For reasons I rather not go into on this post, my father and I are estranged. I haven’t talked to him for well over a year and I haven’t seen him for for over 8 years. His choice, not mine.
He will be 88 yrs old in a couple of months and I have heard through a relative that he has been in the hospital three time in the last six months with boughts of gallstones. The last time was this past week, 5 nights.
Otherwise he is very good health, no heart or cancer problems. He does take cholesterol medicine. He exercises several times a week when able, (ballroom dancing with his third wife.)
He (or his wife) hasn’t chosen to tell me about the GB attacks so I can’t help it can’t be really serious. I thought with several recent attacks that the GB would be taken out. My cousin thinks it is serious and thinks I ought to make effort to rectify our differences.
Could these attacks be life-threatening to an elderly person? When something is wrong, Dad does not hesitate seeing a Doctor or going to a hosipital, and his wife will see to it that he is well cared for.
Is he overweight? Losing some extra pounds might help. That’s what I had to do over the past year; I’m a female in my early 40s who ended up in an E.R. with a nasty attack of gallstone-related biliary colic (chest pains, shortness of breath, sweating). I reduced the fats and increased the exercise.
I do realize that he might not be able to manage exercise due to his age. I’m a bit surprised that they have not taken the gallbladder out by now; they offered to take mine out (I declined), and I’m half his age.
In a worst case scenario, he could end up with more severe blockages that would affect other organs around the g.b. That would mean a lot more surgery and a longer recovery time, I imagine.
IANAD, but I think this needs to be nipped in the bud before it gets any worse.
He is not overweight. he is about 5’6" and I would guess that he weighs about 160 lbs (or less) Except for this problem, he is probably in the 99th percentile for good health. He does takes medication for cholesterol.
I would venture a guess that at 88, gallstones could be pretty serious. He may or may not be a candidate for surgery based on his age (which is how they are typically treated). And, left alone they can cause pretty significant pain, and potentially a blocked bile duct and/or problems with the pancreas.
At his age, anything involving surgery can be ‘serious’.
I’m not sure there is a ‘factual answer’ to your question, because of your father’s age.
Perhaps (and I’m not trying to junior mod, here,) this question would be better off in IMHO, where others could tell you how they would address the situation?
I had gallstones and the way to avoid pain/problems is to eat a really low fat diet. In most cases eating fat will cause pain because that is when the gallbladder wants to squeeze out bile. I eventually had my gallbladder out with the keyhole surgery, I was back at work 4 days later , but I was 39 and in good health.
I had gallstones and had the keyhole surgery about 6 years ago. I would venture to guess that the issue with his age is the pain level. They are incredibly painful and severe pain like that jacks the blood pressure up super high.
As my doctor explained it to me, once you get gallstones you should surgically remove the gallbladder. The problem will not cure itself and will only get worse. There are some alternative treatments besides surgery, like drugs or ultrasound, but most of them don’t work reliably. The operation itself is relatively simple and very common. They remove the entire gallbladder because trying to remove just the stones themselves and leaving the gallbladder would cause scars which would damage the gallbladder anyway.
Thanks for the replies. I guess anything can be serious when you’re in your late 80’s. Especially if it is the third time. I’ll talk with my sister tomorrow to see how much she knows about it.
My father and sister aren’t on the best of terms either, but they communicate more often than Dad and I do.
Is gall-bladder problems hereditary? Back before I was born, my Mom had a bad attack and nearly died during the operation. This was back in the 1950’s and Mom was not one to go to a doctor when she needed to go. So I think that was contributary factor.
The operation done in the fifties was a much larger operation, involving a larger incision and moving other organs around to get to the gall bladder. So it would have been a harder recovery than is typical today, even if done in a timely manner.