Gallstone diet and agonising pain

[blackheartsgirl]

After dp spending a 2nd night in 2 weeks in a and e and in agony what else can he do to manage this pain?

Hes had cocodamol, buscopan, and 1 suppository which eases it a bit but a couple of days later he's back to square 1.

No advice on diet from hospital or gp..never even mentioned it but I've googled and for the last 2 weeks tried to drastically reduce his fat intake but hasn't helped so I think that needs tweaking as im sure he's sneaked in extra bits.

His wee is brown (bloods are ok though) and he's thirsty a lot. Hospital not interested and said its down to his gp to put him on a list for surgery in 6 to 12 months time but there is just radio silence from his gp..hes tried to contact them and...nothing.

Hes desperate..he was in so much pain last night he was in tears and hes an active, just get on with it kind of person normally.

Any thing you can think of diet wise or pain relief wise that can help.

He has a large gall stone that was picked up in 2019 on an unrelated ct scan but had his first attack 3 weeks ago.. he was never told about the stone until well 3 weeks ago and they won't scan him again to see if its any bigger.

When I had the same thing I put myself on a low fat diet . By low fat I mean everything I ate was below 5% fat . I kept to it for 6 months until I had the surgery .
The pain from gallstones was enough to follow this diet . I read all ingredients at the supermarket to make sure that I wasn't eating hidden fats . A by product was that I lost loads of weight 😂.
You should advise him to do this and if he won't then he obviously can't be in that much pain

@blackheartsgirl it’s the mist horrendous pain OP so I really feel for him! I had attacks at least twice a week for 18months. Constant A&E trips, completely dismissed by GPs because I “didn’t meet the criteria for gallstones”. Apparently you have to be all the Fs - “female, fair, fat, forty and fertile” - I was female, fit and healthy and 23. I was having to work 12 hour shifts on my feet in retail during the attacks because nobody would listen to me 😔

Roasting hot shower hitting my back wound sometimes take the edge off the pain while it was at its worst but I didn’t find any medication that helped.

Don’t just concentrate on fatty foods...get DH to keep a food diary and a record of any pain and use it up look for triggers. All dairy was a huge trigger for me and it sounds like your DH could be the same. Fatty/greasy foods and spicy foods are also common triggers.

At my worst there was VERY little I could eat. I ate a piece of fruit for breakfast. I used to make HUGE batches of homemade soup for lunch (always the same - Butternut squash and red pepper roasted with a bit of garlic then blended with low salt veg stock) and have a bowl with a plain Ryvita to dip in it. I’d also make a batch of the soup but much thicker and add in a few more veggies like spinach and I’d use it as a pasta sauce to have for dinner. I genuinely ate only that for close to 3months before finally getting surgery.

Spicy foods yes! We did have a curry last night thinking he'd be ok with that as was 9nly a.small amount but apparantly not.

Still heard nothing from the doctors. Even my doctors. Worse than useless

Things like dairy can be a massive trigger for some. So yes to the ice cream being a trigger. He can't have that but he can have things like sorbet. Also be careful with spicy food. Even acidic foods like oranges and tomatoes can cause an attack.

Aldi have started selling chicken mince for 1.99 a pack. It's only something like 3% fat and it's lovely. I do think it could be worth asking about a stent for him, it goes down the throat so isn't surgery as such. I was in and out within 30 minutes. I can't believe how much better I feel, even the constant brain for from being poisoned by my own bile has gone.

The constant pain you're describing could well be pancreatitis oread to it.. Don't be afraid to keep going back to the hospital. Especially if diet changes aren't helping

You can’t just drastically reduce fat intake, you need to eliminate it all together. Even the smallest amount can result in an attack. I know from experience.

I had to stop eating pretty much all fat. All fat. As in, peas were out as they had too much fat. It's not a great solution, my hair fell out. Thankfully, I had gallbladder surgery within eight weeks.

Not all my hair mind, it just thinned right out.

Gallstone pain is awful, Op. The only thing that helped the pain for me was Tramadol. I found that slippy elm, buscapan and peppermint capsules taken every day could sometimes stave off an attack. All available from Amazon, and not too expensive.

Regarding trigger foods, it's not always as easy to identify them as it should be. Low fat didn't particularly work for me, I still got attacks. I found coffee and plain noodles triggered attacks too. I could literally eat fish and chips and be fine, or have a chicken salad and be doubled up with pain later. This got worse as time went on.

My lovely GP told me that if I presented at a and each time I had an attack I would move up the NHS waiting list more quickly. I didn't test this out though as when in the middle of attacks I could barely cope with going to the loo, never mind leaving the house.

Good luck to your dh

Thank you so much everyone. I am going to show him this thread later and see what changes we can make and hopefully he can find some relief.

The receptionists at the doctors are closed for the un foreseeable future as they are only prioritising covid jabs. There are currently no doctors available at the surgery and the surgery is closed to non urgent cases. Hes not deemed urgent enough.