Gallstones advice needed

[Barney16]

Looking for some help really. I am just getting over what I think is the second gallstone attack (feels like I have been attacked tbh) in 18 months. The first time I ended up in a and E on morphine, this time I stayed at home because it wasn't quite so bad. But I only felt a bit better when I was violently sick. Temperature, shakes, bloated abdomen, pain in right side, just generally felt v v unwell. Still do really. This one seems to have been triggered by eating salmon. First time blood tests and scan didn't show anything at all but I am quite convinced it's my gall bladder. The pain was excruciating. Both times it feels like my insides just give up the ghost. What's the best approach? I have private medical so could book a scan or should I go back, again to gp, and does anyone know what food I may be able to tolerate? I know low fat, tried a plain piece of toast yesterday and threw that up. I feel absolutely miserable. All of me hurts and I just want to be asleep most of the time.

You really should go back to your GP Op.

You need to go to the GP if it's gallstones you'll likely need your gallbladder removed.

As far as food goes there was never anything that was "safe" for me some days I'd have nothing but water and have an attack. Once I rebelled and ate massive KFC and was fine.

You need another ultrasound, so get back on to your GP. Alternatively it's a couple of hundred pounds to get a private one.

Re food... Ha. It is meant to be zero/low fat (3mg per 100mg) but I ate an entire blue cheese, wood fired pizza a couple of times with no issues but an avocado with fresh lime tried to kill me. On Sunday I ate two different birthday cakes, sweets & a burger with no attack. Last week I ate one pork sausage & my organs tried to crawl out of my body 🤷🏼‍♀️

I think you do need to see your GP again as already said. If you have a fever, you may have an infected gallbladder which would require antibiotics. This happened to me and a few months later I had my gallbladder removed. As others have said, there was no pattern to what would set off an attack in my case either!
Good luck!

Thank you everyone. It's the most horrendous pain, other than being in labour, but what is almost as bad as how awful I feel for days afterwards. My whole insides just feel like they have been mangled. I will go back to GP and see what they say.

I have very similar episodes. I have recently given up almost entirely bread products. Salmon disagrees with me , too. And mushrooms. Garlic sometimes. But I, too, can do curries!

I have been back and forth to GP for probably 5 years now. Eventually got a scan which showed a big ol' gallstone parked in my gallbladder and a swollen gallbladder.

You need to get to your GP.
Vomiting and temp/shakes can indicate an infection.
I was diagnosed with gallstones in Jan after a very bad attack landed me in hospital, I'd been having pain and bouts of vomiting for a couple of years at that stage. I'm now waiting to have my gallbladder removed and am really sticking to a low fat diet which is helping massively. Trigger foods for me are red meat, pasta, full fat dairy and eggs so I just avoid and if using dairy make sure to use skim milk, reduced fat cheese(v small amounts), no butter or spread etc etc
I've had a couple of flare ups since the episode in Jan but thankfully much less severe and was over it within a couple of days.

Just popping back to say thank you everyone. I have been to the GP and have an infected gall bladder. He's given me antibiotics and is sending me for a scan. If I hadn't read all your advice I would have soldiered on and not quite sure what would have happened. So many thanks.

I have been in your situation. Gallbladder attacks are way past labour on the pain scale. I remember them as an absolute wall of pain. Morphine didn't even really touch it. And then the stone passed and the relief was immense.

Glad to hear you've been to the GP and have a scan scheduled. You absolutely do not want your gallbladder to rupture. You'll need it removed and I hope you can have it keyhole as I did - compared to a C-section, it was a breeze for me.

Hey OP, I've had gallstones before and they truly are the worst pain. There's a really long thread on here from last year, it has what people ate etc. I'll link it. I hope you feel better soon

You have my sympathy. The only thing I've had worse was a badly broken shoulder which needed surgery in that a gallstones attack lasted only a couple of hours (though I felt "hungover" next day) whilst my shoulder pain was painful for weeks.

When I had the bugger out the surgeon started counting the stones, but lost count at 200. Most people have around half a dozen.

Ps the surgery is fine. Its done by keyhole. I was a bit sore for a few days but afterwards was fine. My only difficulty with it was I'm a fat cow and had to go kn a vlcd for 2 weeks to shrink the liver. (Many overweight people have fatty livers and the liver sits on top of the gallbladder....shrinking it makes it easier to deal with).

I went to my GP, he confirmed likely gall stones and arranged everything for me, once I told him I had Medical Insurance. From diagnosis by GP to gall stone removal was 6 weeks. It would have been 3 months, at least, without the Medical insurance.

I had gallstones. Tried the diet and everything and eventually got the frigger taken out, best, best, best thing I ever did.

So glad that you've been to your GP and are on antibiotics. I'm sure you'll start to feel a lot better in a couple of days and you can go forward from there with the scan and surgery further down the line. I know from experience just how bad you must be feeling, but all will be sorted out from here.