Gallstones and pregnant

[Talismoore]

Hi all,

I’m writing this as I lay in my hospital bed. For the past year I have suffered with horrendous gallbladder attacks and have been on the urgent waiting list for surgery. The attacks died down for a while after I had an ERCP to widen my bile duct. I’m now 10 weeks pregnant and have had the worst attack yet. I’ve now got sepsis and I’ve been offered surgical removal of my gallbladder now or a gallbladder drain if it’s too tricky. Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience?

Oh my goodness op! That sounds so scary! You are in the best place, try to relax I'm sure everything will be OK.

I had an ERCP in my teens and wound up with an inflamed pancreas-they were looking for any stones. I had my gallbladder removed at 30 weeks gestation under spinal under the old open abdomen technique. I had complications due to my medical history. I never could've waited it out until reaching full term-the gallstone pain was excruciating. I wish you relief from pain and good health for you and baby.

Thank you x

Wow you’ve really gone through it. I hope everything turned out okay for you! Thanks for the well wishes x

Thank you @Talismoore I had complications due to having a couple genetic mutations making me susceptible to inflamed pancreas. I won't lie I needed an emergency c-section but I miraculously survived and so did my boy who is now 21.

That’s amazing @EKGEMS. I will be having an elective c-section anyway due to some other things going on. I am so pleased to hear that in the end all was well.

Best of luck ❤️

How are you today op?

I had gallstones throughout my pregnancy. The 1st attack at approx 4 months. I lost 3 stone in total and they took the gallbladder out when my DD was approx 6 months.

It was the worst thing I ever felt and the midwife had the cheek to tell me it was back pain

I went through 3 pregnancies with gallstones, not knowing what it was until the 3rd one. Absolutely horrific. They took mine out when baby was 8 months, but I think I'd have opted to have it taken out earlier had they offered. Good luck with whatever you choose!

Similar to you I suffered gall bladder attacks that meant I was in hospital on a drip every couple of months, was put down for an urgent removal.
My consultant appt came when I was 15 weeks pregnant, I went expecting them to tell me to wait until the baby was born but nope I had my operation done when I was 18 weeks pregnant.
They say its the 2nd most common op on pregnant women (unrelated to the preg) and they have a window between the 12 - 24 weeks before the womb rises above the bellybutton.

Best thing I ever did, was in and out in no time, had a ultrasound whilst in recovery so I could put my mind at rest about the baby and sailed through the rest of my pregnancy

@TeapotsLoveYouLots I wish I had got checked out properly and had mine removed when I was pregnant because it would have made me less scared when labour came around. I was so busy worrying about the pain in labour because I thought whatever was causing the attacks couldn’t be worse than labour as I had heard that labour was the worst pain a woman goes through.

I curled up in a ball during my labour and didn’t move which meant my DD didn’t get in the right position and I needed a csection.

Honestly op get the gallbladder out if they’re offering. Its the last thing you need right now and you do NOT want pancreatitis or liver trouble right now, which can be complications caused by gallstones.