Question for fellow gallbladder free MNers...

[Limelight]

I had my gallbladder out two years ago (hurrah). Since then I would describe my digestive system as being occasionally a bit sensitive but certainly not in an incapacitating way. If I overindulge, I'll know about it for a few days basically.

So I got back from a holiday to the US two weeks ago. While away I ate a pretty high fat diet and drank more than I normally would and my system struggled a bit towards the end of the holiday - minor tummy cramps, diarrhoea, that sort of thing. But it's just not going away. It's not terrible - I haven't needed to be away from work or anything but I'm still suffering a bit. I can't remember the last time I had a normal poo quite frankly (apologies TMI). It comes and goes - I'll have a reasonably normal few days and then everything kicks off again.

I've been putting it down to my gallbladder free state. It's not unusual for me to react to a lot of food and drink in this way. But shouldn't it be settling down by now? Anyone with any experience or advice?

Watching with interest. (That sounds like I'm a poo troll)
I got mine out 2 years a go as well, but have just had a baby so don't know what's supposed to be normal anymore.

I had my gallbladder out about 8 or 9 years ago now.

If I eat a really high fat diet for a few days then I really feel it, I even get sore where my gallbladder was, although it's nothing like gallbladder pain.

I also still get stomach cramps, nausea and diarrhoea from time to time, it seems to be hormonal. It gets worse when I am coming onto my period (way TMI) and when I was breastfeeding as well.

I did ask the doctor and he said that it can be related to hormones and advised me to keep a diary of food and my cycle for a few months and see what that told me.

I did that and did notice that it was worse at a certain point of the month so I changed my diet accordingly and for the most part it is better now, I just get the odd pain now if I'm really stupid.

Thanks for replying. I'm certainly more prone to diarrhea than I previously. This current dose is hanging around though which is why I'm mentioning it.

Am I wrong to just assume it's the result of my digestive system not coping with the vast quantities of icecream, booze, cake, and cheese I ate on my trip and that it will settle down? Or should I be worried?

My doctor told me to think of my gallbladder like an overflow, when it was there I could binge and have the overflow to fall back on, now its gone I have to curtail eating bucketloads of fatty delicious food because there is nothing there anymore. So I guess since it isn't there to break down as much fat there is only one way for it to go.

It won't do any harm to get it checked out, and I am not a medical expert at all, but it does sound quite normal to me, I didn't adjust to the changes I had to make in my diet for about 4 years.

For the first couple of years post-op I thought I was cured and ate everything I fancied (cheese, meat, etc). More recently I have limited myself somewhat, having had diarrhoea, heartburn and so on. So now I am back on lowish fat meals.