To ask you : How is life without gallbladder ?

Good to hear you’re doing so well!

I can eat whatever I like with no trouble.

According to John's Hopkins and a lot of other medical journals, rapid weight loss causes the liver to secrete cholesterol into the bile, causing stones to form..

Its not extreme dieting that causes galls stones, its the reduction in fat which upsets stones that have been there for a while. The biggest cause of gall stones is being overweight and if people lose weight they start to play up if they havent already and people put 2 and 2 together and think its because they've lost weight

The issue with GPs is that they wont (or mine wont) even engage in conversations about anything he cant prescribe, not even to say 'dont take that'. He just wont have the conversations

soupfiend, I wasn't blanket in my reply. I said "gastro surgeon", merely because we were originally chatting about gastric surgery. Of course,drs cannot be expert in every field. Too many people, I have relatives who eat sensibly ,healthy diets and waste £50 plus a month on needless, sometimes unhealthy supplements. It has been found that extreme dieting causes gall stones.

Hope you don’t mind @Soloflight1 Coming back to this thread to update my story.

I’m back home now after a 10 day hospital stay originally due to jaundice caused by gallstones in my bile duct. Surgeons had to have a big discussion about what to do with me apparently as the wait list for ERCP was so long at my hospital. They decided they would do a gallbladder removal and bile duct exploration in one procedure.
That was due on Friday 17th but there was an emergency during the op ahead of me and it was postponed until Monday.
During the op they discovered my gallbladder was covered with old sticky bile so didn’t want to do too much cutting due to infection risk. So they removed my gallbladder but had to leave my bile duct alone. Due to the amount of bile I need drains in my side which isn’t pleasant and means I’ve got a bit more pain than a normal op would’ve meant. However I was really lucky with how I felt after the op, only got a couple of episodes of that shoulder tip pain (horrible but didn’t last long) and I felt a lot better digestively.

They pulled in favours and a surgeon from his day off, to rush my ERCP to be done first thing Thursday morning. They found 3 stones wedged in there (MRI picked up just 1)

I’ve felt brilliantly since although the drains are a pain, and on the second morning after my gallbladder removal one had filled so much it looked close to bursting 🤢

I’ve been really looked after, I needed obs done every 30mins in hospital as they were worried about pancreatitis and infection, but I’m doing well. They sent me home with my drains still in place on Friday afternoon. I’m having to empty them daily and record the loss but it’s already really slowed down. Hopefully they’ll be out at my next appointment on Thursday.

I’m already able to eat better, for 2 months leading up to my hospital stay, eating anything caused pain and nausea (not surprising considering what they found) but I’ve eaten ok since, lots of variety and even a couple of Jaffa cakes yesterday. I can still only manage small amounts but my stomach had probably shrunk anyway. I don’t have the horrible taste in my mouth I used to have, I don’t have the grumbling as soon as I eat, and I have more energy. I just hope I’m still good after the drains are removed.

One thing I want to say is I can’t believe how many people are struck with gallbladder problems. When I first went in to hospital and I was on an assessment ward, all 4 of us in there had gallbladder related problems, then when I moved on to a surgical ward, 2 others were affected including a 17yo girl who had been passed from pillar to post assuming gyni issues but turned out she had gallstones and was in agony due to pancreatitis caused by it. She was in a right state bless her.

Drs know very little about anything which is outside of their narrow training or experiences

I am on a high level of supplements, guided by a bariatric recommendation, I have a supplement sheet I have to follow. My GP wouldnt know or understand the first thing about it except that I have to take supplements, doesnt know or understand the amounts, timings etc etc. The last GP I saw for something, and I mentioned about another medication Im on, again required by the bariatric surgeon I used, was questioning it and clearly didnt understand its a standard requirement for people like me.

Forgive me if I am not going to apply blanket rules to what a GP says or doesnt say as if that is the only guide I need

Soupfiend,if your Dr doesn't recommend something I wouldn't take it. What other medical professional,I would expect a gastro surgeon to inform you if you required anything other than a normal diet, any kind of supplements.

Prescribable, not describable

What sort of medical professional?

Every single time I have raised supplements and remedies with my GP he is very clear that he isnt able to comment on it at all because they're not describable or standard 'medicine'.

Partner had his out about ten years ago. No problems since at all.

You shouldn't take any digestive enzymes or supplements with out checking with a medical professional, because they can cause problems and have unpleasant side effects, usually nausea and abdo pain.

I had mine out at the start of the month. I honestly feel like a brand new person. Histology showed it was chronically infected so I'm very glad it is gone. Even drinking a brew now is smoother! You will be grand:) x

Does anyone take digestive enzymes to support the lack of a gall bladder?

I had mine out around 2008, no issues for years afterwards. Six years ago I was diagnosed with BAM [ bile acid malabsorption ] after years of thinking I had IBS.
BAM is due to having my gall bladder removed as there is no where for the bile to go. Now on meds for life due to this.

But, I am very glad I had my gall bladder removed as I was in horrific pain with it.

I had mine out about ten years ago, with no complications until quite recently. Three times in the past three or four months I’ve had terrible sickness. Constant violent vomiting for a whole day, then 2/3 days of intense stomach cramps. I’ve come to the conclusion I can no longer eat bacon. I’ve now given up pork apart from sausages, which seem ok at the moment, but I’m on guard now.

The sickness might not be caused by bacon, and even if it is, it might not be due to no gall bladder, but I think it might be.

Thank you op and God bless you. I have been wondering how bad the episodes should be before A and E tbh. Sometimes I lay on a heated blanket and scream into a pillow. I hope it's over for you soon and you heal quickly!

The reason large gallstones should come out, even without severe symptoms, is because there is a higher risk of progression to cancer.

Same for me. Sometimes forget I ever had one.

My consultant cheerfully told me that my symptoms didn't really sound like gallbladder but it needed to come out as a process of elimination...

Quite a few of my symptoms remain( joy) but the constant squeezing sensation in my ribcage has gone.

My diet is crap anyway but I never knew if anything triggered attacks anyway. I did develop a fear of eating.

Good to hear so many positive stories.

I had mine out in 2021. No issues and not advised to make dietary changes.

@Rhumba
I was 28 when I had mine out and had been feeling symptoms for about six months. The initial doctor I consulted didn't want to hear about my family history of early gallbladder problems (my mum had hers out at 31) and very reluctantly ordered an ultrasound after first putting me through a barium swallow to rule out ulcers the ultrasound revealed a nice little cache of stones. You're never too young.

Life is good.

Recovery was quick and it was such a relief to be able to eat without worrying.

The surgeon advised me to stay on a reasonably low fat and high fibre diet, lots of fruit and veg and keep simple carbs to a minimum - basically good diet advice in general.