Is there anything you can do to fix gallstones??

[StillMe89]

Sorry, posting here for traffic! I woke up in the night not feeling sick, but with a super bad pain under my ribs and radiating all round my back. I thought it would fade off through the day, but it was getting worse and ibuprofen wasn't even touching it. So I called 111 and they told me to go to an Urgent Care Centre. I know that's going to sound like I was being OTT, but it was hurting so much!

I thought it must be a muscle thing, but the doctor at the Urgent Care said it was a typical onset of gallstones and told me I need to contact my GP asap to arrange an ultrasound and figure out what needs to be done. She prescribed some codeine (which was helped!!) and said that there's not much to do in terms of diet, etc. which would help at this point. I'm stressing out because I seriously can't take time off work this coming week and... urgh. I just can't believe it. Such bad timing!

Has anyone had this and was there anything you did that helped, if so? Anything - in terms of pain relief, diet, lifestyle...?

I had gall stones. Good news is attacks are usually short lived unless a stone is stuck. My attacks were 3-6 hours once every 4 weeks or so. They say a high fat diet can trigger an attack but some of mine came on after porridge for breakfast.

The good news is that the key hold surgery is easy, relatively painless and only took me two weeks to recover from.

I had mine out 8 or 9 years ago and not had any problems since.

Oh crikey, it is bloody painful! I've been on my hands on knees crying! I was sent for a scan. Just to diagnose if nothing else. Dr said taking out gallbladder is a last resort, as a lot of people still have problems afterwards with pain etc.
I kept a diary of what I ate to see if there were triggers. It was so random, nothing in particular set it off! Haven't actually had an attack in a while. I can feel one coming on though, and take co-codamol before it gets too bad. That can hold it off.

Risk factors for gallstones - fair, fat forty & fertile!

Once you have them you have them and only real cure is surgery. I was told a low fat diet is useless. I had mine out following a very nasty bout of cholecystitis and felt so much better virtually instantly. I know getting the gallbladder removed on the NHS isn't always plain easy, but trust me when I say it is the only answer.

It took about 2 weeks post surgery for me to feel 100%, and most of that was due to feeling tired. Had very little surgery pain. Don't have to worry about following a diet post surgery.

Doctors love the fat female fair and forty'. But crash diets and pregnancy/birth can cause it too.

@gamerchick sorry you are still having trouble. Have you tried when eating too fat, to eat something acid after, like pickled gherkins?

Dr said taking out gallbladder is a last resort, as a lot of people still have problems afterwards with pain etc

Not sure this is true. My Dr was entirely the opposite. Low fat diet until you have it out, then no more issues. I had mine done 15 years ago, no issues since. I pretty much eat what I want now.

There is medication to "disolve " stones. Ursodeoxycholic Acid. A family member who had 3 failed ERCPs was given this as he was too frail to undergo any more interventions when he had a gall stone lodged in duct which had caused two episodes of infection.

I had gallstones whilst pregnant. Pregnancy can make them flare up in some cases. It was hideous. I ended up in a&e and then admitted for a week. No-one could work out what the pain was for a while until they noticed I was slowly turning yellow as I was backed up with bile.

Couldn’t have my gallbladder out until after giving birth (which was a breeze after that pain!) and was on the waiting list for about a year. I did get attacks for a while whilst waiting but one doctor told me to take Buscopan for IBS with an attack. Something to do with helping manage the pain of the spams. It did work as I recall.

The surgery was super easy and I recovered quickly.
Hope you get better OP

I can completely sympathise with the pain, I've had 2 gallbladder attacks over the past year and it is the worst pain I've ever felt! I ended up in A&E and am now on the waiting list to get my gallbladder removed. The thought of surgery scares me but the thought of another attack scares me more.

Would you consider surgery?

Well, I'm fair and female, but not forty or fat! I'm actually on the underweight side... probably should not be looking to lose more

I'm taken aback that it has kind of come out of nowhere! I did feel a bit of indigestion for the last few days... but nothing else. Then I just woke up this morning with this pain!

I hoped that it was fading off a bit but it's hitting back with a vengeance right now I think the codeine lulled me into a false sense of relief - but it's wearing of now!

I had some terrible terrible attacks over a period of 2 years. They increased in intensity and by the last attack it took out 4-5 days. I was so glad to get them removed. Luckily I have for the first time, private health with my job so I got them removed within a month. if you will need them removed you will wait a long time for the op on the NHS so don't worry about the next week or so - it will probably be months (4-5?) before you get an op scheduled - if not more with covid.

Try the diet plans. But in reality once you've got the stones I think its hard to avoid attacks - the stones get stuck.

@captainflash

I had gallstones whilst pregnant. Pregnancy can make them flare up in some cases. It was hideous. I ended up in a&e and then admitted for a week. No-one could work out what the pain was for a while until they noticed I was slowly turning yellow as I was backed up with bile.

Couldn’t have my gallbladder out until after giving birth (which was a breeze after that pain!) and was on the waiting list for about a year. I did get attacks for a while whilst waiting but one doctor told me to take Buscopan for IBS with an attack. Something to do with helping manage the pain of the spams. It did work as I recall.

The surgery was super easy and I recovered quickly.
Hope you get better OP

Oh god, that sounds grim! My youngest is 3 now, so I don't think it is pregnancy related...

Spasms is exactly how it feels for me too! To start I honestly thought it was muscle cramps or something, I couldn't for the life of me think what was causing it!

I don't think I'm turning yellow and I am not vomiting or anything. Just a bit of heartburn besides the pain. So perhaps I should count myself lucky!!

I had my gall bladder out 3 days ago. I had my first attack in January and one in February and then was advised to have the op. This was scheduled for April but cancelled. I went on a low fat diet and lost 2 1/2 stones and had no more attacks. I asked if I could get another scan but was told the stones cannot go and the only way to be sure that I didn’t have another attack was gall bladder removal. On balance I decided it was the best option for me. I’ve also increased exercise massively and feel so much better. I did get a book on Amazon giving different options to surgery but some were quite scary such as drinking oil so I decided to go with the surgeon’s advice. It is a very common operation, once you mention it everyone seems to have had it or knows someone that has - my hairdresser, 3 close colleagues, the nurse taking care of me and I haven’t heard any negatives from anyone. Hope this helps- I had no idea about gallstones until January.

It was horrible! I had two big stones stuck in that episode. I was about 25 weeks when it happened and the stones wouldn’t move and the bile was slowly poisoning me. I had to have a few days of steroid injections for the baby until they found a surgeon willing to do a general on me and remove them.
My gallbladder was full of stones. They put me under and just removed the two big ones though quickly. Baby was fine and is now a stomping 14 year old.

Peppermint tea helped in between that and the op to remove. As did the buscopan. Bir they are the worst thing ever!!!

Hello OP

I didn't even get indigestion, my first attack came completely out of nowhere. The pain lasted 12 hours, then vanished as fast as it came. I did nothing.

My second attack was 4 months later. I went to my G.P. & was referred for a C.T. scan. They told me I had dozens of small gallstones. The pain comes when a stone blocks a bile duct. It only stops if the stone passes through (if tiny) or it moves out of the way again.

I didn't want a 3rd attack, so had keyhole surgery last summer. I get private health cover through work. They booked me in for the op two days after my C.T. scan. I was back at work after 3 days. Recovering from the surgery was a breeze compared to the pain of an attack!

I hope you get it sorted out quickly

Honestly? Get it out.

I had mine taken out five weeks ago and yeah, the first couple of weeks were rubbish because I was sore and tired but the difference is amazing. All the niggling little pains in my upper back and shoulders, random little aches in my lower ribs, and various stomach gripes - all gone, overnight. I didn't realise how many aches and pains that I was putting down to moving funny or overdoing it were actually down to my gallbladder.

The surgery itself was a piece of piss. Was meant to take around 60 minutes, the surgeon was in and out and I was waking up within 35 minutes. They gave me the anaethetist at 3.10 and I was waking up in recovery by 3.45 wondering why I was in a different room to the one I last remembered being in.

Recovery has been fine, sore and bruised feeling at first and I couldn't sleep on my side as it was uncomfortable but totally back to normal for the last two weeks or so now. I had a minor skin infection which made the top incision leak but antibiotics took care of that. I've got four small scars - one just below the bottom of my breastbone, one just below the bottom of my right ribs, one low down on my right side, and one just inside my belly button. The top one is the biggest, around 3-4cm long, and the others are about 1cm long.

I ate fairly bland foods the first 7-10 days of recovery and made sure everything was very low fat, had a day or two of having a dodgy tummy as my system adjusted to the rewiring they did, and then gradually started to eat normally again. I have had no pain, no dodgy tummy, and no ill effects from eating normally.

@Baaaahhhhh

Dr said taking out gallbladder is a last resort, as a lot of people still have problems afterwards with pain etc

Not sure this is true. My Dr was entirely the opposite. Low fat diet until you have it out, then no more issues. I had mine done 15 years ago, no issues since. I pretty much eat what I want now.

Well, as is usual in cases like this. All dr's think they are right if they have a personal opinion about it! But I wouldn't know, as I'm not one.

I had mine out around 9 years ago. The main things that used to trigger an attack was greasy foods, eggs and caffiene so I switched to decaff and refrained from eating the others.
I can't remember the specifics but I used to juice 2 granny smith apples every evening and drink lemon juice in cool water in the mornings. The apple was supposed to relieve attacks and the lemon to revive the liver which in my tests showed as low functioning.
The surgery was outpatient, but they did keep me in overnight because of the general anesthetic

I did the Andreas Moritz cleanse about 4 years ago following diagnosis of gallstones after two severe attacks, I haven’t had a problem since.

I was in and out same day. Admitted at 11, went down to theatre at around 2.50, surgery started at 3.10, awake by 3.45, back on the ward by 4.15, and in car headed home by 5.30

Saw my GP with exactly the same symptoms last week. Still waiting for her to book an ultrasound for me. No advice was given at all on what to do for the pain! Ibuprofen doesn't help! I'm no use, OP, just wanted to say I'm in the same boat!

Yes! I wouldn't have said this until very recently because I was completely fucked by them for most of July and August, and waiting only to have the wretched thing out.

The apple cider thing does seem to work. For two weeks I've been drinking it in pretty large quantities, and have (eww, I know) passed quite a few stones now. The pain has (touch wood) been gone for the last week. Before I had an almost constant mild ache and after any large or fatty meal was pacing around sweatily in pain.

Also, never ever get dehydrated. The first attack I had was after going on a very long walk all afternoon in hot weather the day before, and I think my system had shut down a bit.

On fats -- I think you need to challenge yourself with them. I can sort of tell that the gallbladder is pumping out when I eat fats, but that seems like a good thing provided the bile is liquid and not clogged up.

I was sceptical that a 'flush' would work and probably wouldn't have the nerve to try it (in case I ended up needing emergency surgery) but the basic principle of softening the stones, then fasting and forcing them out with a lot of fat seems right.

Also I recommend NOT taking proton pump inhibitors. My GP prescribed one with the vague idea I had gastritis and it made everything worse.

And the menstrual cycle seems to have something to do with it. I have to be especially careful around ovulation, because the hormonal shift seems to exacerbate the problem. Ended up in A&E last month on ovulation day just to get stronger painkillers.

@WinifredSanderson, buscopan helps. It's an IBS medication but it helps with the symptoms and the pain.

On weight, I am also on the underweight side. I think you need to be VERY careful not to lose any weight. Any state where your digestion slows down and your body is metabolising fat and releasing extra cholesterol into the liver seems to increase the problem drastically.

It is such a shitty problem. I would personally prefer to keep my gallbladder if I can, but was also until this week very eager for surgery. Now I will carry on with the apple cider (have been drinking a brand mixed with turmeric and it's quite palatable, coming to end of second bottle) and hope I can avoid it. From what the GP says, it will be many months anyway.

While waiting for surgery I was advised to try and maintain my weight as weight loss had the potential to make it worse.

Thanks @Bearfrills, I'll grab some of those when I'm out tomorrow.