What does a Gallbladder attack feel like?

[Jelly4444]

Decided to treat ourselves to a Chinese last night. Big mistake! Woke up at 4am with excruciating pain under my right ribs! Vomited with the pain for a few hours. Took a difene but it did nothing. Never felt a pain like it before. I intended to get the kids to school at 8.30 and go to A&E but the pain went and I felt fine. Rang the doctors and I can't get an appointment until next week.

Does this sound like a gallbladder attack? I'm so worried!

Yes I think that does sound like gallbladder pain. It can last from half an hour to several hours. I would call your gp to get advice.

Just had a call for an appointment tomorrow with the consultant. I’m really nervous now.

Good luck, I couldn’t even get through to my doctors this morning 🤯

I have just come out of hospital after emergency surgery.

I had gallbladder attacks for years, and had planned to 'manage it' with a healthy diet which was going well, but two weeks ago the pain became constant and I could not keep any food down, not just fatty food but everything. I went to the drs after a wait and he sent me straight to A&E.
They decided to take it out straight away after seeing the ultrasound and looking at my blood tests.

My best advice is to go to ED if you are in severe pain. There are risks to leaving it - infection, rupture, and liver damage etc etc.

I am now at home recovering. I would say the operation was quite simple, and just a few paracetamols for a few days, and the discomfort is quite manageable. I am quite tired though, very bruised and tummy still like a football. I feel overall so much better even now, pain has gone and I feel a lot lighter and better (I am a stone lighter literally, but just all aches, pain, feeling sick and tired all of that has gone)

I was scared I had left mine for too long and had caused real damage. So I would not advise leaving it too long. Push for an ultrasound and MRI to check what is going on, blood tests for sign of infection.

widebum yes that definitely sounds like gallbladder issues, that is precisely what it was like for a long time.

@Widebum hope you can get through to the doctors soon.

@Friendsoftheearth glad the procedure went well for you and I hope the recovery keeps going well. Thanks for sharing the details as I am quite nervous about what to expect. I don’t think it helps with covid as have to go to appointments on your own etc.

I would say that the worst thing being in hospital without visitors, luckily I was in too much pain to care. It really has been straight forward, and a simple operation. Please try not to feel nervous, it is a very common surgery and you will be fine and home by the evening lost

I had three covid tests whilst there, so they were being very very careful about infection.

@Friendsoftheearth thank you.

This sounds really scary, you all have my sympathy. I fit the fair, fat and forty criteria and most of my older female relatives have had their gallbladder removed so I feel like I might be on borrowed time. It's been really helpful to read more about how it presents. My DM lost quite a lot of weight while waiting to have hers out, she wasn't overweight to begin with but ended up underweight. Made a good quick recovery though. Good luck to everyone x

@Lostandfound55 How was your appointment today?

@Jelly4444 thanks for asking. To be honest I was disappointed. I told the consultant about the pain that I have been having during an attack but then I also advised I can have a dull pain more constantly and that my bowel movements have changed. He has now said that we have to rule out bowel issues before we can look at the gallbladder. He has advised to have an endoscopy and colonoscopy and then some kind of scan on the small bowel and possibly gynaecology. Then if nothing wrong on those and still get pain then will look at gallbladder.

It has left me feeling really quite down as it is going to take along time for all these tests and I can’t afford to pay for all these tests privately. I also felt like he dismissed my gallbladder pains as he said my bloods were ok. I also felt like because I hadn’t been to a&e during an attack he didn’t seem to consider them that bad

@Lostandfound55 that's ridiculous! I was sure that you would have a date for surgery! So disappointing for you. Hopefully the surgeon knows what he is talking about. Your scan showed gallstones so it makes sense that is what caused your pain? My understanding is that bowel issues are a symptom of a gallbladder issue?

@Jelly4444 the consultant said that bowel issues were not a symptom of gallstones. I said I had read that they were and he advised me that he knew more than what I had read on the internet. I also advised him the gp said about the ultra low fat diet and he shook his head and said as long as I don’t have takeaways every day eat what I want. So I’m not really sure what to think. I also don’t really understand that if my bowel issues are ibs as the gp advises why does that mean you can’t also have gallstones pain?

@lostandfound55 I've blamed my symptoms on IBS for years! Maybe I'll be in the same boat as you.

I first experienced this pain when I was pregnant. It felt like the baby's feet were wedged under my right ribs. The pain was bad enough to stop me sleeping but nothing like the pain that I felt recently.

I think that you will have to go with what the doctors advises for now. I'll let you know how my appointment goes on Monday.

@Jelly4444 yes not much else to do really.

Good luck for Monday do let me know how you get on.

@Jelly4444 good luck today. Let us know how you get on.

I’ve just had a message from the consultant I saw last week to advise they are booking me in for an mri of my stomach. I’m not quite sure why he has now decided to do this?

@lostandfound55 I went to the clinic this morning and found a very flustered secretary. She had sent out the wrong date on the appointment letter. So its tomorrow morning instead

I wonder why he sent you for an mri! Its probably just to get a clearer picture of what is going on.

Oh no how annoying. I hope you didn’t have to travel far to get there. So good luck for tomorrow now

My first attack I felt like I was being squashed so hard, felt like I was going to die which brought on a panic attack at the same time! Lived on Cheerios for months, lost 2 stone. Then after I had my gallbladder out I was fine.

@lostandfound55 The clinic is only a 10 mins drive so I wasn't too annoyed. I'll update tomorrow!

@onetothree I have been living on very little but I'm loosing very little weight. Its not fair!

Another sign is pain in your right shoulder in the middle.
Feels like a pulled muscle and you want your arm to drop off

In case anyone is wondering about going private, I've been quoted 5 to 6k to have mine out. I have the funds but unfortunately my local private hospital has stopped doing operations due to covid, so it's pointless to waste the money just to be put on another waiting list! Another hospital further afield is doing them still but they're in the centre of a massive outbreak of covid so I will skip that one!

I find the whole controlling it with diet advice to be a load of tosh. I tread the middle ground now as my attacks were much more frequent when living on cereal and fat free yoghurt. It seems to be affected by weight loss and oestrogen, so it always flares up around my period as well. Having a video consult in a couple of weeks (NHS) but I'm not hopeful, the local hospital has all but shut down for covid.

Kicking myself I wasn't brave enough to have the operation when it was offered a couple of years ago. It really can't be managed with diet, something will always set it off in the end.

@Jelly4444

Decided to treat ourselves to a Chinese last night. Big mistake! Woke up at 4am with excruciating pain under my right ribs! Vomited with the pain for a few hours. Took a difene but it did nothing. Never felt a pain like it before. I intended to get the kids to school at 8.30 and go to A&E but the pain went and I felt fine. Rang the doctors and I can't get an appointment until next week.

Does this sound like a gallbladder attack? I'm so worried!

I had exactly the same type of pain with Ovarian cysts. But more worryingly you can get the same type of pain with an ectopic pregnancy (it starts on the shoulder and can often be felt everywhere except where it should). I’d suggest you go and speak to someone at your local urgent care / A&e

@MrsMigginsMate I had two quotes from private hospitals too one was £5000 the other £6800. They advised it’s a three month waiting list when I enquired a couple of weeks ago but was at the consultants discretion. Through the nhs in my area the wait is 9 months but obviously that will get longer most likely due to covid.

@lostandfound55. 9 months doesn't seem too bad actually. I thought that was about the wait time pre covid so I had assumed it would be at least double that now. Of course it depends on the frequency of attacks, I don't suppose I would feel too impressed with 9 months if I had constant pain but at the moment it's about one attack a month so I can at least regain sanity inbetween them!