Living alone and gallbladder problems

[MuthaFunka61]

Hi!

I'm a single woman living alone and've been nursing what I thought was an extended bout of IBS (2months).
I decided to contact my GP to get advice and I'm being sent for a scan to check my gallbladder,which is all good.
My problem is that I'm just not managing and looking at our hospital waiting times it could be 51 weeks before an op.
Yesterday I took some painkillers and caught the bus the couple of miles to my local supermarket. Whilst there I felt my legs buckling a couple of times but managed to hold onto the trolly and bumped into my neighbour who immediately spotted something was wrong and got me home. I realise there's deliveries but'm using this incident as a scenario to describe my current situation.

What I'm needing are thoughts around where to look for temporary support to help me through this period,as other than social services which I know I won't be eligible for,I'm pretty stuck not having been in this position previously.

Any suggestions to get me thinking outside of the box?

Is it just the sheer abdominal pain that's making your legs buckle, OP, or was it faintness or weakness in your limbs? If the latter, that sounds like something else entirely tbh! When I had my only full-on gallstones attack, there's no way I could have got on a bus or walked round the supermarket, painkillers or no.

However... I waited 8 months for my op, and in the meantime I prevented any further full-on-attacks by eating an extremely low fat diet. This apparently doesn't work for absolutely everyone with gallstones, but it worked for me. I never ate more than 10g fat absolute maximum in one sitting. It was a pain, but a lot better than the alternative (agonising pain)! I occasionally got a slight grumbly pain, but no more than that.

Hi @lazylinguist.

The leg buckling was from pain.

Thanks for the info regarding diet,I'm having to eat very small portions of food,ie; half a sandwich otherwise I'm bringing it back up. There's no retching involved,it's more like my stomach can't accommodate any significant quantity of food.

My diet's fine thanks @TrevorFountain (gluten/lactose free low GI) and I'm not really wanting to continue down this route of conversation as it's practical help I'm needing.

Thanks for your input though and I hope you feel better soon.

You'll need to ask your GP I expect. Though there are an estimated 40% of women in the UK with gallbladder issues (according to my doctor)
Just over a year for the OP sounds pretty average, I belong to a FB group of people with GB problems and some have been waiting for 3-4 years depending on the area.
If I understand correctly, you've not had a scan yet? You may find the wait list for one of those is pretty long too. Unless of course you go private.
Not really sure what you're asking tbh. Or why you're being snippy when people who also suffer from GB issues are trying to be helpful. But hey ho. I could tell you that I'm successfully managing my gallstones with digestive enzymes, peppermint oil and apple cider vinegar plus Buscopan when necessary but you don't want to go down that route and don't even know yet if it is your GB.
If you're asking about paying someone to do your shopping, or be with you at home, then you perhaps need to look for a paid companion. Something like that.

Ask your GP for an NHS choose & book appointment to your nearest private hospital, from my first attack to op was 8 weeks.

If you're having frequent attacks then practical help over the next year is going to be of little use.

I say this as someone who was advised a years wait on the list too, and this was 14 years ago.
It got to the point diet was having no impact on it, I couldn't put up with it, I phoned the consultant and asked if he did private work, yes he did.
Saw him privately and had my operation within 2 weeks, by that point I was having attacks every day it was fucking awful.

I was in the position of being able to just buy the procedure with optional follow up after care insurance (no private health), thank fuck I did as I was taken back in a few days after, but I was sorted out quickly.

If you were my sister or close friend, I'd be recommending putting it on a credit card or getting a loan to pay for the operation. Gall stone attacks are the fucking worst and no pain relief would touch them for me.

Thanks @PaddingtonStareBare & @Nat6999 these're both interesting comments and worth considering.