Gallbladder removal

lukin

I had mine removed in March 2023 and occasionally in the morning about an hour after breakfast I get a vicious pain in my abdomen. It doesn't happen very often, maybe only once in a couple of months. It goes away after a while, I haven't gone to the doctor about it. It's a small price to pay to be rid of the much worse pain of gallbladder inflammation.

That pain was a killer.

CoBo55

I didn't get anything like that afterwards, it's quite common from talking to others who've had it done, the luck of the draw I suppose.

outbackhens

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123858529#Comment_123858529

I spent two weeks with severe nausea+vomiting and in pain and was misdiagnosed by 2 GPs ('peptic ulcer') and an A&E doc ('gastritis') before finally getting admitted on the verge of collapse with inflamed+infected gallbladder and biliary tree (cholangitis). The gallbladder was at risk of perforation, cholangitis kills if untreated, and peritonitis was just kicking off from exudate seeping out of the infected area. Side-serving of early sepsis.
So yeah, the pain and misery is unreal but what good is it if docs fail you and you can't get a proper diagnosis. The A&E doc in Galway sent me home with nausea pills and stronger PPIs. Might as well have handed me shovel on the way out. 3 days later I was amber-alerted off to Limerick for a 10-day stay. One more day lying in bed thinking I had gastritis and taking PPIs and nausea pills as instructed, I could have been pushing daisies. That's how emergencies can evolve.
So you are saying they removed the stones, but not your gallbladder?

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123861751#Comment_123861751

I worded that incorrectly sorry about that. My situation was very similar to yours I was brought by ambulance from my daughter's house after puking and collapsing the pain was so severe. I had had an ulcer years ago and the pain was identical, same place etc but a million times stronger. They sent me home with a prescription for the triple therapy. I went to bed that night, after about an hour I was puking again, it went on all night. The missus rang our doctor who saw me immediately, he went mad that I was sent home and told me to go to Wexford hospital immediately as I had high infection markers in my blood according to the paperwork they had given me. Same as yourself the gallbladder was infected and leaking bile into the bloodstream, I couldn't stop shaking. All my memories from that time is like it was the middle of winter everything was so dark. Only for my wife I'd have been a gonner as sepsis was setting in. I never had the stone removal procedure as the pain had stopped. I had a scan to check for a floating stone before being discharged but there was none. I had the gallbladder removed in October.

outbackhens

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123862437#Comment_123862437

I totally get the "everything was so dark". It's a horrible, traumatic situation to be in. Thankfully your GP was looking out for you, as was your wife. I'm widowed. When my nausea pills ran out, a neighbour went to get a refill prescription for me. When she came to my house and saw the shape I was in, she bundled me into her car and drove me to the hospital in Ennis to get seen asap, and the rest is history. The docs there were all shaking heads and rolling eyes that Galway A&E hadn't even done an ultrasound or any tests beyond a blood panel. As to your bile duct stones, an estimated one third of stones get passed (super painful), so perhaps that's what happened. Mine were removed with ERCP. But my gallbladder and bile ducts were an inflamed, infected mess, so they let that heal out first.
How long did you have to wait for the cholecystectomy?

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123862960#Comment_123862960

I was given a date after 9 weeks but it was cancelled due to an emergency, between the jigs and the reels it was 16 weeks after when I got it removed. Everything had settled down, between the hospital admission and the operation I had no episodes luckily enough. I followed the low fat diet strictly which helped me lose a good bit of weight which was no harm either.

outbackhens

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123863285#Comment_123863285

That's not too bad. Same here, re diet. I've been super careful and haven't slipped up once. But then why would I - that episode in April has attached the fear of death to anything fatty or greasy. I do eat pretty healthy anyway (largely vegetarian, hardly ever junk food), but we have a fabulous wood-fired-oven pizza baker in the village and it's a social meeting place in summer and I've been missing out on that this year. I get sort of PTSD just thinking about pizza (it was a ready-made pizza - a very rare purchase on my end - that kicked off the April episode). No way could I sit there and watch others eat. I was so hoping I could evict that devilish little organ this summer before my house goes stone cold and hospitals get swept again with Covid and winter-vomiting bugs, alas, almost 25 wks now and not a peep from the HSE. It was supposed to be max 13 wks. I had been provisionally offered a date in mid-August, but that was withdrawn again. Right now I'm not gonna push it. Want to first get my Covid booster and flu shot which should become available in the next week or so.

Pretzill

Hi all

I eventually got my gallbladder out in April 25 after being put on the list September 23 - And my preop was just over 6 months before the actual op - keyhole but complicated and since then I still can't tolerate certain foods - not sure if that will just take more time or it is because the gallbladder was so f*cked- anyway glad not to be experiencing the intolerable bouts of pain anymore!

Iseedeadpixels

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123950244#Comment_123950244

I just had my first meeting about surgery (looking at April 26) I was advised to go to my GP if I have food issues, have you seen your GP yet.

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123950244#Comment_123950244

What do you mean by can't tolerate certain foods? What symptoms do you experience?

Pretzill

I still can't eat things that set off my gallbladder pain such as eggs, pizza, mayo, anything high fat or processed which I have gotten used to, to be fair - I don't have the pain but still get heartburn eventhough I take tablets for that - the plus is my cholesterol is normal as a result of the low fat diet

Iseedeadpixels

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123951315#Comment_123951315

You might have a stone left in a duct, 100% go back to your Doc.