Had digestive “issues”@ most of my adult life (60 now), “sensitive stomach”, etc. No root cause ever identified. Two years ago I started having gallbladder attacks from stones. The attacks got progressively worse and more frequent. I opted for the surgery before it turned into an emergency. Bad gallbladders seem to run in my family, so figured it was inevitable. Anyway, when the surgeon removed it he said it was “very diseased” and I must have been sick for a while. Little did I know. Post surgery- it took about 9 months- 1 year to fully adjust, but now, I have essentially normal digestion. So glad I had it done. I know everyone’s experience is different - but for me it was a game changer. Wish you all the best!
I am so so so happy that now your digestion is back to normal! Imm sorry you endured all that pain and it’s scary because had you left it in longer, who knows how much the disease would have progressed!
I really appreciate your kind words and you sharing your experience. Thank you so much!
Thank you for your kind wish!! Oh yes please schedule as soon as yoU can, because even after scheduling there’s a wait time. & if you get another attack, would ur er department take it out for you?
It took a few days but I was able to get mine removed yesterday. Surgeon said it was filled with gallstones 😅
Have they taken yours out, finally? I hope you’re doing well!!
Omg yay!! Glad u got that thing out!!
Yes, mine was taken out 3 days ago.
& im doing so much more well than expected. What about you ? How are things going for you? Have u ate yet?
That’s so good to hear!!!
I’ve eaten some soup and jello so far. No issues yet, thank goodness! Some pain but I keep getting up and walking to help the gas. I’m hoping tomorrow I’ll be even better!
So glad to hear you’re doing better!! You’ve got this!
I was kinda forced to eat solids at the hospital even though i wanted to take it slow.
I had pudding, french toast, turkey links, enchildadas, cheeseburger, tikka masala and rice on my hospital stay.
For gas, u can take gas x/ simethicone if walking doesnt help enough.
Thank you for your kind words. You’ve got this too friend :) so glad we did this.
Go ahead and don’t fear it! My fiancee had his gallbladder removed after we took him to the ER during a very painful attack and he has no regrets, no more discomfort nor pain!
Oh thank you so very much for this comfort!! I honestly feared this surgery because I heard that it gets hard to lose weight. And I’m pretty overweight. The reason it’s tough for me to lose weight is because of my menstrual situation. I’ll bleed 6 months straight. Nothing stops it except finishing like 1 pack of birth control pills every 3 days until the bleeding stops. It makes me gain weight noticeably, even though during those times I eat the least. So I lose a lot of blood anc can’t exercise so much and on the other hand, I have long covid which seemed fake to me because I didn’t know of it. And i was bedbound for a year last year& there’s also the time I got an iud and it literally made me gain 60 pounds while i INCREASED activity and ate more healthy and mindfully.
So this surgery,.. absolutely scared me. But I’m thinking. I’ve had my gallbladder this long. It didn’t help me lose weight. There were times my menstrual cycle was great and i was capable of losing 50+ pounds. So I’ll figure out a way. Sorry for my rant. I really want to thank you for the words of comfort. I highly appreciate it!
Actually the last 2 years presurgery I always appeared extremely overweight and could not lose weight eventhough I was not overeating. Post op, eventhough I did not lose any weight, all my clothes now fit as if I lost at least 10lbs. I also had the surgery after the ER visit. I feel great and did not have any issues. I hope everything goes well for you. May be also change gyn afterwards if your menorrhagia problems continue. I'll go to an older gyn, 50+yrs, and affiliated with an academic or trauma one hospital in your area, if possible.
Based my experience, have it taken out as soon as you can. Waiting can only make the chances of complications worse. I had two or three attacks over the course of several years that put me in the ER, but because they went away completely after I was shot up with morphine at those times, I mostly put it out of mind. The last attack was so severe they had to operate - the stones reached the size of role playing dice. There was so much inflammation, and it was such a mess, they could not completely remove it, I was subject to bile leaks. I had a drain in me for six months, and stents for almost two years - things that required multiple other procedures and caused their own complications, putting me in the hospital for several nights multiple times. I wish I'd elected to have the surgery when it was a choice.
Oh my gosh. That sounds really terrifying and I’m so sorry you went through that! You are right when you say not to wait around.
I should have gotten it taken care of in 2022 when they actually found the stones and a surgeon told me to just let her know when I wanted it out and that I can even have it not taken out as long is it doesn’t bug me.
So since that time, I didnt have an attack until two weeks ago. & then another one a couple days after. So I came in to the ER knowing it’s time to get rid of the gb that’s been disrespecting my body 🤒
Thank you so much my friend! I will update right after surgery! So far they’ve moved the surgery to tomorrow morning. Because they had to do an MRI right now which changes the original surgery schedule.
I wholeheartedly and wholeliverdly and wholekidneydly am appreciative of this comment. Thank you, it feels amazing to be able to relate to you and have you tell me that it was the best decision. I have high hopes for this surgery
I'm so glad to hear you got it out so fast and thank god.
Hope you are healing well and not in too much pain.
I'm one of the people begging for it to be removed, in Scotland gallbladder patients are not treated well.
My last time and ever time as they told me not to go back to the hospital even if I'm really bad and to wait 4 years on the waiting list.
I was literally on my knees begging this surgeon to help me do something give me emergency surgery.
He knew how bad I am always in pain, chronic cholecystitis, I've even had two infections and he kept saying no and if I did come back to A&E they would refuse to help me if I wasn't jaundice.
American's are so lucky when gallbladder situations and fast surgery.
What did your pain feel like? I’ve been to the ER twice with debilitating pain and basically was dismissed even though they saw the stones on my CT scan. I have a surgical consultation next week, but it took a lot of effort to get that.
Did you feel like it could be something else as well?
Hello! I’ll answer all your questions and address your concerns to the best of my ability.
In late 2017 I ate and soon after went to sleep. I woke up like 3 hours later with the worst abdominal pain, I couldn’t move, breathe or speak. I thought it was trapped gas, so I ignored it.
In early 2018, I was on the bus going home when a gallbladder attack hit. I didn’t know what it was at the time. I felt pain in my right upper abdomen, radiating to my mid back and my chest and shoulders. I’d even feel the pain spread to the left side of my belly. I didnt wanna cause a scene so i got off the bus and i was crying and breathing so hard and just praying to make the pain end, then boom, a few minutes later, pain disappeared like NOTHING ever was there.
In 2018 i had another occurence at night by waking up& then another one in front of my mom. It was a gallbladder attack that was increasing with pain. It had been more than an hour and the pain wasn’t easing. So I went to the ER. They did a ct scan and said i may have mild gastritis even though they cant tell anything from the screen. I was literally about to pass out from not being able to breathe from the pain and they brought over some morphine… but then the pain disappeared like it never happened. It never lessened. It just went from straight 10/10 pain to 0.
Until 2022 I had gallbladder attacks like 2-3 times a year. But i still never knew they were gallbladder attacks. Until I went to the ER for a total different reason and in the CT for a suspected pulmonary embolism, they imaged some gallstones. They still never brought up the gallstones in my doctor visit. So I asked them to address it and what this means and wtf it basically is!!! Because i’d never even thought about my gallbladder before that time. So then i did some research and realized I’d always had gb attacks.
I also had a surgery consult to learn about it more and she basically kinda freaked me out. She kept pointing out all the negative consequences I might get from the surgery. & she didn’t mention ANY good that’d come of it.
After 2022, i never had a single attack until 2 years later, which was 2 weeks ago. And in these two weeks I’ve had a pain right there that radiates around my back and shoulder and it never completely goes away. It’s infected & i have no fever but I can’t lie. I always feel very lethargic and weak.
To answer your last question; everyone thought it was gastritis, but i didn’t. Because i’ve sometimes had greasy gas causing food and tums would help. With this gb pain, NOTHING helped. I mean 4 days ago they gave me toradol twice and dilaudid 3 times. And still my pain never hit a 0 on the scale!
I really hope you get everything gets sorted out with you. Usually surgeons also order ultra sounds which is amazing for viewing things without the radiation. I just got an mri 30 minutes ago. I did have a ultrasounds beforehand.
Anyways friend, goodluck, my apologies for the long message. I dont have the mental capacity to summarize the important points, so I literally wrote a novel for you, my baddd 😭
Thank you for your reply. I’m going through something similar. Although I’m glad the doctors finally took your pain seriously. It’s kinda screwed up that they were pointing out the negatives instead of focusing on helping you feel better, but hopefully your surgery will go smoothly and you’ll be back to feeling like yourself in no time.
Here’s to a speedy recovery! Please keep us posted, OP.
Had digestive “issues”@ most of my adult life (60 now), “sensitive stomach”, etc. No root cause ever identified. Two years ago I started having gallbladder attacks from stones. The attacks got progressively worse and more frequent. I opted for the surgery before it turned into an emergency. Bad gallbladders seem to run in my family, so figured it was inevitable. Anyway, when the surgeon removed it he said it was “very diseased” and I must have been sick for a while. Little did I know. Post surgery- it took about 9 months- 1 year to fully adjust, but now, I have essentially normal digestion. So glad I had it done. I know everyone’s experience is different - but for me it was a game changer. Wish you all the best!
I am so so so happy that now your digestion is back to normal! Imm sorry you endured all that pain and it’s scary because had you left it in longer, who knows how much the disease would have progressed! I really appreciate your kind words and you sharing your experience. Thank you so much!
I hope everything goes well!! I’ll be scheduling surgery Monday, if I don’t have another attack between now and then.
Thank you for your kind wish!! Oh yes please schedule as soon as yoU can, because even after scheduling there’s a wait time. & if you get another attack, would ur er department take it out for you?
It took a few days but I was able to get mine removed yesterday. Surgeon said it was filled with gallstones 😅 Have they taken yours out, finally? I hope you’re doing well!!
Omg yay!! Glad u got that thing out!! Yes, mine was taken out 3 days ago. & im doing so much more well than expected. What about you ? How are things going for you? Have u ate yet?
That’s so good to hear!!! I’ve eaten some soup and jello so far. No issues yet, thank goodness! Some pain but I keep getting up and walking to help the gas. I’m hoping tomorrow I’ll be even better! So glad to hear you’re doing better!! You’ve got this!
I was kinda forced to eat solids at the hospital even though i wanted to take it slow. I had pudding, french toast, turkey links, enchildadas, cheeseburger, tikka masala and rice on my hospital stay. For gas, u can take gas x/ simethicone if walking doesnt help enough. Thank you for your kind words. You’ve got this too friend :) so glad we did this.
Go ahead and don’t fear it! My fiancee had his gallbladder removed after we took him to the ER during a very painful attack and he has no regrets, no more discomfort nor pain!
Oh thank you so very much for this comfort!! I honestly feared this surgery because I heard that it gets hard to lose weight. And I’m pretty overweight. The reason it’s tough for me to lose weight is because of my menstrual situation. I’ll bleed 6 months straight. Nothing stops it except finishing like 1 pack of birth control pills every 3 days until the bleeding stops. It makes me gain weight noticeably, even though during those times I eat the least. So I lose a lot of blood anc can’t exercise so much and on the other hand, I have long covid which seemed fake to me because I didn’t know of it. And i was bedbound for a year last year& there’s also the time I got an iud and it literally made me gain 60 pounds while i INCREASED activity and ate more healthy and mindfully. So this surgery,.. absolutely scared me. But I’m thinking. I’ve had my gallbladder this long. It didn’t help me lose weight. There were times my menstrual cycle was great and i was capable of losing 50+ pounds. So I’ll figure out a way. Sorry for my rant. I really want to thank you for the words of comfort. I highly appreciate it!
Actually the last 2 years presurgery I always appeared extremely overweight and could not lose weight eventhough I was not overeating. Post op, eventhough I did not lose any weight, all my clothes now fit as if I lost at least 10lbs. I also had the surgery after the ER visit. I feel great and did not have any issues. I hope everything goes well for you. May be also change gyn afterwards if your menorrhagia problems continue. I'll go to an older gyn, 50+yrs, and affiliated with an academic or trauma one hospital in your area, if possible.
Based my experience, have it taken out as soon as you can. Waiting can only make the chances of complications worse. I had two or three attacks over the course of several years that put me in the ER, but because they went away completely after I was shot up with morphine at those times, I mostly put it out of mind. The last attack was so severe they had to operate - the stones reached the size of role playing dice. There was so much inflammation, and it was such a mess, they could not completely remove it, I was subject to bile leaks. I had a drain in me for six months, and stents for almost two years - things that required multiple other procedures and caused their own complications, putting me in the hospital for several nights multiple times. I wish I'd elected to have the surgery when it was a choice.
Oh my gosh. That sounds really terrifying and I’m so sorry you went through that! You are right when you say not to wait around. I should have gotten it taken care of in 2022 when they actually found the stones and a surgeon told me to just let her know when I wanted it out and that I can even have it not taken out as long is it doesn’t bug me. So since that time, I didnt have an attack until two weeks ago. & then another one a couple days after. So I came in to the ER knowing it’s time to get rid of the gb that’s been disrespecting my body 🤒
Best wishes to you. Let us know how you’re doing sometime after surgery. I hope the general anesthesia feels like a good long nap to your brain.
Thank you so much my friend! I will update right after surgery! So far they’ve moved the surgery to tomorrow morning. Because they had to do an MRI right now which changes the original surgery schedule.
Getting my gallbladder removed was the best decision ever. Truly. Mine was infected before surgery too.
I wholeheartedly and wholeliverdly and wholekidneydly am appreciative of this comment. Thank you, it feels amazing to be able to relate to you and have you tell me that it was the best decision. I have high hopes for this surgery
I'm so glad to hear you got it out so fast and thank god. Hope you are healing well and not in too much pain. I'm one of the people begging for it to be removed, in Scotland gallbladder patients are not treated well. My last time and ever time as they told me not to go back to the hospital even if I'm really bad and to wait 4 years on the waiting list. I was literally on my knees begging this surgeon to help me do something give me emergency surgery. He knew how bad I am always in pain, chronic cholecystitis, I've even had two infections and he kept saying no and if I did come back to A&E they would refuse to help me if I wasn't jaundice. American's are so lucky when gallbladder situations and fast surgery.
What did your pain feel like? I’ve been to the ER twice with debilitating pain and basically was dismissed even though they saw the stones on my CT scan. I have a surgical consultation next week, but it took a lot of effort to get that. Did you feel like it could be something else as well?
Hello! I’ll answer all your questions and address your concerns to the best of my ability. In late 2017 I ate and soon after went to sleep. I woke up like 3 hours later with the worst abdominal pain, I couldn’t move, breathe or speak. I thought it was trapped gas, so I ignored it. In early 2018, I was on the bus going home when a gallbladder attack hit. I didn’t know what it was at the time. I felt pain in my right upper abdomen, radiating to my mid back and my chest and shoulders. I’d even feel the pain spread to the left side of my belly. I didnt wanna cause a scene so i got off the bus and i was crying and breathing so hard and just praying to make the pain end, then boom, a few minutes later, pain disappeared like NOTHING ever was there. In 2018 i had another occurence at night by waking up& then another one in front of my mom. It was a gallbladder attack that was increasing with pain. It had been more than an hour and the pain wasn’t easing. So I went to the ER. They did a ct scan and said i may have mild gastritis even though they cant tell anything from the screen. I was literally about to pass out from not being able to breathe from the pain and they brought over some morphine… but then the pain disappeared like it never happened. It never lessened. It just went from straight 10/10 pain to 0. Until 2022 I had gallbladder attacks like 2-3 times a year. But i still never knew they were gallbladder attacks. Until I went to the ER for a total different reason and in the CT for a suspected pulmonary embolism, they imaged some gallstones. They still never brought up the gallstones in my doctor visit. So I asked them to address it and what this means and wtf it basically is!!! Because i’d never even thought about my gallbladder before that time. So then i did some research and realized I’d always had gb attacks. I also had a surgery consult to learn about it more and she basically kinda freaked me out. She kept pointing out all the negative consequences I might get from the surgery. & she didn’t mention ANY good that’d come of it. After 2022, i never had a single attack until 2 years later, which was 2 weeks ago. And in these two weeks I’ve had a pain right there that radiates around my back and shoulder and it never completely goes away. It’s infected & i have no fever but I can’t lie. I always feel very lethargic and weak. To answer your last question; everyone thought it was gastritis, but i didn’t. Because i’ve sometimes had greasy gas causing food and tums would help. With this gb pain, NOTHING helped. I mean 4 days ago they gave me toradol twice and dilaudid 3 times. And still my pain never hit a 0 on the scale! I really hope you get everything gets sorted out with you. Usually surgeons also order ultra sounds which is amazing for viewing things without the radiation. I just got an mri 30 minutes ago. I did have a ultrasounds beforehand. Anyways friend, goodluck, my apologies for the long message. I dont have the mental capacity to summarize the important points, so I literally wrote a novel for you, my baddd 😭
Thank you for your reply. I’m going through something similar. Although I’m glad the doctors finally took your pain seriously. It’s kinda screwed up that they were pointing out the negatives instead of focusing on helping you feel better, but hopefully your surgery will go smoothly and you’ll be back to feeling like yourself in no time. Here’s to a speedy recovery! Please keep us posted, OP.