’s how my mom cooked growing up. Adios fast foods, I don’t miss you.

Like gravy, the same with really dark vegetables like spinach. Same effect, but I like it and just can’t overdo it.

Had mine removed almost a year ago and haven’t had any issues since having it removed and I can still eat the things I ate before. I had a few stones in my gallbladder. I haven’t noticed anything different as far as to what I can eat but I guess everyone is different as far as reactions to certain foods. I had a great surgeon and my recovery was really quick.

Id rather have kept my gallbladder, but now that I’m older I know I wasn’t treating it right and it does run in the family. Surgery is no big deal. It didn’t seem to bother me beforehand, they found the stones while looking for something else. It was misleading, by giving pain signals elsewhere. Can’t say how many times they’d check my appendix and almost operated.

Be good to your gall bladder and it will be good to you.

When you have a gall bladder attack you will wish you were dead, go have it taken out, you'll feel a lot better.

Go the 'old fashion' route and have it surgically removed with an incision. I know two people who had the guide wire procedure done and one of them ended up dead and the other almost died.

UGh OP, gallstones are horrible, and it only gets worse because you will keep having pain in your side every time you ingest or drink anything.

I had mine removed after 5 years and it was a blessing. At the very end I was only eating one plate of oatmeal every other day and one glass of black tea [at room temperature] a day.

Went I went for surgery, I was 29 and my weight had dropped from 141lb to 115 lbs. I was practically starving because I could no longer eat anything.

r10 you are so right about wishing g you were dead from an attack. I get one at least once a yr and crawl into my bed to die..agonizing.

OP here, I went to the emergency today and had a battery of test run. It turns out what I have is Gastrtitis. They gave me pepcid to take.

I still feel like crap. I've had a constant headache to go along with my chest/stomach pain that hasn't gone away. I haven't gone # 2 since Tuesday (I can't remember the last time I actually went, so that probably explains a lot. I'm really backed up right now, and my body is in toxic overload right now.

What can I take or do to get my system flowing without getting cramps and/or diarrhea?

Start with a stool softener like colace. Otherwise, you will literally have a hard brick to shit out.

I had mine taken out after screaming my head off in an ER until I got a ton of morphine. I eat everything. Gravy, fats, butter, baguettes, you name it. That pain is very bad and the operation is very easy. I just have three small scars on my belly.

OP. I had gallbladder issues after the holidays from stress at work and all the rich foods that Im not used to eating around that time of year. My doctor gave me a battery of medication, including Tramadol to manage pain, but I didn't take any of that shit. I drank grapefruit juice which is a simple remedy to help you if you have moderate sypmtoms. I had an utltrasound two weeks later and my gallbladder was fine.

If you are constipated, buy a bag of mixed frozen fruits and make a large smoothie. It will have you going again in a couple of hours.

For months, I had twinges of pain in my chest, but didn't really know what it was. Then one night, I was struck by an excruciating pain right in the middle of my chest. I was sure I was having a heart attack. The agony knocked me down to the floor as I tried to get the phone to call 911, then I'd crawl across the floor toward the phone, then be knocked flat by the pain and unable to crawl further. Finally I reached my cell phone and was taken to the ER. The attending physician did an EKG and some imaging and finally told me that he was sending me to surgery at once.

The surgeon examined me and realized my pancreas was so inflamed he couldn't operate. So for five days, as an inpatient in the hospital, I had no food or water, only an IV drip with painkillers and antibiotics, while we waited for the inflammation in the pancreas to calm down enough to operate. On the morning of day six without food or water, they took my gallbladder out. I had no choice. I couldn't have continued with that pain. The gallbladder was stuffed full of gallstones.

Every since then, no problems. I eat a little bit of everything, even fats like cheese or salad dressing.

Look into eating whole, plant-based foods for awhile OP. Clean yourself out naturally. The stones will shrink. Surgery and drugs won't fix the root cause, which is the rich American diet.

Read the books "How Not to Die" and "The Healthiest Diet on the Planet" for more info.

Can’t absorb fats as well after - turns into liquid diarrhea soon after. Good to avoid anyway. I had mine out but not sure it was necessary in retrospect. Had pain but still have some 15 years later - gastritis mainly. I would try to cut out fats if possible and pound the Zantac to see if it stays under control before doing surgery.

Op- do not take colace or Metamucil without gallons of water. I really mean gallons. Or that stuff turns into bricks and they have to pull it out of you at the ER and the pain is terrible. A suppository enema is great and then you go to a specialist tomorrow. Say the pain is really bad, put on a pair of gloves and take some out of your butt and break it up by moving your finger around. Try doing it without poking through your colon.

Get it out. Now. You have a gall bladder attack and you ish you were dead. I was hospitalized 5 times for it. Had it out two years ago. I try and eat healthy, but i can eat anything i want and no side effects. Just get it out. It takes 1 hour to do and two days to rest and you are back at work with about a 1" scar at your belly button that has about 4 stiches and super glue. It is childish not to get it out.

I've had mine out twice and I'm not any better for it...

Had mine taken out about 10 years ago, but as R11 said, go with the actual surgery. The laproscopic surgery still has some bugs they need to work out, on mine they left something unsewn, and I ended up with my body cavity filling with bile, which made me crazy, and I thought I was going to die. They had to go in and do the whole surgery all over. I ended up being in the hospital for a week. I have since talked with other people who had issues with their laproscopic surgeries as well. I was in the best hospital in the state, a level one trauma center, so if anyone should have been able to do it well, they should have. Luckily no food issues since the surgery.

OP - try the Hawaiian laxative - macadamia nuts. Always works for me when I have severe constipation, which I usually get when I travel. My friend from Kauai told me to eat macadamia nuts and they worked. Lots of water with them. I got relief in about 2 hours. Good luck!

Agree that old-fashioned surgery is best. I had it and now feel great. Some issues with fat consumption, but no constipation..

Switch to a100% plant based, vegan diet. Honestly, when will people learn?

R27, what do you eat for protein?

OK, this happened to my brother in law. He had pain and discomfort. It would come and go. At first he tried to ignore it. Then he thought it was a heart attack. Then the pain got so bad he literally fell to the floor. Could not eat. Nothing. He stared turning yellow and he was in terrible pain in a ball on the couch. My sister told him to get his coat they were going to the ER. This was after three days of him laying there turning yellow and refusing to get help. He kept saying he'd be alright and it would pass. Sometimes men are real assholes about health. They whine and cry for silly shit, but if it's serious they immediately go in to denial.

Turns out he had stones. They were blocking the bile duct or something and it was finally affecting his liver.That's why he got yellow. Also his gall bladder had necrofied. It was dead, gangrenous and ready to burst. He was in surgery for 4 hours. First they had to start him on an IV with antibiotics because he had a really bad infection from it.

Docs told my sister if she had not brought him to the ER that morning, he would not have lived another 24 hours. So do not fuck around with your gall bladder. Do not wait until it get so bad you are writhing in pain.

If your gall bladder gives you problems, don't wait until you are in crisis. Get the laproscopic surgery, and you can go in, have hardly any discomfort, and be home in less than 24 hours. Your recovery period, if you did not have a gall bladder attack, will be less than five days. More like two or three.

R28: I eat beans/legumes of every kind, peanut butter, quinoa, oatmeal, kale, broccoli, nuts, potatoes, spinach,....I could go on. People are weirdly obsessed with protein. You don't need as much protein as you think you do, and it's way easier than you'd think to get your RDA. Animals do not produce protein - they ingest it from plants and it's absorbed into their system. So when you eat meat for the protein, you're getting "second hand" protein, along with cholesterol, fat, antibiotics, growth hormones, mercury and plastic (for fish), and other scary crap that they put into animals.

If I'm not mistaken, OP followed up and said he was diagnosed with gastritis, not gallstones. OP did they actually do an ultrasound to view your gallbladder and see if there were any stones?

I had a minor attack three years ago.

I did the gall bladder cleanse and it worked like charm.

Whenever I feel a twinge I do the cleanse. It's easy cheap and really works.

You need fat in your diet. half of the important nutrients and vitamins are fat soluble. You need some fat to absorb them.

Many years ago when my mom was maybe in her early 50s she was a bit overweight and had stomach pains. The doctor diagnosed gall bladder and recommended removal. Well my mom was rather conservative when it came to medical procedures so asked if there was some other way to deal with it apart from surgery and the doctor thought not. Then she told him any surgery would be done at Walter Reed by military doctors since my dad was retired military and he changed his tune. He recommended a certain diet which she followed. She never had another "gall bladder attack" the rest of her life. LOL!

R33, what was the diet he recommended?

Sorry, R34. I don't remember. It might have been as simple as one to lose weight with nothing special about it. It was so long ago that there must be healthy diets now that address this issue.

[quote]My brother says he wishes he never had the surgery, because he get really bad gas and bloating after eating certain foods now.

IF ONLY he could avoid those foods.

Mine got very infected and I didn't deal with it until it was an emergency and the infection spread to my liver and pancreas. Everyone I know who has had their gallbladder removed had issues with it getting progressively worse until they were forced to have surgery.

Since mine was removed I haven't had any problems. The first few months after removal some foods (such as dairy products) can go right through you but that goes away.

r31 I had an ultrasound, x-ray, EKG, and blood tests done. The Dr. said all the test came back showing no problem. I was diagnosed with Gastritis and given an acid reducer to take at night before bed.

r36 He gets bloated when he eats any dairy or meat now. His wife makes lots of Mexican food, so it's difficult for him to avoid it. He takes soup and salads to work for lunch, but he gets bored eating the same thing over and over.