As someone that's been putting the surgery off for years, from what I can tell most people have basically zero symptoms afterwards, and those that do still aren't overly bothered by them, but there is a small but real percentage of people that have lots of digestive problems afterwards.
My father used to have pain in his abdomen out of nowhere with a couple years in between, but they never could figure out what was wrong with him even during an extended hospital stay at one point. I think the earliest time I must have been in elementary school, but my first semester in college during the weekend where my parents were going to come down to visit for the first time, he had the recurring pain again that got so much worse than usual that he was jaundiced and my mother forced him to go to the hospital again (medical situations are basically the only circumstance where I've seen him get irritable), and it turned out that his gall bladder was completely full of stones that they said would have started spilling over into his liver and put that at risk as well if he delayed coming in for a few more hours. They removed his gall bladder, and he's never felt any symptoms in the decade since.
Was worried it would be worse, all i get from it is that stuff with a lot of fats might cause more frequent visits to the bathroom (something one might not want to eat anyway all that often), before i could not eat a slice of pizza without an attack.
Don't worry - the pain is so incredibly intense, there is zero chance you'll not be aware of it, regardless of how high you think your pain tolerance is.
It felt like I was in a ring with Floyd Mayweather and a nuclear bomb in my stomach going up and down. Think twice if you want to play out deciding on a removal or not. You might be back again in a few years.
I read a neat trick someone had for the ambiguous "out of 10 where is the pain" question doctors give you. Find a reference point first: "If five is a broken leg, I am at a 7"
Otherwise my 3 could be someone elses 7, as someone who has had chronic pain and a shifted pain tolerance it's proven pretty useful as even doctors struggle to convey what a worrisome level of pain would be without knowing what you have been through.
I'm on a waitlist for this. I went to hospital for an attack about six months ago, and I started overthinking this question afterwards. Wondering silly things like 'is the scale linear or logarithmic?!'
As a doctor, that is a great way to report pain. Most of the time we’re asking for ballpark and trend reasons though. If I come and it’s a 3 first time, then a 5, then a 7, that’s good and I can do something about that.
If it’s a 8-9 and the patient is in their phone, and it stays 8-9, well the absolute magnitude may be less of a concern to me.
Regardless, if someone comes in and reports high pain I am going to administer strong painkillers (I work in emergency departments)
That’s what my doctor said when I came in with a fever that wouldn’t go away. I had some mild discomfort in my side a few days before and based on the location I concluded it was my galbladder. By the time I got to the doctor the discomfort was gone but I still had a fever. He poked me in the side a few times, I didn’t feel a thing, and told me it couldn’t be my galbladder as I would be screaming out in pain if it was.
I insisted it was, so he agreed to do a quick blood test for inflammation markers to easy my mind. Shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes for the nurse to get the results and send me home. 30 minutes later the doctor called me back into the office, apparently my values were off the chart and he already informed the hospital of my arrival.
Spent a couple of hours in ER, where the infected galbladder was confirmed, and was eventually sent home with some antibiotics. Since I wasn’t in pain they preferred not to operate while it was inflamed. Then a year or so later they tried and failed to remove it, but that’s a whole other story.
For me, it felt like I was being stabbed through the back, right below the right shoulder-blade. It was unbelievably painful. At first I thought it was bad heartburn, but then it just got stronger and stronger, until I thought I was going to throw up.
Had my gallbladder taken out after that, and no more issues at all. I can eat whatever I want, thankfully.
I wonder if your bad cholesterol goes up in this case? This is because the liver uses cholesterol to create gall enzymes, which it excretes into the gall bladder with a bunch of left-over cholesterol too.
Gall bladder stores bile, which continues trickling down the common bile duct whether a storage facility sits off to the side ready to dump a bolus into the common bile duct. . With no bladder storing a bile bolus fatty foods might not be adequately digested from the trickle.
She's probably not? If she's gone two and a half years since her gallbladder was removed, and years before that when sge had gallstone symptoms but thought they were something else, that was before widespread use of GLPs.
if you are having pain in your abdomen, get it checked out. if you have gallstones, get the surgery. eating fatty foods after can be "consequential" to say the least. but it beats the pain.
Interesting! Mine got removed 10 Years ago, and I didn't notice any burping. The only thing I need to mind is to not eat anything too fatty as first meal of the day. Then I quickly need to find a bathroom. I'm definitely going to try the enzyme-pills.
Ox bile supplementation was my biggest quality of life change after having my gall bladder removed. I unfortunately waited over a miserable decade before discovering it. I strongly encourage anyone who has had their gall bladder removed to look into this.
What were your symptoms that made you seek out bile replacement?
I don't eat a ton of fatty foods post-cholecystectomy but when I do indulge I can't say I have problems. I have some acute intestinal distress now and again, but it seems like that's just as likely to occur for me after a vegan dish as, say, a burger or pizza.
My better half had pancreatitis because of gallbladder stones and so I learnt that there's a canal that goes from the gallbladder and through the pancreas. This is not a good design. Somebody should have thought harder about this. Maybe they had a deadline or something (I need this on my desk by Saturday!).
What would be the sypmtoms? I each pretty much everything, didn't change my diet and don't take any medicine.
As someone that's been putting the surgery off for years, from what I can tell most people have basically zero symptoms afterwards, and those that do still aren't overly bothered by them, but there is a small but real percentage of people that have lots of digestive problems afterwards.
My father used to have pain in his abdomen out of nowhere with a couple years in between, but they never could figure out what was wrong with him even during an extended hospital stay at one point. I think the earliest time I must have been in elementary school, but my first semester in college during the weekend where my parents were going to come down to visit for the first time, he had the recurring pain again that got so much worse than usual that he was jaundiced and my mother forced him to go to the hospital again (medical situations are basically the only circumstance where I've seen him get irritable), and it turned out that his gall bladder was completely full of stones that they said would have started spilling over into his liver and put that at risk as well if he delayed coming in for a few more hours. They removed his gall bladder, and he's never felt any symptoms in the decade since.
Was worried it would be worse, all i get from it is that stuff with a lot of fats might cause more frequent visits to the bathroom (something one might not want to eat anyway all that often), before i could not eat a slice of pizza without an attack.
YMMV, people are individuals.
Of an infected gallbladder?
Don't worry - the pain is so incredibly intense, there is zero chance you'll not be aware of it, regardless of how high you think your pain tolerance is.
It felt like I was in a ring with Floyd Mayweather and a nuclear bomb in my stomach going up and down. Think twice if you want to play out deciding on a removal or not. You might be back again in a few years.
I read a neat trick someone had for the ambiguous "out of 10 where is the pain" question doctors give you. Find a reference point first: "If five is a broken leg, I am at a 7"
Otherwise my 3 could be someone elses 7, as someone who has had chronic pain and a shifted pain tolerance it's proven pretty useful as even doctors struggle to convey what a worrisome level of pain would be without knowing what you have been through.
I'm on a waitlist for this. I went to hospital for an attack about six months ago, and I started overthinking this question afterwards. Wondering silly things like 'is the scale linear or logarithmic?!'
As a doctor, that is a great way to report pain. Most of the time we’re asking for ballpark and trend reasons though. If I come and it’s a 3 first time, then a 5, then a 7, that’s good and I can do something about that. If it’s a 8-9 and the patient is in their phone, and it stays 8-9, well the absolute magnitude may be less of a concern to me.
Regardless, if someone comes in and reports high pain I am going to administer strong painkillers (I work in emergency departments)
~18 hour gallbladder attack where i could not keep any liquids in made me consider bashing my head into the wall next to my bed until i pass out.
(No longer have a gallbladder, thankfully.)
Yikes. I thought my 6 hour attack was bad. I can't imagine 18!
That’s what my doctor said when I came in with a fever that wouldn’t go away. I had some mild discomfort in my side a few days before and based on the location I concluded it was my galbladder. By the time I got to the doctor the discomfort was gone but I still had a fever. He poked me in the side a few times, I didn’t feel a thing, and told me it couldn’t be my galbladder as I would be screaming out in pain if it was.
I insisted it was, so he agreed to do a quick blood test for inflammation markers to easy my mind. Shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes for the nurse to get the results and send me home. 30 minutes later the doctor called me back into the office, apparently my values were off the chart and he already informed the hospital of my arrival.
Spent a couple of hours in ER, where the infected galbladder was confirmed, and was eventually sent home with some antibiotics. Since I wasn’t in pain they preferred not to operate while it was inflamed. Then a year or so later they tried and failed to remove it, but that’s a whole other story.
If you're talking about post-cholecystectomy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yDkkeIMrBk
For me, it felt like I was being stabbed through the back, right below the right shoulder-blade. It was unbelievably painful. At first I thought it was bad heartburn, but then it just got stronger and stronger, until I thought I was going to throw up.
Had my gallbladder taken out after that, and no more issues at all. I can eat whatever I want, thankfully.
I wonder if your bad cholesterol goes up in this case? This is because the liver uses cholesterol to create gall enzymes, which it excretes into the gall bladder with a bunch of left-over cholesterol too.
Gall bladder stores bile, which continues trickling down the common bile duct whether a storage facility sits off to the side ready to dump a bolus into the common bile duct. . With no bladder storing a bile bolus fatty foods might not be adequately digested from the trickle.
No such thing as gall enzymes and no such thing as an enzyme derived from cholesterol.
Assuming she's talking about GLP-1 drugs those do indeed have been associated with gallblader (and other gastrointestinal) inflammation and disease.
Not necessarily causative here obviously but still in my opinion irresponsible to use for weight loss that isn't medically urgent.
She's probably not? If she's gone two and a half years since her gallbladder was removed, and years before that when sge had gallstone symptoms but thought they were something else, that was before widespread use of GLPs.
Anecdotal but my partner had her gallbladder out a few months ago (started to affect her pancreas —- was a bit worrying for the doctors)
The doctors said gallstone formation can occur with rapid weight loss
She was (and still is) on a GLP-1
No symptoms post gallbladder removal
I had my gallbladder removed as part of liver donation surgery over 20 years ago and have never had any digestive issues - and I eat everything.
if you are having pain in your abdomen, get it checked out. if you have gallstones, get the surgery. eating fatty foods after can be "consequential" to say the least. but it beats the pain.
Interesting! Mine got removed 10 Years ago, and I didn't notice any burping. The only thing I need to mind is to not eat anything too fatty as first meal of the day. Then I quickly need to find a bathroom. I'm definitely going to try the enzyme-pills.
Ox bile supplementation was my biggest quality of life change after having my gall bladder removed. I unfortunately waited over a miserable decade before discovering it. I strongly encourage anyone who has had their gall bladder removed to look into this.
What were your symptoms that made you seek out bile replacement?
I don't eat a ton of fatty foods post-cholecystectomy but when I do indulge I can't say I have problems. I have some acute intestinal distress now and again, but it seems like that's just as likely to occur for me after a vegan dish as, say, a burger or pizza.
My better half had pancreatitis because of gallbladder stones and so I learnt that there's a canal that goes from the gallbladder and through the pancreas. This is not a good design. Somebody should have thought harder about this. Maybe they had a deadline or something (I need this on my desk by Saturday!).