Stomach issues after gallbladder surgery

[Hummingstar]

I had my gallbladder removed coming up 4 months ago and have been having a few problems since with random stomach aches and pains. Recovery from the surgery went well but I had a few digestive issues initially which settled down after about 6 weeks. They seem to have reappeared the last couple of weeks though. I can be ok for a couple days, normal stools, then I will have one instance of diarrhoea. Then back to normal. I am trying to watch what I eat and keep to low fat still but can’t resist the chocolate occasionally but the surgeon said I would be able to eat what I want.
Long story but I had a bad 6 months or so prior to the surgery with reflux/indigestion, upper stomach pain and then pancreatitis which led them to do various tests and conclude it was the gallbladder.

Has anyone experienced this and is it parr for the course?

Some people just have this after the surgery. If it’s chronic then it could be bile acid malabsorption but if it’s just occasional/intermittent then it’s possibly just your new normal post removal. It may get better over time, or change.

I’ve had mine removed and I do occasionally get more urgency than I used to before removal and sometimes the odd looser stool, which was never something I really had before. Doesn’t affect my life thankfully but it is a change to my normal.

I found that without my gallbladder I needed to eat fairly regularly to give the bile something to do otherwise I'd have diarrhoea. Your gallbladder stores bile, without it there's a constant "drip" from your liver. If you have too much bile in your intestines I get stomach ache and very quick onset diarrhoea.

It's massively settled down now 4 years on and I can eat (or not eat!) what I want but for the first few years there was no skipping meals and I had to eat fat, but not too much. It's a balancing act.

This is called bile acid malabsorption, I have it after having my gallbladder removed 7 years ago. I had to have a special scan done and got proscribed colesevelam which has literally changed my life. Go and see your GP just to start a paper trail, they may not act yet as it’s only been 4 months but it can become out of control so quickly (at least it did for me I was virtually housebound as anything I ate or drank just flew out of me). X

Thank you for your calm and reassuring posts. I do tend to overthink things. I will make yet another visit to the gp and ask. Sure they are fed up with me lol

I have bile acid malabsorption from having my gall bladder removed. Though I am glad I had it removed due to the pain, they didn't tell me that this could be a side effect of not having a gall bladder!

It took me about 5/6 years after surgery to get diagnosed with BAM. I had to have a sehcat scan which confirmed it. I now take colesevelam which help keep things under control.