Gallstones / gallbladder / biliary colic in pregnancy?

[Flora1985]

Hi all. For many years now I've had fairly infrequent attacks of severe abdominal pain, which I'm sure must be gallbladder related. The pattern is usually very consistent: it starts in the afternoon but reaches its absolute worst as soon as I lie down to try to go to sleep at night at around 10.30pm, and has me up and about writing about in pain / on all fours until the pain starts to dissipate, usually around 4am. The pain is always in the centre and right of my abdomen, just under my ribs, and is extremely severe (worse than labour contractions). No painkillers touch the sides. Last night I had the worst attack I think I've ever had (and I've had many of these attacks now over the years), and it made me vomit too for the first time ever. Hugely unpleasant.

My question is, has anyone ever had this in pregnancy, and what did you do? I've had these attacks for years but also had them in my last pregnancy around two years ago, and now I'm having them again (currently 21 weeks pregnant) but this time they seem worse than ever (the vomiting being an example). I've went to maternity triage in the middle of the night last time (in my last pregnancy) but they just gave me codeine, checked the baby's movements and sent me home. I didn't try that again last night because I have a strong fear of A&E and couldn't think of much worse than writing around on all fours in pain and vomiting into a bowl in an A&E waiting room, but perhaps I should've done...because I don't go to A&E when these attacks are actually happening (they're always overnight and usually much better by daybreak) the doctors don't catch anything 'live' as it were; every time I've been to a doctor after an attack they've not really done much or just put it down to 'IBS'. I have had two ultrasounds in the past - many years ago - which didn't show any gallstones, but I've heard some can be so small they're easily missed on a scan but still cause intense pain.

Has anyone else experienced this in pregnancy? Is there anything I can do - is it worth going to maternity triage in the middle of the night or will they just send me home with painkillers, in which case I may as well stay in my own home with painkillers?

Once I'm postpartum I'm planning to see if I can get my gallbladder removed privately, but in the meantime while I'm pregnant I just wondered if there's anything I can do / anything that helped others in a similar situation. I'm terrified of having another attack :-( - they're so incredibly painful, the vomiting is horrible and I'm just living in fear of the next one, but I kind of feel helpless to do much about it since I'm pregnant. Wish I'd sorted this years ago before I had kids but life is so busy and the attacks only happened a few times a year back then so I just didn't - what an idiot!

Yes I had it. It was awful because I could only take paracetamol so I spent my days lying on a scorching hot , hot water bottle. It was so bad I was admitted to hospital and was given pethadine. What I will say is, I have cholesatsis , either from it or because of it, it was found out! It can really flare up in pregnancy because of hormones.

Ouch @ballsdeep, that sounds nasty. Did it just start in pregnancy for you, or had you had the attacks before and they got worse in pregnancy because of the hormones?

Did you just have to ride it out with pethadine etc until you had the baby? Have you had surgery since?

I do wonder about cholesatsis but presumably you had/have intense itching with that? I am generally itchy but not sure I'm itchier than in my last pregnancy...hard to tell though.

I think I had a few grumbles but nothing like a full on attack. I did have surgery but a few years later when the pain got so intense I couldn’t even drink water. I just had to ride it out. I will say that when I started the meds for cholestatis then my pain went!
I didn’t itch that much either. I itches, but not as bad as some people!! I’d keep asking to get checked!

Hey OP i feel like I've wrote all this out myself! EXACTLY the same situation 😪

So I'm 6 weeks pregnant today, the past 5 days have felt like torture, had 3 flare ups over the weekend, the same as you I literally have to roll around on the floor trying to relieve all the gas.

I got diagnosed with gallstones in 2021, since then I've had a a few gallbladder attacks every once in a while but right now its the worse its ever been. I did have one a couple of month ago I took myself up to A&E for to be waiting around for at least 4 hrs to be told just bad indigestion! I was on the list for a CT scan but I could just got regular observations (feeling of the abdomen etc) I felt this just dismissed me and now I feel like when I'm under these attacks there's no point 😕

But with these happening the past few days after the 3rd flare up I felt like I had no choice to go back up to choc, as I was starting to get scared the stress of it all could potentially make me loose the baby.

Went up the other night and got checked over, took bloods etc. Then got a phone call at 2am to tell me my liver count is high so went in panic mode, they referred me for an ultrasound yesterday to see what's going on with gallbladder and the results are the stones are of course still there but there's nothing they can do really, they have just advised me on my diet etc and to take paracetamol.

I'm going to try and do my best eating/drinking wise but I can't help but feel I'm just going to go to bed everynight and pain will start or wake up under an attack. This is really worrying me that I'm only 6 weeks and there's still along way to go 😭😭

Hi @PollyRosex , so sorry to hear about your situation - gallbladder pain truly is awful.

Just a quick update from my end as I now have a newborn alongside my toddler so it's chaos at this end! But just to say that after I was hospitalised for four days at the end of my pregnancy (38 weeks) with the worst gallbladder attack I've ever had (turns out it was infected) the medical world started to take it seriously. While I was in hospital for that week I met with surgeons who said they would've operated to remove my gallbladder there and then if I'd been in my first or second trimester, but as I was so far into my third tri it would have to wait until at least six weeks postpartum. I'm now booked in to have the surgery at the end of November...can't wait.

All I can suggest is making sure you go to A&E or maternity triage whenever you have an attack, so they can scan you there and then, catch the attack in real time, and hopefully the more times you go the more seriously they will take it and the more likely they are to recommend you for surgery (if that's the route you want to go down, of course). It was only through endless badgering and them actually catching my gallbladder infection on a scan in real time that I've managed to get them to book me in for surgery - appreciate it's really hard work.

You have my sympathies - gallbladder attacks are awful at the best of times but especially bad when you're pregnant, all your organs are squished and you're worried about your baby (though I was always told baby is fine and doesn't feel any of the pain I'm going through / isn't at all impacted by it, so try not to worry on that score). Really feel for you. Wishing you the best of luck, and huge congrats on your pregnancy. I hope your gallbladder behaves, and if not that the medical world will help you fix it!