gallstones- what CAN i eat...? :(

[duende]

I have been suffering for a couple of months and last week ended up at the A&E where the doctor agreed that it was probably gallstones causing the pain.
I have been having attacks daily now and really don't know what I can safely eat.
I have eliminated everything fried, sausages, becon, mince, pork, beef, all dairy, eggs, oily fish, etc.
I am living on toast with jam and rice crispies with soya milk as even butter on my toast or cow milk with breakfast cereal were causing me horrible pain.
I am due to see my GP on Wednesday and will not leave without a referral for an ultrasound (especially taking into consideration I have private medical so NHS wouldn't have to pay) and hopefully will have the op soon if it turns out it is gallstones.

But I still need to eat something in the meantime. I am not getting enough sleep as my DS is waking up lots, the attacks leave me completely drained and I am constantly hungry. You can tell I'm feeling sorry for myself :(

poor you :(
DH had this and he lived on stuff like poached salmon, grilled (no fat) chicken, plain rice, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, and veg. Desserts were generally fruit and jelly. Completely fat free, as you say. We made things slightly interesting with salt pepper and soy sauce; anything spicy like curry spices would set him off.

Really hope you get it sorted quickly.

MrsShrek, thank you.
I will go try mash and grilled chicken, just really crave "normal food". So did soy sauce not set him off?

And did your DP and up having the op? if so, can you remember how long it took him to recover? I am a bit worried about not being able to look after DS (18 months old) and having to take a lot of time off work.

Try and lower your fat intake and look at the labels when you shop and cut out as much as possible. You may find that you end up eating little and often this way, but it reduces the hunger and ensures you take in enough nutrients.

I had huge problems before and after my gall bladder op, and I'm currently on an ultra-low fat diet; the highest amount of dietary fat I can tolerate without causing pain is 20g daily.

I hope you get it all sorted asap.

DH had keyhole surgery initially but they ended up going for the 'bigger' surgery when they found the gallbladder had glued itself to something else in there. After the immediate recovery from surgery, he's been fine, and imho does push his luck too far at times. He's certainly not doing fat free these days, and some of the time not even low fat [bad lad] so quite obviously it doesn't give him any symptoms.

IME very small regular meals, with zero fat and zero alcohol and very easily digestable protein like fish.

Large fatty meals with steak and bottle of wine is not recommened as it will stimulate your gall bladder tocontract and inject bile inot your stomach. That is what causes the pain.

Don't muck about - get the operation done ASAP. It took me about a month to get going properly after keyhole surgery. You will not be allowed to drive either for about a month.

I found that anything fatty, coffee and smoked fish all set me off. Ended up eating steamed skinless chicken and boiled rice for a while, which helped a lot. It was also so boring I ate less, and lost weight!

Salmon is surprisingly high in fat, and I always found it gave me problems. Food for farmed fish is alarmingly high in fat, so I suspect that if you want to eat fish you need to be careful.

I agree with BeenBeta - get on with getting treated. Even done privately it can take time,to get all the tests done, but I had the op done at about the date I would have first seen the specialist on the NHS. They managed to stick to keyhole surgery for me, and I recovered in a couple of weeks, and have really felt much better ever since.

I do hope you feel better soon

Thanks for your replies everyone,
Bearskinwoolies, so sorry to hear you are still having problems after your op :(

I wouldn't dream of having a fatty meal with a bottle of wine, or rather, I may dream about it, I just wouldn't dare.
I've just had some grilled chicken in tomato sauce and some boiled potatoes. It was nice and I hope it doesn't bring an attack on.

The irony is, I have been trying to put a bit of weight on recently. I used to be size 10-12 before I got pregnant and since having my DS I've gone down to size 6-8. Not intentionally and I don't like myself so thin, so having to cut out all fat is a bit crap.

(it is also making it a bit difficult to persuade my GP to test for gallstones because she thinks I'm too young and too thin for it to be very likely. She's put me on omeprazole beginning of January and is trying to treat me for gastritis)

What the heck is wrong with GPs?

My mother put up with this rubbish fobbing off for ages and then finally got referred for ultrasound and there were clearly gallstones and the GP still would not send her for surgery. She was in agony for 2 years until she ended up in A&E on the point of having a ruptured gall bladder.

My GP was good though and got me a scan straight away. I told him what I wanted and like you I was not leaving that surgery without a referal.

Your A&E doctor was right and your GP should take notice. Do you have the classic pain tracking under the right rib going round the back and then up into the shoulder blade?

BeenBeta, yes, this is the pain I get.
The worst attack I had was the first one, back in January. I thought I was having a heart attack at first, felt really tight around my chest, I was sweating and couldn't talk. Then the pain radiated to the right and up into the shoulder blade. It lasted nearly 12 hours and I ended up thinking it was some extreme case of indigestion because I didn't know at the time what they symptoms of gallstones were. Once I started googling the next day, I was pretty sure I had gallstones but my GP wasn't. She's usually quite good but prides herself of the "hollistic approach" and "treating the patient rather than the symptoms". In this case it means that as I am quite stressed out, don't eat regularly, smoke (or I did until a week ago) and drink too much coffee, but don't look like the "typical" candidate for gallbladder problems, she decided to go down the gastritis route first.

I had a lot of acid indigestion after the operation. Some people do.

The consutant said,low fat, acid inhibitors and excercise. I just could not have gone on with gallstones though.

BluddyMoFo, could you post an update after your appointment with the surgeon, please?

Hey BluddyMoFo, I've still got problems because of damage caused to my common bile duct and pancreas caused during surgery

I ended up having a stone squeezed out and it got stuck in the bile duct - caused pancreatitis and scarring in the area.

If I stray from my diet, or get overly stressed it flares up badly. So, as little fat as possible, and no alcohol.

It is a very rare complication though.

Hey Bluddy - tbh I would rather have had gallstones all over again; pancreatitis is the gift that keeps on giving.

I'm back at my gp tomorrow because my enzyme levels are borderline chronic pancreatitis and I'm currently nauseous ALL the time

I miss proper food

If it helps I had my gallbaldder out when DS was 6 months and had no problems post op, had keyhole for removal with an endoscopy first to make sure the stones were out of the bile duct.
Recovery was 6 weeks, grim for 1-2 weeks but fine after, just recovery from GA really.
I have had no issues since, eating and drinking anything but I'm not a massive meat eater. It's been over 9 months now.
Of course pancreatitis is a v serious risk of the op and poor you Bears that is v v rough, wishing you well.

I did go private as I was misdiagnosed with a 'bad back' for 6 months with a new (first) baby and went a little 'nuts' on the pain shall we say.

Hope you get the op soon duende, sorry I can't be more helpful with food advice but I didn't know what I had until a few days before the op.

Other thing worth mentioning wrt gallstones and pregnancy, it's common to develop it post pregnancy and especially if you had Obstetric Cholestasis, which I did and therefore has risks to unborn child.
Unsure if OC is a risk in pregnancy after you have had gallbladder removed though.

Thanks sdotg, it's good to hear from people who have had good results and have recovered well.

Bear, I really feel for you and hope you get better.
I have only had this problem for a while and already miss "normal" food, can't imagine what it must be like for you.
And I have heard that the pain from pancreatitis is even worse than gallstones, must be unbearable :(

I remember having sweet and sour sauce a lot as it is low in fat. And treats of marshmallows (fat free).

I had my gall bladder out 2 yrs ago now. After a week i was back to walking DC the mile to school albeit slowly at first! No major problems since but i do take Omeprazole (called Mepradec now) daily because i started getting pain again about 6 mths after op and they have stopped the pains.

Jar of sauce that is.

I really feel for you; I had lots of sludge rather than stones which meant passing anything meant a crippling attack that lasted for hours and hours. I went to A&E after my fourth attack and was admitted, where tests confirmed a gall baldder full of grit and sludge.

I could hardly eat anything as even bread would set it off, so I basically lived on white fish, chicken and rice for a month. I could spare the extra weight though and lost almost two stone in that time.

Like you, I had private health care through DH's work, and after diagnosis was in and had it removed within four. If I had had to wait for 18 weeks as is standard on the NHS I don't think I could have stood it.

Op went well and the only side effect I've had is an increase in acid indigestion, but only if I eat something like a curry or a big fry up. I can effectively eat normally again.

Don't ask for a referral for an unltrasound though; ask for a referral straight to a consultant at the local private hospital.

the pain is hellish . I was taking a combo of codiene, brufen, buscopan and something else that heightened the effect of the codiene and it still barely dented it. Lying on my left side with a wheat bag draped over my right side gave some relief though.

Just remembered, Dr gave me pethidine tablets for the gall stone attacks pain. Now they were fab! Worked within 15 mins. Knocked the pain out totally.