If you have an attack, you won’t be confused about it, since you know what’s probably causing it. Even the mildest of my attacks was a lot more than a twinge.
I forgot to mention that my gallbladder was full of gallgravel – 100+ stones, all fairly small.
Stoid, be aware of any sharp pain right between your shoulder blades - where your bra would fasten. That can also be a signal of gallbladder problems.
Well, isn’t THAT attractive… yeeps!
Good thing I ran a search, or I would have been doing a redundant thread…I just found out yesterday, via a complete abdominal screening at my workplace, that I have a couple of gallstones and “sludge.” It would certainly explain a lot of pains that I had assumed were all female stuff. I’m laying off the fats, at any rate.
Question for you all: Would this be the time to have a cholesterol count? I’ve never had one done.
All you need is to experience one full-blown gall bladder attack and you’ll run screaming “GET IT OUT OF ME!!”
After the birth of my son (24 years ago), I started getting attacks. It felt like a band of steel was wrapped around my chest and someone was closing it tighter and tighter. Vomiting, painful defecation (not usually diarrhea), and just mind-numbing, blinding pain.
My doctor tried to treat it with medication and diet, but one night during an attack, after I had taken more demerol than I knew was safe and I was still in agony, I called my doctor who had a surgeon meet me at the hospital. As the doctor began enumerating my options, I just kept repeating “take it out, take it out. I don’t ever want to feel that pain again - take it out.”
In 1979, the after-surgery was probably more painful than the disease, mostly because they had to make a really big incision (about 10"). Nowadays, especially if you’re not obese, your incision will be about 2" long, if they can’t just blast the suckers to smithereens and not open you at all. Piece 'o cake.
If you have just a stone or two, you may be able to keep your gall bladder. If you have full blown gall bladder disease (i.e., bladder full of stones, gravel, sludge), it’s going to have to come out. Get it done. Don’t waste your time on the pain.
Not only can Gall stones cause LOTS OF PAIN !!!
They can lead to the complication of PANCREATITIS.
Now Pancreatitis is more painful than the Gall Stones, the cure for it is to be put on a drip for about a week whilst the body heals and your mind is nummbed by morthine to survive the pain. After this you must avoid all alcochol until the Pancrease mends completely. Whilst the Pancrease is recovering and you are on the drip, you need 24hour nurse observation because the Pancrease can get worse at any time. Oh and b.t.w. there is about a 10% chance that the Pancreatitis is fatal.
Now I do not know the probability of Gall Stones leading to Pancreatitis (what happens is a disslodged Gall stone gets cught in the Pancrease opening, and the digestive juices created by the Pancrease feed back into the Pancrease so that the Pancrease partially digests itself) but it happened to me, and I would not have it happen to anyone else!
Cheers, Bippy
P.S. My Gall Stones were not diagnosed until after the Pancreatitis, dispite having seen my doctot for about 8 years for the mysterious pains I was getting in my upper back leading to inabillity to move/vomiting for between 10minutes and 4hours of duration every month or so.
I never had any clue that I had gallstones until I had my first (and last) attack, 14 years ago. The pain was tremendous. I was vomitting bile. Hubby wanted to take me to the ER, and I was so sick (you know how you get real irrational?) that I said “I can’t go to the hospital, because I can’t get dressed!” Well, he put my ratty bathrobe on me, and a pair of his tube socks, and took me anyway! It was removed two days later. Unfortunately, this was a little before the keyhole surgery was widely used, and I have a huge scar!
A lot has been mentioned about greasy/fatty foods causing attacks, but I’m surprised that it hasn’t been mentioned that the most dangerous time is when you go back to eating fatty/greasy foods after being on a very low-fat diet (which was my situation). IIRC, Jenny Craig faced a class-action lawsuit some years back because a lot of people that had followed the plan and then gone off of it ended up having their gallbladders removed.
Stoid, I certainly understand why you would have issues about anesthesia. If you have to have this surgery, talk to the anesthesiologist about your concerns before the procedure. He (or she) may be able to do something to reduce the chances of this happening. Once, when I was coming out of a general, they waited til I was half awake to remove my breathing tube, and I puked everywhere (I am not trying to imply that this is anywhere near as horrible as your experience), and ever since, I’ve told the anesthesiologist about this before hand, and they’ve been able to prevent a recurrence.
Best of luck.
Had the surgery about 3 years ago. Surgeon said it fell apart when she touched it and it was green. I had 4 scars from it, the longest in the beldy button(yes i sp it that way on purpose) about 15cm, the rest range from 8 to 10cm. Feel fine, no problems.
The surgeon said alot of women have gb surgery after having a child. My happened about 8yrs after my 2nd and few of my friends and acquaintances had to have the surgery within months after child birth.
toofargone do you really mean 15cm (6 inches) and three others of about 8cm (3inches). If so they had to abandon the key-hole method, I hope you fixed up well after that, those sorts of openings can take a long time to heal. Have you had any problems with Hernias from such a large scar?
Cheers, Bippy
I had my gall bladder taken out about 3 years ago. After 4 nights of laying in the bathroom in extreme pain vomiting and trying not to crap my pants I went to the doctor. Sure enough it was gallstones. I had the whole thing removed. I now have 4 cute little scars from where they took it. The day after my surgery I was up and around and able to enjoy an amazing Thanksgiving feast cooked by my sister. My sister had her gall bladder taken out 7 years ago, her scar…well we tell the kids that’s where the shark attacked her. She had gallstones caught in her duct so they had to cut her open more. She was still up and around within hours of the surgery.
I had a laproscopic gall bladder removal on 2/11 and lived to tell the tale. 
It wasn’t bad at all–4 smallish holes (one in my belly button) that are healing nicely. By 2 days post surgery, I felt fine, just tired, and by one week I was totally back to normal.
The two tests I would highly recommend are an ENG to rule out reflux and a HIDA scan to see if your gallbladder is functioning well. In the HIDA scan, you are given an IV of radioactive dye so they can see if your GB fills and empties. Then they can give you a substance that should make your GB contract and will produce symptoms of an attack. Mine didn’t contract at all, and sure enough, when my gallbladder came out, the surgeon said it was distended as if it had not worked properly in a while. Lots of people have stones with no problem, so the presence of stones alone isn’t enough reason for surgery, IMHO.
