Gallbladder is out….wtf can I eat

[CoconutSky]

I had my gallbladder removed on Friday. Hospital provided some toast after surgery.
Had some mild nausea and dry heaving early hours of Saturday morning as the anaesthetic and fentanyl wore off

Also had the dreaded diarrhoea this morning but I haven’t eaten since my surgery. I don’t know what to eat.

Can I have margarine on toast? A biscuit?
I went extremely low fat in May due to the gallstones and I am now petrified to eat anything.

Any post op ideas?

Just eat normally, I think I was out for a curry on day 3 after mine. I could happily have returned to work the day after as well.

Go get yourself some toast, a cuppa and a nice biscuit. You will be fine.

I went back to eating normally after mine was out.

This is what’s bothering me if I’m being honest
I’ve got form for restricting food intake when I’m stressed or worried and I have lost a lot of weight due to the stones

It's a very long time since I had stones but I can remember the excruciating pain I'd get after eating something fatty so can understand your fear, but honestly the pain of cholecystitis is gone one you have your gall bladder removed.
I eat what I like and I would recommend eating what you want, but don't over do it while you're recovering from surgery x

I just ate normally. In fact I was in a private hospital with an amazing chef and I smoshed more than usual 😂

Chicken sandwich? Soup? I lived on that for about a month after surgery, plus omelettes.

Hi OP. I was, and remain, the same as you about the fear - although mine slightly predates the gallbladder issues but they made it more complex.

It was a few months until I could eat 'normally' as any nice meal out gave me nausea and big problems with constipation cycles. I really found peptobismol and Buscopan helpful.

I still can't really do cream teas or onions, garlic, mushrooms, salad. Omlettes a no no for me. Baked pots good. Cottage cheese.

After the op , I lived on toast (proper butter is fine), water biscuits , crisps - basically the beigest food you can imagine. Small portions.

I never got dietary advice either - they insist you can eat normally. For lots of us that isn't true.

Oh, how could I forget?? GINGER NUTS. Manna.

I ate lighter meals for a week or two just because I was in a lot of pain and the painkillers made me feel sick, but I’ve eaten a normal diet since, not low fat and I’ve been absolutely fine.

The first few days I ate porridge, yogurt, toast, baked potato - easy plain food with not too much fat. But my surgeon did say to get back to a normal diet fairly soon so your body learns to adapt to digesting fat again. Now I pretty much eat what I like.

Hi OP. This was me earlier in the year so I have a lot of sympathy. My advice is to take it slowly. Stick to low fat foods and build up by adding a bit more fat at a time. I was eating a lot of homemade soup and stews before the surgery so I could control fat levels and lots of vegetables. I carried on with this after surgery when I could manage to eat. It will just take your body a while to readjust to not having a gall bladder. I was really ill after the surgery and they thought I had stones stuck in the bike duct as I was still in so much pain and couldn't eat. I was back and forward to the hospital the first week after surgery. Fast forward to now and I'm feeling good l. I'm back to a fairly normal diet but with more of a focus on lower fat and healthy. I lost two stone because of the stones and I've kept it off. I still have occasional treats but I cook a lot more healthy meals than I used to. It has changed my relationship to food, probably for life now. I think others have posted but there are guides on what to eat after the surgery on the internet. I got absolutely zero advice from my hospital and they even tried to get me eating tuna mayo butty after surgery which I don't think was the best thing for me to eat really was it?? Wishing you a speedy recovery!

Eat normally. Ease yourself back into the fats but you should be able to eat them fine.

You'll have the shits for a few days as your liver gets used to how much bile you need but get through it and it's like a whole new world!!

There's nothing I cant eat now 3 years post surgery.

I just ate whatever I could face. It wasn’t much to start with but my appetite soon picked up. The doctor told me that these days they tell you to eat a normal diet after a cholecystectomy.

When my Mum had hers removed she ate soup for the first 3 days and a slice of dry bread to dip in it. She had Weetabix and milk for breakfast.

I can eat almost anything after having mine removed. The only things that I can't get on with is KFC and ice cream from an ice cream parlour. Apart from that fine, I got told just to try and eat foods at the same time each day so your body gets in a rhythm of when the bile gets released. Take it slow and steady and just slowly reintroduce fats, you'll soon know what you can tolerate

I wasn’t massively hungry the first day, but then i ate much more normally, gradually building up to higher fat meals. Just don’t go nuts at toby carvery straight away.

How about some pasta?

I’ve had 4 rich tea biscuits. 🤣
I will make toast I think

I stopped at McDonald's for a big Tasty meal on the way home from my gallbladder day surgery!

I had mine out and went back to eating normally straight away. I would suggest some toast and soup to start off with for a couple of days if you are concerned. Then back to normal meals

My surgeon told me it was fine to eat normally straight away, I had a fairly fatty meal in the hospital while recovering.