Gallbladder Removal - Anyone had this done?

[gratitudee]

Posted here so I can hopefully get more answers, I hope that's ok.
I just wanted to hear peoples experiences, I've searched a lot and can find a lot of horror stories about pain and constant diarrhoea for years after surgery. Is this normal? Is there anyone who had symptoms before but they went away after the surgery and didn't get worse?
I think mine is going to have to come out but I really don't want to live with years of diarrhoea.

@Yarboosucks

I didn't have a gall bladder so much as a bag for holding two enormous gall stones - apparently I must have had them from birth! I must have had symptoms for most of my life before the really bad attacks started after DS was born. Removal of that pesky bag of stones revolutionised my life! No adverse effects ever, nothing!

(I have my stones in a jar!)

I'm so jealous you got to keep your stones! My surgeon wouldn't let me have mine and I was so annoyed.

Yep! Long story short- it worked! Have to take Omeprazole tablets every day & still get the odd 'dodgy belly' issue but no more agonising pain, indigestion or heartburn. At all.

Had mine out about 7 years ago. Key hole surgery and two week recovery then fine since.

I had mine out two years ago having put it off for a very long time as I was terrified of having the op. It was so straightforward in the end, and I recovered so quickly, I could really kick myself for not getting it done a lot sooner. I've had no issues with diarrhea and can eat just as I did before I had problems with gallstones (which isn't necessarily a good thing )

I had mine out 12 years ago. I was only 22 so it took a long time to be diagnosed. As a result, I was one of the unlucky ones whose intended keyhole surgery had to be converted to open surgery (everything was infected and there were lots of adhesions). I was then unlucky again that I had internal bleeding and needed further surgery a few days afterwards to sort it out. This is a risk with any surgery though (1 in 20 in my case), not one specific to a gallbladder removal. I understand this might not sound too reassuring, but please do not be put off by my story. I had 5 nights in hospital (would have been 1 if the keyhole procedure had worked and could've been 4 but I wanted an extra night to boost my confidence) but was back in work 3 weeks after surgery and backpacking another 3 weeks later. I don't recall being warned about diarrhoea as a possible side effect. It didn't happen to me. I have not had any problems since the surgery. It is such a relief to no longer have unpredictable, debilitating, days long attacks that leave me weak and dehydrated, never mind about the crippling pain and pure exhaustion from the urge to move constantly.

I had mine out two years ago, and have been pretty much fine since. There are some really good facebook groups around, with lots of advice from people who are also suffering, or have had the op.

I can mostly eat what I want now. One thing that can help afterwards is taking ox bile, or digestive enzymes which have it in. It doesn't get mentioned a lot, but can be a big help when eating fattier foods etc

Had mine out a few years ago. No complications, quick recovery, no further issues. Although... having read this thread, I'm wondering if my very occasional brief bouts of unexplained but fairly major diarrhoea have coincided with eating more fat than my trickle of bile can cope with. It's never actually occurred to me before!

I had mine removed at the start of the year, best thing I have done it’s really changed my life. Wish I had got it out sooner and no complications either, I already had IBS and quite severe but it’s probably improved now.

I had mine out mid February this year and unfortunately I fell into the minor % who get an infection! it was not pretty and i won't go into too much detail (I Burst) but I had mild sepsis and a second operation a week later. Then had to have daily wound changing etc but went back to work end of March!

I had mine out five years ago.

No issues for the first year, absolute bliss to be pain free.

Since then I have had gastric issues, as in lots of food can send me to the toilet instantly and give me pain if I don’t. It’s not always the obvious foods either eg. Fried foods, junk etc. I can’t eat a lot of ‘moderate’ foods like gravy and orange juice.

I have had to take on a very healthy diet - I only eat the odd junk food at home for safety :D. Its no bad thing I guess - I have a bad relationship with food my whole life and its forced me to eat things that don’t hurt me, weight wise and health wise.

I wish I hadn’t gotten to the point where I ruined my gallbladder but I can’t undo it - and I couldn’t not have had the surgery, my problems got so severe I turned yellow, lost hair and teeth I was so unwell. I will live with a healthy diet as a consequence and thats OK

@Caryler it's not always the obvious foods that upset me either. I can eat a McDonalds for example and be fine but I had scrambled egg on toast at the weekend and felt awful afterwards. I also find a high fibre diet is no good for me now. I'm less careful what I eat when I'm with DH as I know I can say to him I need to go home, but if I'm with other people I'm much more careful.

I had mine out nine years ago. I felt a bit frail for two or three weeks, then never looked back. My advice is not to go back to work too soon, you need at least two weeks off. Ignore anyone who tells you anything else.

Had mine out around this time last year! Still have some slight issues with mayonnaise (although I’m currently pregnant and can eat mayonnaise now!!) so I just avoided mayonnaise before pregnant.
Other than that no issues, no pain, really pleased I went through with the op 😊. Go for it!

@PinkSparklyPussyCat Yep - there is times where I will have a takeaway thats super fatty and it won’t trigger me at all - othertimes I will not feel pain or an urgent need to go to the loo, but might feel it the next morning!

There’ve been points where even a coffee can set me off, but if I eat generally very healthy my body can take a the odd coffee well enough!

I was diagnosed when i was pregnant. My attacks were the worst pain I've ever had. I could eat zero fat and even then it would sometimes start acting up. I lost 35lbs when I was pregnant and was on 30mg cocodamol. I can still remember just nights of rocking myself waiting for the pain to go and eventually throwing up with the pain. After I had my son I had a terrible attack, I was literally crawling on my knees in pain begging for an ambulance. Went to hospital and got given tramadol and a blood test. Next day was called and my liver enzymes were through the roof. I started turning yellow as did my pee and poop. Went in straight on morphine thank God and emergency surgery done as two stones had travelled and got blocked in my bile duct. After it was sore and a drain was in which I was worried about them taking out but it was fine and out quickly. Best thing I ever ever had done. No issues at all now. I was only 23. If you can control it with diet then it's up to you but I was terrified to eat anything in the end because everything was setting off attacks that lasted over an hour.

I had mine out 22 years ago by keyhole surgery. No issues whatsoever. The scars healed so well that when I had investigations for something unconnected, the consultant couldn't find my gall bladder and had to ask if I'd had it removed.

Calic0 may I ask what you were prescribed and if you have any suggestions for easing the symptoms of BAM while waiting for diagnosis?

Wow so many positive stories here. I'm so glad I asked, it's made me much more relaxed about it
I'm just hoping that the bowel issues I have now will go away once I have it out. Not many people on here mentioning bowel problems before surgery only the pain. The pain is severe if I get an attack but at the moment I just have an underlying niggly pain under my ribs and bloated sore tummy with the 'loose'ish stools. They're not even loose as such but definitely not normal.
I'm glad the recovery seems to be fairly easy for most people too, in and out in the day sounds good to me, much prefer to recover at home.

Hi OP, I had my gallbladder out 8 years ago. Suffered after eating anything fatty for about 6 months, was just starting to think about asking the doctor for medication or something when it completely cleared up. So 7.5 years of normality bowel wise - don’t let that put you off!

@whatwouldjohnmclanedo - yes of course. My initial prescription was for Questran Light which is a branded form of cholestyramine. I then moved on to an unbranded cholestryamine and am currently on colestid which is the same type of thing but for some reason seems to have fewer supply issues. They all do the same job.

While I was waiting for a diagnosis (it took a while because required several separate hospital appointments for tests) I took a daily dose of loperamide which you can buy over the counter. I asked the consultant if there was any issues with taking it long term and was assured that there wasn’t. Had to fiddle with the dose a bit to get it right and it wasn’t foolproof.

The thing that had the most profound impact on my poor digestion was alcohol. So I found cutting that out really helped. I’ve never noticed any other food groups being particular triggers so didn’t really adjust my diet otherwise.

Ugh, my digestion may be ok now but apparently my grasp of grammar isn’t! Apologies for that awful second paragraph

Calic0 thank you So much . I’ve noticed the problem With alcohol which I’m a fan of 🤦🏽‍♀️ Am waiting on results of sehCAT so fingers crossed all will be sorted soon. This is just so inconvenient when running around after a three year old!

@Calic0 can I ask if you had any digestive issues before the op? Or did you only suffer with the pain of an attack?

Be aware that "keyhole surgery" should really be called "keyholes surgery" - I had 7 little holes scattered across my tum, each with their own stitch(es). The one for the camera was about 2.5cm, the rest were under 1 cm.

I should add that my gallbladder was so inflamed that it was sticking to my liver and other adjacent bits, and surgery which was expected to take 1.5 hours took 7.5 hours. And therefore I had an overnight stay and left next morning (at which point they asked me if I was planning to get the bus). But even with that amount of complication, it didn't cause me any extra trouble.