Gallbladder attacks advice

[HeyBwoss]

Been having episodes of pain since January but have now had 2 in the past 2 weeks. I thought it was trapped wind (actually the first one I thought was a heart attack, at first) but have seen it may be gallstones. All my pain matches everything I have read. Except for labour, it's the worst pain I've ever had.

Anyway, I'm hoping to see the GP tomorrow, but in the meantime I'm terrified to eat incase something triggers it. Does anyone have any advice on how to manage or anything that stops the attacks? Thanks in advance

I'm having another attack 😭 obviously a bland chicken stir fry was a step too far.

Oh no @CleanQueen123 are you ok?

I took dihydracodeine and cocodamol. Finally fell asleep around 4am. I'm not in pain now but very tired.

It really does put the fear of God into you when it comes to eating. You wouldn't think that chicken, vegetables and noodles would be a problem but clearly it was too much. Back to absolutely bland and zero fat for me.

But what fat could they possibly have, assuming you didn't fry in oil? What are you even supposed to eat

Ah@CleanQueen123 , I'm sorry, how awful. Were they egg noodles by any chance? Or was it spicy?

That's an interesting historical fact re eggs @ScribblingPixie .

Your caravan trip does sound tricky @HeyBwoss , better than a hotel stay re access to food, but your little kitchen area might well be filled up with things you can eat why the others merrily munch on whatever they come across.

This is all so depressing. Random attacks. I'm really struggling to keep my spirits up. I once knew someone who intentionally ate the fat on the side of a steak, said it was the best part. I always avoided the obvious fat.

Also, now that i know what my gb is and how it feels i recognise that it's been unhappy for decades. As young as my early 20s i remember feeling it do the kind of moves it's done this week.

Take it easy @CleanQueen123 , hope you're not feeling too jaded today. Good luck to the rest of us.

If anyone's interested this was the basic study, which might be worth thinking about. Eggs are definitely one of mine as well as various oils & fat. Dr. James Breneman published a “gallbladder diet” in 1968. He thought attacks were down to food sensitivities with the top food offenders eggs, pork, onions, chicken and turkey, milk, coffee, and oranges. His study used an elimination diet to identify the sensitivities of each person and eliminate them. About 20% of the participants were sensitive to prescription drugs they were using. Everyone in the study successfully ended their recurrent attacks.

Ah, I'm fine with chicken and coffee, haven't tried the other things on that list, and one thing i read last week said that coffee was good for gb.

Maybe that study referred to the skin on chicken and turkey?

Oh interesting, @ScribblingPixie, thanks. I'm ok with chicken at the moment, and I've had onions in a spaghetti Bolognese. Not had the others, but my GP did mention avoiding citrus too.

Have to go food shopping today. Meal planning often felt like a chore before, worse now!

I think the study was about seeing yourself as an individual with personal triggers rather than following 'rules' about what you should and shouldn't eat to avoid attacks. I wish there were more like this now - I'd certainly like to be part of a study in which every single participant was free of attacks by the end.

@HeyBwoss , for shipping is so funny now if i do it in person. My specs prescription is out of date so is glasses on to see vegetal, glasses off to read the fat content, glasses back on, etc., etc ,

How is everyone doing the low fat guidance? I've been sticking to the 3% for general fat, but some nice things have a higher general fat content but saturated fat is under 3%. Are you all eating those things?

Sorry to hear you had another attack @CleanQueen123

I had small amount of chicken broth for dinner the last two nights without any issues, had a large bottle of smoothie each day too.
Im going to brave making some cod in tomato sauce for dinner tonight.
I think buscopan really helps with the general grumbling but it’s expensive to take 8 tablets per day.

I used a tiny bit of rapeseed oil because I don't know what the hell else I'm supposed to cook with. Udon noodles rather than egg. Although I did have egg noodles last week and they were fine so maybe eggs aren't a trigger for me.

I made chicken stock yesterday thinking that broth would be good for me but I suspect that will be too fatty and have to wait until after my surgery.

I have to say I'm absolutely sick of this and my mental health is starting to suffer now.

@dudsville I don't really know what I'm looking at to be honest, so I'm avoiding things that have more then 3g per 100g, although I think the saturated fat is the bad bit. But I don't know so just trying as low fat as possible.

There are some exceptions though, as I haven't really been checking bread/carbs and I have a small sprinkle of lidl cereal on my fruit and yogurt sometimes, which is higher in fat but no where near the recommended portion. I've also got a light olive spread for when I'm desperate for something in a sandwich. I cook meat in the oven on a grill pan to avoid it sitting in fat and buy 5% fat mince, fat free yogurt etc. No milk, cheese, butter etc.

@CleanQueen123 I use the low calorie oil sprays, but it's probably similar to the amount of rapeseed oil you used anyway. I think cooking in oil for roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings definitely caused an attack for me so I'm nervous of oil now. I completely get what you mean about it affecting your mental health. It's all I think about, feel like it's taken over my life.

I'm there too with the impact on mental health. Keep trying to get past it, but the fear is never far from my awareness.

I just googled rapeseed oil and it's supposed to be ok, though as we're talking, maybe not ok for you @CleanQueen123 . I only have olive oil in the house but am using it sparingly. I did oven roast butternut squash last night tossed in a tiny bit of olive oil, and over roast courgette and mushrooms with just a spritz of the light olive oil spray - The latter two looked so unappetising.

What are you putting in your smoothies @Trollfeet ? Tomato based sauces have been ok for me so far - But I get a really full feeling after a small amount. Hey, I've alsways struggled with portion size, maybe this will finally nip that in the bud!

That's interesting how you're shopping (thanks for making sense of my awful typos!) @HeyBwoss , I probably could expand my repetoire a bit, I'm sure I will at some point after the fear eases up a bit.

It's all so depressing. I've decided to partially keep my birthday plans but adjust them. It was due to be a little day trip with another couple to a restaurant and countryside walk, but I might be too tired, or I might trigger my gb, or i might just not be in the mood - I've really lost my sense of humour. So i'm cancelling my friends and only doing either the meal (salad out, woop woop!) or the walk, and then we'll do the other thing on another day.

@dudsville I’ve been buying ready made smoothies. Mockingbird smoothies are on offer in Morrisons at the moment, I really like them as they have some veg in so aren’t too sweet. I have a 750ml bottle per day.

Thanks@Trollfeet i just took a look, they do look good.

My dh just got back from morrisons, too late for the smoothy idea, but he found some "be free" brand wraps that are low fat and seem full of lovely things so I'll try one for lunch.

So i had the wrap with 0%fat total greek yogurt, rocket, beetroot, olives and oven roasted chicken. It was a nice new addition to my limited repertoire.

Oh Greek yoghurt is a good idea instead of mayo. Everything is so dry otherwise. Wholemeal wrap with rocket, wafer thin chicken and pickled beetroot seems to be my safe lunch option.

I remember you saying, i mentioned it to me dh so it must have inspired him to look. I'm also using the 0%fat yogurt to make tuna fish sandwiches (now wraps!), but i haven't perfected the flavour yet, this is better than the 0%fat creme fraiche. I tried a bunch of fresh herbs in it, that wasn't nice at all.

I've just eaten half a mini kinder bar which I both really enjoyed and really regret. Tasted great, but not worth a possible attack.

The fear is real isn't it @HeyBwoss. I was at a children's birthday party earlier. Pizza and sweet treats laid on for the parents and I didn't risk touching any of it 😭 came home and sipped water with my rice cakes 🙄

Well done @CleanQueen123. It's so hard. Rice cakes are the blandest food in the world.

Another wafer thin chicken wrap and a pear for dinner. The rest of the family have chicken goujon and halloumi wraps with chips. I'm so jealous I could cry!