Gallstones

[jjg2022]

Recently been diagnosed with "quite a few gallstones" had an ultrasound which found them and the blood tests.

Doctor just said she would refer me, but very vague: so what happens now?? The pain is unbearable and I'm getting flare ups once or twice a week. I'm only 30 and 15 weeks postpartum. I never had this type of pain ever before in my life. What's the treatments other than removal if any? I'm quite worried because the pain is excruciating and comes on very suddenly and then peaks and when it does I can't do a thing. Not ideal when you've got a little one:

Any recommendations/personal experiences?

@weao my doc mentioned it but as I thought it was for diarea cramps I just shrugged it off thinking they are just fed up of me now and trying to shut me up lol

@PeaceLily2000 I don't k ow why I bend because thinking about it it does nothing. I think the bending over double and rocking is a soothing notion for me. I can't lie down when it's happening. I have to sit up but yet I can barely stand 😩

I lived with similar OP, I had it on and off for over 6 years until I ended up hospitalised with an emergency situation and liver problems. Had gallbladder removed as an urgent operation last year and even that took 9 weeks. Buscopan and a really hot/high pressure shower on wherever the pain was helped me.

@weao what is it about the buscopan that helps? Do you know, is it worth a try then?

No buscopan really helps, it reduced my attacks from hours to minutes. When I was hospitalised with serious complications for gallstones they were giving me this, codine and paracetamol for the pain.

@weao I'll definitely give this ago. Did you take it when you felt it coming on or do you take it like all the time to have it in your system?

I had a long time between my attacks, sometimes months and sometimes years. As soon as I felt an attack starting I would take paracetamol and buscopan and get in a hot bath or shower. As far as I understood it the buscopan helps to stop the muscles contracting and the pain comes from muscles contracting around the stone. I hope it helps you, it's a really debilitating pain.

It's no good just eating better. Eating healthy stuff won't make any difference at all to your gallstones. You need to cut out virtually all fat from your diet. Even that doesn't work for some people, and it's really only a short-term solution until you can have your gallbladder removed.

Essentially, eating more than a minuscule amount of fat at a time signals to your gallbladder to release bile, which is what your body needs to use to digest fat. But gallstones block the gallbladder from doing its job, and it sort of seizes up and causes massive pain. I ate no more than 10g absolute max of fat at a time for 8 months while I waited for my op. It was very tedious and inconvenient, but a lot better than the raging agony of a gallbladder attack!

@weao I'll give it a try. So as I understand. The pain is from a stone passing so when the pain finally subsides that means the stone has passed and it will come out in your stool? Is that right. If it doesn't get stuck that is. I think I mine are little ones because they said I had quite a few so surely they must be small else they wouldn't all fit? I sound very dumb right now I know. I guess I'm just seeking some reassurance and trying to fully understand

Definitely worth a try, hope it helps. The only real solution is removal of gallbladder though, hope you are on the waiting list now? My very serious complications that led to hospitalisation came from a stone getting stuck, them passing is painful but preferable to the alternative - which wasn't good at all 😭

I had gallstones after losing quite a bit of weight last year. I managed by avoiding fat and dairy and adding as much fibre as possible to my diet.

I did still end up with an infection and had it removed 4 months later.

I had this in my early thirties. I ended up being admitted to hospital three times with pancreatitis and, because of this, the operation to remove my gallbladder was brought forward. The only thing I could eat for many weeks was porridge made with water. Everything else caused an attack.
Worse pain ever.
Get to GP or a and e during an attack and make a fuss.

I'm so sorry you're having this, it's horrendous, and awful they can't operate sooner. I went to a and e with a bad attack, banging my head on the wall in pain and was kept in for a few days, morphine etc then booked in for keyhole surgery a month later...they said it needed to calm down before they operated. Dr told me I could try and avoid fatty food in the interim but that it probably wouldn't really make any difference. I rang 111 and they alerted a and e that I was coming in. It seems a postcode lottery what treatment you get. Im overweight and had keyhole. I think as others have said you'll need to keep presenting yourself/ ringing 111. I think one of the 111 questions was whether the pain was making me rock back and forth.

@NecklessMumster it certainly does make me rock back and fourth: it's horrensous. I wish I could go more often and make a fuss but I can't be carting my LO down there every time 😩

I know, I've been in that position. I told 111 that I had children in bed that I couldn't leave ( it was about 3am, they were 9 and10) , he made some comment about NHS not being able to offer childcare...luckily I was able to get their dad to give me a lift, he dropped me off and got back to them by 6am so they stayed asleep and were non the wiser 😟but it all added to the stress. I just don't know what people are supposed to do. Another time I had to go after I'd had an accident and managed to wangle old childminders son to babysit. Maybe even if you just keep calling 111 or GP it'll get logged and push you onto referral list??

I sympathise OP, the pain is horrendous.

My doctor told me you can control it with diet for a while but sooner or later it gets to the stage where anything you eat will trigger it. I ended up getting an infection in my gallbladder while waiting for surgery. It was the most ill I've ever felt in my life.

Very hot water bottles and strong painkillers helped a bit. I can't remember what I took and it made me very nauseous but it was better than the pain.

I hope you can get an operation soon.

The catch 22 is that losing weight can also cause gallstones so you cut out fat which makes you lose weight, losing weight makes your gallbladder creat more stones. Yay!

Mine was slightly different as I didn't have lots of stones moving into the bile tract I had one great big fuck off stone that would shift into the bile duct opening, then shift back out. That why when I presented with an infection it didn't get any better, because the stone had reached the point where it was so big it couldn't shift out of the way.

I always found the attack hit at night like you.

I would alternate paracetamol and ibuprofen every 2 hours (so midnight ibuprofen, 2am paracetamol, 4am ibuprofen), hot water bottle against my back or front around bra line/rib level on the right hand side. I would pace and sometimes found making a fist and pressing hard under my right boob into where the pain was and firmly massaging would help.

This is my souvenir gallstone,I came round from the anaesthetic to a Dr saying "Have you seen the size of this stone!" to someone 😂

Wow that is huge!! 😂 sod that
I know. I'm just at my wits end 😩

@FatAgainItsLettuceTime
I'm impressed with the size of your gallstone, I think you win the prize for largest! I had over 200 gallstones when I had my gallbladder out....do I win the prize for the most?

200!!!!! Oh my

1st attack died down and I feel my tummy going again
I'm
Just exhausted

Yea OP i have this. I've found that there's something that'll kick it off -usually eating something really spicy coupled with stress...stress makes it much worse. And once it's kicked off everything can cause pain, even crackers. The doctor gave me a course of omeprazole because she thought I had gastritis as well as the stones and it actually did help loads. I think you can buy omeprazole over the counter, I'd definitely recommend trying it.

@porkmarkets I have some lansoprazole in my cupboard. Is that like tha same thing? GP prescribed it me when I first went to them cos she thought maybe had a touch of acid. Will that help?

It is, that's why I took myself to A&E.. They admitted me and did scans etc, I stayed for 2 weeks but they didn't actually give me any treatment. The yellow disappeared after a day and I just ate the healthy hospital food and had no more pain since.
I think maybe I had a big stone and it passed? I'd just lost a lot of weight over a year with no fatty foods, and then gone on a binge of greasy takeaways and chocolate.
I'm just surprised I haven't had an attack in the 15 years since then even though I've gone through long periods of eating junk.

Wow! That's a monster 😆 No wonder it's the worst pain in the world! Give me toothache or contractions over that.