To think gallstones hurt more than labour?!?

[BishopBrennansArse]

9 hour session of what I suspected was biliary colic overnight confirmed by ultrasound this morning as gallstones. Thought I was dying.

Honestly I'd rather do labour more than once than be like that again, and I know that it will happen again soon...

Or is that just me?

I have heard from a friend who had gallstones that it was absolutely unbelievably agonising. Urgh for you, hope they sort you out soon.

Yy Navy, this is burning too, radiating right through to my back.
I'm fine now but was completely incoherent in the early hours.

It is grim I know - but take heart you can have the GB removed by keyhole surgery - I had to have the whole works and have a large diagonal scar uner my ribs which is itself painful. Hope you get it sorted soon.

Ooh blossom, not nice

I didn't pass out from labour pain. I did from Gallstone pain!
I had lots of little stones. It was a long time ago & actually before I had a child.

I've had gall stones and had my gallbladder removed around four years ago. You can minimize the risk of another attack by avoiding all fatty food. I was advised not to eat anything that contained more than 5g of fat whilst I waited for my surgery. This basically means not eating anything at all processed, no oily fish, cheese etc etc. I lost a stone while I waited for surgery. Gall stone pain is horrendous full on sweaty palpitation job. I do feel for you!

I had gall stones when I wa a pregnant. I totally agree with you! I would do labour any days of the week rather than have an attack again!

My labour was way worse than my gallstones

They've revised the stop all fat as very swift weight loss can cause worse problems.
I'm avoiding fatty dairy and cholesterol based fats and substituting plant oils in cooking etc.

Agreed. I was lucky in that mine was removed after my second attack. No stones but it was inflamed and awful. So painful!
At least in labour, you get a wee bundle of gorgeousness at the end.

At one point with my gallstones, I woke in the night in a confused state convinced I had been shot....

Ugh, Navy.
I'm finding pot noodles safe (but not nutritious!)

Definitely had stones removed in April following a horrendous attack, gallbladder removed a few weeks ago. Had 5 children would rather have another 5 than go through that attack again

My symptoms apparently weren't typical so it took then ages to diagnose.

Came on when I was pregnant and i was having 'attacks' weekly by the end, gall bladder removed, then one week later it happened again, it was pretty scary cause I didn't know what the hell was happening to me. Turned out I had a Stone that had travelled before my op and it was blocking my duct, spent a week in hospital while they tried to figure it out.

I have gallstones, apparently, I look like im smuggling a bag of marbles..

Still awaiting surgery as I have multiple complications so I've learned to live with the repeat attacks of biliary colic.

It is agonising at times, radiating through the back, round the side and eventually my pancreas gets pissed off and joins in too - if I fail to manage the pain quickly (and thats easy to do as it starts out like backache) then I can easily end up in A&E requiring IV drugs as I can no longer hold down anything oral.

The advice on what to eat from the NHS is generally, bollocks.

I can eat super high fat stuff and be fine - if I try to eat high fibre raw veg like say a superfood salad - I'll be in agony within the hour.

The gallbladder produces bile to aid your digestion - the harder something is to digest the more it produces and the more likely this is to cause a stone to block the bile duct, and for the gallbladder to contract and cause the stones to move and hurt.

My top tip is, think about what it is you fancy eating and give yourself 10 to 20 minutes before you actually eat it - you should find that if its something that will kick off an attack, you will feel sore and not want to eat that thing.

This is because when your brain envisions you eating something your body starts to prepare for eating that thing - thats why you salivate at the thought of food, so just the same way your saliva glands start working at the THOUGHT, so does your stomach and gallbladder.

Its not fool proof but if you can think about eating a particular meal for around 10 to 20 minutes with no adverse reaction then you are probably going to be ok and if you can't, avoid it and hve something else!

I can tolerate cheese, small amounts of meat, butter, small amounts of bread.. but not salad, rice, pasta, large amounts of potato or sweet potato, or things like hummous or pulses or beans.. yoghurt is ok, milk is not ok, eggs are ok (boiled) soft fruit tends to be ok but harder fruits arent...

Everyone is different though and I have digestive issues anyway which may mean something normally easy to digest is not so for me.

Oh yes, my gallstones pain was worse than labour. I thought I was having an heart attack and threw up blood due to it - I was taken to hospital in an ambulance. They gave me gas and air then asked what pain level it was and I said "I've had two bloody children on g&a and this is worse". So yes, I do agree.

Side note... I can sometimes have the pain after eating certain food even though I had the gb removed nearly 4 years ago.

Yep, I'm another one whose gallstone pain was worse than labour. I was admitted to hospital 3 times for morphine during the wait for my gallbladder removal. I had 2 very large stones and the drs weren't sure how my gallbladder hadn't perforated due to the size of them. I knew it was bad when I took 2x ibuprofen, 2x co-codamol and 2x tramadol all at once (under instructions from the dr!) and it did nothing to relieve the pain. Normally just 2 co-codamol would have me asleep! Hope you get yours sorted soon

Yes worse than labour.

The gall bladder was take out soon after my third trip to A&E.

In fact I feel sorry for anyone who still has their gall bladder as this could get them any time.

for you

Not been through labour (yet!) But yes gallstones were horrendous. I was able to have keyhole surgery and the recovery from that was nothing compared to the pain of a gallbladder attach

There was one point in my biliary colic where it was worse than any point in my breech-labour-ended-in-c-section. Not only was the pain systemic and intense, but no-one had diagnosed me and I thought I was about to die.

However, I'd still take that over labour on pain grounds, because a contraction that is 80% as painful but happens every five seconds for three hours (or whatever) is vastly more pain. Also, for colic I got morphine and then my gallbladder removed, and a 100% immediate recovery - pregnancy and labour have changed everything forever.

YABU - it's the worst pain I've ever had, specially the very first time when you don't know what it is and you think that you're going to die!

And if it helps, I only ever got attacks if I didn't eat regularly, eg, breakfast and then nothing til 7.