Gall Bladder Problems
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TV ClubHouse: Archive: Gall Bladder Problems

Eliz87

Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 11:23 am EditMoveDeleteIP
A few months back, I was having some intermittent pain and went to the doctor for an exam. He suspected gallstones, and after an ultrasound that was confirmed. Apparently my gall bladder is full of tiny little stones ("gravel" he called it), but since the stones weren't blocking any of the ducts, he said it wasn't highly urgent that I have it removed right at that time (for which I was grateful because my mother was dying at the time, I was very busy with my infant, and I didn't need one more thing on my plate). But he said that eventually, it would have to come out.

Well, now I am pregnant (23 weeks along) and have been having gall bladder attacks about every two to three weeks. This is miserable. But obviously I don't want to have the surgery now that I am pregnant. It will just have to wait until after I have the baby.

My OB-GYN has advised me to follow a very bland diet. Can anyone who has had gall bladder problems advise me of any types of specific food to stay away from? I don't feel like it's an urgent matter to get my gall bladder removed, but I'm sure not enjoying trying to guess when the pain is going to come. Gosh, it's so painful. Luckily, usually I can take two Gas-X and it clears up in 15 minutes or so, but I'm still a little sore the next day.

So, can anyone offer me advice on my diet? Anyone who knows me knows how I love to eat, and the pregnancy cravings aren't making things any easier, but I hate to live in fear of that pain. Please help!! :-)

Egbok

Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 11:37 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Eliz, stay away from all types of fatty foods, these are usually the foods that we all love to eat. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...that's what triggers your GB attacks. Congratulations on your pregnancy...how very sweet!

Sweetbabygirl

Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 11:46 am EditMoveDeleteIP
{{{{{BIG-ASSED HUG}}}}}....Congrats on the baby, Liz; like Egbok said, stay away from the fatty foods.

Eliz87

Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 11:57 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Aw, thanks, Egbok and SBG sweetheart. Damn it to hell SBG you know how I LOVE to EAT!!!

I don't know what triggered it last night -- I had a spinach salad with chicken breast! (Maybe it was the hard-boiled eggs and Baco's I had to add to it to make it edible?) You KNOW I don't like to go crazy with the lettuce when I have a salad! ;-)

Thanks for the pointers, gals. I guess no fried chicken for me tonight eh?

By the way, SBG, saw your pic in the other thread. You are bee-you-tee-ful!!! I just knew you'd have a big ole smile! Nice jacket too!

Gidget

Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 12:01 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
They say fatty is the trigger. I've heard some people say spicy bothers them too. I had mine out last year. Nothing triggered it. The pain just came out of no where and didn't go away. I was told that was not typical but maybe food isn't the only trigger.

Congratulations on the baby. My S-I-L had her gall bladder removed while pregnant with her third child. Apparently it can be done if it has to. Both Mom and baby were fine but he grew up to be the problem child of the bunch :) Don't think there was any correlation.

Llkoolaid

Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 12:06 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I just went online to check for you and what I found said, fried foods, fatty meats, whole grains and seeds. Just do a google search, I typed in Gall Bladder attacks and there is a ton of stuff and there is a place where you can ask questions and they will send to the answer. Check it out. Hope it helps, I had my gall bladder removed years ago and understand your fear to eat because of the pain.

Congratulations on the new baby, I just love newborns.

Tabbyking

Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 12:10 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
i had a hard time with spices, too, although i can normally eat the hottest food in the world! garlic was a big problem.
it may have been the dressing that bothered you with the spinach salad, eliz...
it took me 18 months to get my doctors to say maybe it was my gallbladder because they kept telling my pain in my lower shoulder blade area could not be related. hello? my mom had the same, exact baseball size 'fire and ice' spot on her upper right back, too. what's funny is i only had one stone. i felt like a wimp, until the doctor asked if i wanted to see it. at first i thought it was a joke he had in the clear envelope! (my mom had 14 stones, which all rubbed together and made each other very smooth. her stones looked like greyish kind of square bones. so that's what i expected to see!) instead, mine was dark brown and ruffled/ridged. it looked exactly like one of those small pine cone thingies. i still have it. when i show people they start laughing and think i'm kidding, too! anyway, mine hurt because of the roughness, while having multiple stones sometimes lets them rub together and smooth each other. still, i felt like a wuss for only have one! :)

eeek, i have to run see SBG's pic. i looked earlier while she was lambasting the world because she couldn't get it to work!

Sweetbabygirl

Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 12:20 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I remember Ma had one a long time ago, and it grossed me out when she showed it to me. Hmmmmm, I don't remember her being in pain though....on the other hand, I was a wee'un so I guess I didn't know, lol!!

Thanks for the compliment, very nice of ya!!

Bigd

Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 09:43 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
apples, beans, turnip/mustard greens, and cabbage always got me bad

Eliz87

Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 09:58 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
hmmm I made an apple pie about three weeks ago and it about killed me. I figured it was the crust -- never even thought the apples would cause problems.

Midlifer

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 07:20 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Eliz, interestingly enough, my daughter had her gall bladder out when she was 22! I always thought that it struck older people, but the doc told us that it has become a young person's disease. Her stones (one lodged in the duct) were related to estrogen and birth control pills.

Fatty foods is a definite no-no, but now that she has had hers out, it doesn't really bother her anymore.

Meemo

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 07:33 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Eliz, it could be just "being pregnant" is causing the attacks. i know i when i was preggers i had heart burn and gas no matter what i ate.

Lilbuns

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 09:37 am EditMoveDeleteIP
eliz...what is the pain like and where is it?

Bigd

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 09:52 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I had my gallbladder out when my 2nd child was 5 months old. I had a total blockage and had developed jaundice. They had to get me well before they could even operate. I had no idea that my misery during my pregnancy was related to anything other than pregnancy. I was only 26 and otherwise very healthy. The doctor said I really "fit" all but one of the four "f's" of gallbladder. Forty, female, fat, fertile. I don't think they really refer to these "four f's" anymore, for obvious reasons. My surgery was back in the early 1980's when it was very invasive, the surgical procedure is much more manageable now.

Midlifer

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 10:50 am EditMoveDeleteIP
What Bigd said is true. My daughter had a laparascopic procedure (a few tiny incisions), and except for post-op complication (hepatitis due to too many antibiotics), she was home within 2-3 days. She had had a big stone in her bile duct and was jaundiced as well.

Lilbuns

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 11:01 am EditMoveDeleteIP
bigd and midlifer..what were the symptoms..where was the pain and what kind of pain was it?

Meli456

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 11:18 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I got my gall bladder out when my first son was 2 months old (and I was 21). I knew another girl who had the exact same thing happen to her at the same age. I was really sick in the last month of my pregnancy, throwing up a lot and the burning pain right below the diaphragm. The doctors tried to tell me that I was dehydrated and had heartburn and made me take Malox I think. It didn't help and I kept calling them wondering what was wrong. The night before my son was born (by planned C-Section) I was up all night vomiting. I didn't find out until one day I woke up in so much pain I couldn't feed my baby, ended up in the emergency room.

Spicy and rich/greasy foods seemed to be what set me off. I don't have any problems as a result of losing my gall bladder, except maybe when I have the flu and I throw up bile in lieu of food.

Bigd

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 11:26 am EditMoveDeleteIP
My symptoms were pain much like hunger pain only worse and sometimes constant. I also experienced nausea along with indigestion and when I would burp or belch it smelled and tasted like rotten eggs. Until I got the complete blockage when I can honestly say I was so sick I don't remember allot about my symptoms.

Tabbyking

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 11:28 am EditMoveDeleteIP
actually, there are now many F's in the factors!
female, fat, forty, fertile, flatulent, and sometimes 'fair' can be added into the mix :)

since i had my gall bladder removed (and came out of surgery insisting that the surgeon let me up off my kitchen butcher block table so i could cook dinner for everyone! LOL) i sometimes have to find a bathroom immediately after eating something 'fatty'. if i eat a fast food burger, for example, it will go through me in about 10 minutes sometimes. nothing like driving over a mountain pass, getting chills and stomach cramps in waves, with nowhere to stop and praying you make it to a rest room! it has been almost 10 years, and i still have a problem sometimes! this usually won't happen if you are in the comfort of your own home. it seems to be one of the laws of 'nature' that you only need a bathroom "NOW!" when there isn't one :)

Tabbyking

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 11:40 am EditMoveDeleteIP
i went home the morning after my surgery and i would have gone home the same day except that my surgery kept getting bumped up. i went in at 7:30 and came out at 4:00 (that's why i thought i had to start preparing dinner!). turns out, they put me under and had an emergency in another operating room that everyone had to join in on. they had me out for over 8 hours for my 2-hour surgery!
had i been done before noon and not lived 100 miles away, they would have sent me home the same day i had it done. it was hard to get up or down for about 10 days. there was one 'angle' where i got this very painful 'catch' where i didn't want to finish getting down or getting up. my belly button was hard as a little rock for about 6 months! now, you can't even see my 4 little scars unless you look hard. also, you don't realize that you take little tiny breaths for a couple of weeks! they gave me that little plastic thing with balls in it. you had to try and take a deep breath and get the balls to move to the top of the tubes. mine barely turned around a little and didn't move up the tubes at all! i used that thing for about 2 or 3 weeks before i all of a sudden realized i had been taking 'guarded' breaths. one day, i could just take deep breaths again!

i am allergic to most meds known to man, so i took extra strength tylenol only. i had it after C-sections, too. maybe i had a little more 'discomfort' because i couldn't take anything stronger for it. over-all, it wasn't bad and to be out of the awful pain i had every couple of week for 10 or 12 hours straight was totally worth it! one time, we were taking the kids to great america. we were going to get a hotel room, so they could go 2 days. that night, i lay on the cool bathroom floor with my head against the porcelain tub for about 5 or 6 hours, crying into a towel so i wouldn't wake my family up!

Bigd

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 11:52 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Tabbyking said: "I sometimes have to find a bathroom immediately after eating something 'fatty'. if i eat a fast food burger, for example, it will go through me in about 10 minutes sometimes. nothing like driving over a mountain pass, getting chills and stomach cramps in waves, with nowhere to stop and praying you make it to a rest room! it has been almost 10 years, and i still have a problem sometimes! this usually won't happen if you are in the comfort of your own home. it seems to be one of the laws of 'nature' that you only need a bathroom "NOW!" when there isn't one."

OMG - this is my life!

Konamouse

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 02:50 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
The gallbladder is just a sack to hold bile until your body needs it to help digest/absorb dietary fat. Bile is made in the liver.

After eating fat, the gallbladder is triggered to release bile into the intestinal tract. If there is a stone, you will get pain associated with the contractions of the gallbladder. Undigested fat (if not enough bile is released) will cause other abdomenal cramping and fatty diarrhea.

After the gallbladder is removed (cholecystectomy), a low fat diet is recommended for 2-6 weeks (your mileage may vary) as your body reconfigures it's bile duct from the liver directly into the small instestine. Then you can eat some fat and the liver will make bile and release it at the same time. However, some adults cannot tolerate much more than 10-15 g fat per meal even months after the surgery. For kids I recommend starting with less than 5 g fat per meal and gradual reintroduction of fat at least 3 weeks postop. If you go back to eating high fat foods right away, your liver may have difficulty compensating and I've seen a couple of kids come back into the hospital with abdominal pain & elevated liver enzymes.

'squeek'
(I'm a pediatric dietitian, and yes - sometimes kids have gallbladders removed. This is how I explain the process and need for low fat diet when I do my postop diet education).

Lostintheglades

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 03:03 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I was 7 1/2 months pregnant (this was my first pregnancy and I have a very high tolerance to pain) but through out my pregnancy I had the same awful pain that Tabby describes. I kept telling the Dr. so he put me on a fat free diet. This did not help. To make a long story short, they finally had to do exploratory surgery due to a rapid blood count depletion which left me passed out on the floor one day. Turned out I had an ectopic pregnancy. There was nothing wrong with my gallbladder other than the fact that the baby was kicking it. My uterus had ruptured probably months before and it never showed on the sonagrams. After finally succeeding in having 2 beautiful daughters, I can agree with Tabby completely. I have never and hope never again to experience a pain like that again.

Sisalou

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 07:47 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I just had my gallbladder removed in October and I was only at the surgery center 5 1/2 hours! I had 4 little incisions and hardly any pain at all.

I had been having pain in my upper right abdomen for years and also my breast bone was always sore, like someone had punched me. I finally had an ultrasound in Jan. and then one in the end of Sept. Both of them showed no abnormality. I finally went to a gastro dr. and he sent me to a surgeon. My gallbladder was covered with adhesions from past inflamations and was a very funky color. They sent me home with a nice color picture.

Anyways, I knew it was my gallbladder and was very frustrated when the ultrasounds kept showing up normal. I feel much better with it removed, except for the bathroom urgency that Tabby mentioned above. :)

Eliz87

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 08:10 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Lilbuns, the way Sisalou describes it is exactly how it feels -- just like someone punched you in the stomach. It starts out, for me, like a little nagging pain in my upper right-hand side, not too far below my armpit. Then I get what seems to be really bad gas kind of between my chest and stomach. Then the pain radiates to my back, underneath my shoulder. It hurts. Sometimes I get sweaty and it's a little bit hard to breathe. After an attack, I'm just totally exhausted for a couple of days. It just comes out of nowhere too. Sometimes I can tolerate fatty foods, sometimes I can't tolerate anything.

The last couple of days have gone okay though. I still have until the end of February until the baby's due, so I hope nothing major happens between now and then as I really don't want to do anything that could possibly endanger my child.

And, I have had the bathroom urgency for years. Food seems to pass right through sometimes, so I hate to see how I react after my gallbladder is removed!!

Bigd

Monday, November 03, 2003 - 08:50 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
my husband sometimes jokes that I should fix my plate and then just scrape it into the toilet and flush.

Daydreamer

Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - 08:23 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Sisalou - what test did the surgeon do to determine your gallbladder was bad? I've had upper right abdomen pain on and off for years. I've has at least 5 ultrasounds, 2 CT scans and
2 HIDA scans. The only thing that came back abnormal was one of the HIDA scans, which showed abnormal gallbladder motility but the second one I had came back normal. I still think it's gallbladder pain that I get but the surgeon said unless he's 100% positive, he's not taking it out.

Tabbyking

Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - 09:02 am EditMoveDeleteIP
my ultrasound showed it right off...the problem was someone filed my ultrasound report without telling me what they had found. they were to call me if they found out it WAS gallbladder. after i had several more debilitating attacks, i called the e.r. when i got there, they had pulled my chart. "didn't anyone call you about this ultrasound? you're going to need your gallbladder out!" duh. even so, it was another 6 weeks before they could get to me.
now i always say: "CALL ME EITHER WAY!" if i have any tests done!
my husband had a spot on his lungs about 10 years ago. he was having some breathing problems. they did x-rays and said they would call him if he had pneumonia. well, he got no call, got better over the next few weeks, so didn't think too much of it. maybe 3 years later, he was at his doctor's office and the doctor said, "what did they ever do about this spot they found on your lung?" my husband never knew they had found anything! turns out, he had unresolved 'valley fever' from being stationed at castle afb 20 years earlier. after several other tests it was determined he has scarring on his lung, which isn't a big problem, but what if it had been something else?
ah, the downside of HMO's......
--------------------------------------

and BigD, that is funny!!!

Sisalou

Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - 06:30 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Daydreamer, I went to an older doctor and he said he didn't trust the ultrasound to show gallbladder trouble. He gave a medicated spray called "IB Stat" and told me use it for a week. If it helped the symptoms then that indicated to him that it was indeed gallbladder problems.

I told him to be sure and send me to a surgeon that wouldn't require a bunch of expensive tests so the gastro dr and the surgeon made a "clinical" diagnosis based on my symptoms and the response to the medication. I had a very strong family history of it also.

I believe I did have an advantage over some people because my insurance plan is a PPO and not an HMO. Good Luck in getting this taken care of.

Eliz87, I am so sorry you are having to deal with this in your pregnancy. Try and follow the bland diet and maybe you can make it through pretty easy.

Amchess

Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 06:51 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I had very intense pain - in fact I thought I was having a heart attack! But it was my gall bladder and I had it taken out ASAP. Raw cauliflower & broccoli did it for me - brought on the worst attack. OUCH!!!! The doctor said when can we schedule this and I said now, lol!

Midlifer

Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 07:59 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Lilbuns, I apologize for getting back with you so late! I'm just now getting back to this thread.

My daughter's gall bladder pain was in her upper back. That's what threw me!!!! My mom's g.b. problem felt like a heart attack. Then, I found out from my daughter's doctor that back pain is quite common. Who would have known?

Tabbyking

Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 08:17 am EditMoveDeleteIP
midlifer, i wish i had your daughter's doc! i had to try and convince an entire medical center that back pain (at least in my family) is a BIG symptom! hopefully, they won't make someone else with the same pain wait forever!

Midlifer

Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 09:33 am EditMoveDeleteIP
That's kind of scary, Tabby, but that's also the state of our health care in this country.

Tabbyking

Thursday, December 04, 2003 - 09:43 am EditMoveDeleteIP
this is the earlier gall bladder topic, if it helps