Pregnancy and post partum gallstone attacks- did yours stop without surgery?

[Februarymama]

As the title says really! I started having what we now think are gallstone attacks at about 32 weeks pregnant. Roughly 1 or 2 a week, so quite often. I went on Omeprazole from the GP thinking it was heartburn.

After delivering I stopped the Omeprazole thinking that heartburn wouldn’t be an issue now I’d delivered, but unfortunately the attacks continued although are now fewer in frequency (only 1 attack in the 2 weeks since she was born).

I’m having an ultrasound soon and blood work done to find out if it is definitely gallstones. If it is, is it something that might resolve itself? I’m only 24, a healthy weight and don’t have any of the risk factors other than pregnancy. I asked my GP who said that once you have one attack they usually get worse and more frequent… but I’m not sure if this applies when the pregnancy was what caused them in the first place? We won’t be having any more children so that isn’t a concern regarding future pregnancies.

If you suffered in pregnancy or post partum with gall stones, did you stop suffering after a period of time without needing surgery to remove your gall bladder?

I have gall stones which pre date my pregnancy and I have managed to keep it at bay with eating less fat in general, less oil, no fatty meat. So it doesn't necessarily have to get worse.
However the consultant I met with to discuss surgery was quite confident that it's a very simple key hole proceedure and one of the most common surgeries there are. So I'm booked in to have it done post partum.
My pregnancy hasn't affected it so far, at 26 weeks.
I know my case is different to your but felt it might be useful to give a perspective of a case that is easily managed and relatively easy to sort out. They can even do the surgery during pregnancy if the stones cause an infection.

I'm so pleased you got to the end of your pregnancy, OP. Mine started quite early in pregnancy and I ended up with pancreatitis and had a cholecystectomy when my baby was 3 weeks old. I don't miss having a gall bladder!

My attacks started at 19 weeks pregnant but were very infrequent , maybe once a month, so wasn't diagnosed until 5 weeks post birth when the attacks were constant for a week .
From then the attacks were almost everyday throughout July and august, started settling down after that and I went longer between attacks. And although I had less attacks, I had far more anxiety about an attack coming on

Had my surgery in October

Thanks everyone. I am incredibly anxious about them occurring, especially as they don’t seem to have been triggered by anything specific and my diet is already quite low fat.

I’m more than happy to have the surgery, I’m mostly worried about how long I’ll have to wait for it.

Mine were confirmed gallstones beginning of august - ultrasound appointment

Had consultant appointment beginning of September

Surgery beginning of October

The fact I was exclusively breastfeeding I think helped move things along quicker
As they wouldn't give me any pain relief

It did effect my liver function which they saw on the blood tests which they weren't expecting

Hope you don't have to wait too long

I had my gallbladder out about 30 years ago. When I was having attacks I found if I did jumping jacks the stones/sludge would move and unblock my bile duct. I saw them moving inside my gallbladder when I rolled over during a scan, so I thought I'd try moving when I had an attack and it actually worked. I just got tired of doing the jumping jacks after a year or so. I was also tired of the almost zero fat diet I had to stick to.

@Februarymama mine started in my late pregnancy and like you I was told heart burn, I shrugged it off and thought nothing more. We all get heart burn in pregnancy, except this didn’t feel like heart burn, but that’s what my midwife said. After my baby was born I forgot all about it. Then it happened again, thought I was having a heart attack!! I was 24 too, young, fit, healthy, slim…. Didn’t make sense what was happening. I went on good old google and of course gallstones came up and gallbladder attack… these pains kept happening a few times a week. I realised it was after a take away, I stopped ordering take aways, I was diagnosed with a gallbladder full of gallstones, and told to remove it asap or it would kill me. I thought that was awful dramatic, but I was too scared of having surgery and having an organ removed, it seemed like a big deal to me, they assured me it wasn’t and I didn’t need this organ and surgery was simple and usually a day case, meaning I’d be in and out the same day, my attacks stopped for 1 year after I changed my diet but then they came back with a vengeance and I kept getting infections in my gallbladder, I lost so much weight, they told me it would kill me, I agreed to have it removed, I knew I had too and I should have just listened to them in the beginning, I was in and out the same day, my health bounced back! This was almost 2 years ago, I’m soooo glad the awful thing is gone now.

If you have gallstones and they are causing attacks, you will need your gallbladder removed

Once your gallstones have found out how to cause attacks, they don't stop and need to come out.

You can minimise them by changing your diet but a fat free diet rapidly becomes cheerless and miserable. I did lose loads of weight which was a bonus, but the odd random attack would still creep in whatever I did.

The gallbladder needs to go.