Gallbladder removal in kids

[JJTDH]

Does anyone have a child who has had their gallbladder removed?

My 12 year old has two gallstones. She has suffered for a couple of years with them, and when she suffers an attack she is in considerable pain, sat up at night rocking, sobbing until the pain passes which is usually 4-5 hours after the pain started.

Referral has been sent to our local hospital which has been accepted and now we wait but because her symptoms are symptomatic we were told it would likely be gallbladder removal.

Gallbladder removal is not without consequences! Please read up on the side effects. It has an important job! Some people can’t tolerate fatty foods after, chronic pain where the bile drips in or chronic diarrhoea.

I had mine out when I was 24, now early 50’s. If I could have the chance again I would explore the non surgical options first, they can be removed or dissolved apparently. Also, I would need to find out why she has developed gall stones at such a young age, as something else could be going on.

No advice re a child having the surgery but I've had it myself in my early 20's, im late 30's now
I would advise speaking to everyone possible medically wise and get the best and worst situations talked over and what meds may be able to be used as some may not be suitable at that age and make sure your dc is informed of what could happen

I have constant loose stool which ranges from normal ish but a little loose to days of 15+ bathroom visits for something the consistency of water with mucus a normal day is 4-6 times

I have incredibly fast transit because of it and am starving hungry all day every day and struggle to control my weight.
Blood tests also show deficiencies in some areas dispite a healthy diet I have to take supplements I'm unsure if this is caused by the bile acid malabsorption or not but wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Ive tried all the medications and all had side effects that were, for me, harder to live with than the additional bathroom breaks
Think ridiculous levels of flatulence

I have a list as long as my arm of foods I can't eat with no rhyme or reason to most of it,

I've recently been allergy tested for another matter and they ran my worst reactions as well which was very nice of them, all of which showed I should be able to eat them but can't.
It's taken me over 10 years to pinpoint most of my triggers and over 15 to get a couple of years where I have something like control back

Best thing I did getting mine removed. My gallstones were too large to do anything but remove it. Gallstone pain was horrific, I feel so sorry for your poor DD. I put it off for a couple of years as the pain seemed to settle. However it came back with a vengeance and became chronic. My gallbladder was full of small abcesses, inflammation and embedded stones as well as the 3cm whopper.
My recovery (as an overweight 50+) was quick and uneventful. I can now eat and drink anything I want. No problems with stomach pain, no change to bowels.
I appreciate I might be lucky, and I feel for previous posters who have not had good experiences, but wanted to show the other side.

I had mine removed in my early 30s which was considered very ‘young’; the GP refused to believe it was gallstones for a while! I’m so sorry to hear about your daughter, I can’t imagine being in that kind of pain at that age. Just to add my positive experience, I’ve had no issues since it was removed 15+ years ago. In fact, about two weeks after it was removed, I went to The Fat Duck and ate however many courses (plus matching wine) and felt great!

I have a very different experience to @MyAgileUser. I also had mine out in my early 20s, 30 years ago. I’ve had zero problems since, I eat anything and everything with zero issues. I admittedly don’t eat a massively high fat diet, never have, but I eat “normally” for me and my digestion is fine.
In hindsight, I had my first gall bladder attack at 11. It took more than 10 years and many, many, very painful attacks for any Dr to realise what the issue was and then to sort it. I wish I’d had mine out sooner.

Thank you all for your responses. We actually had another flare up last night, so bad that I needed up talking her to A&E. Can't say they were particularly helpful. It's annoying has she had her abdominal scan at one hospital, her referral is at another hospital but I took her to our nearest hospital that has an A&E so they were saying they didn't have her notes but surely they must. Anyway I'm ringing my GP tomorrow to see if he can update her referral from routine to urgent because I was genuinely really worried about her last night with the pain she was on and throwing up.

My sister had her gallbladder removed at ~18

She had been having attacks since 14 with 3 hospital admissions and at its worst attending A &E 2-3 times a week for morphine and gas and air for the pain. The pain early on had been put down to IBS and she was categorised as a nuisance attender and her GP told her to stop going to A and E and learn to cope.
She had poor physical health had tonsillitis requiring iv antibiotics in hospital, chicken pox, glandular fever and the flu in 6 months and she lost a lot of weight and dropped to a BMI of 16. She and poor attendance in school and dropped out of her A levels after her attendance dropped to 35%
Then one night she had an awful attack, we thankfully managed to persuade her to attend A &E and she had sepsis due to acute pancreatitis and was given 50:50 odds of making it through the night and my dad was called out at 3am to join my mum at the hospital just in case. The consultant on duty quickly recognised the signs of sepsis and started treatment before the blood work came back showing sepsis which gave her a better chance of recovery. They did an MRI and discovered 5 gallstones blocking her pancreas and they put a stent in to clear that and removed her gallbladder about 3 months later. This was now 15 years ago, she struggles with anything that has very high levels of fat - but only in having very stinky wind sort of way which is much more tolerable than the stomach attacks she was having and ill health. The run of infections stopped and she returned to a normal weight