“I too had chronic diarrhea after having my gallbladder removed and an ERCP with sphincterotomy. I kept thinking it would get better but finally about 8 months after the surgery I couldn’t stand it anymore. I never wanted to go out in public because I knew the cramping and diarrhea would come without much notice. Anyway, I saw my GI doctor who explained to me that since there was no longer a gallbladder to store the bile there is an influx of bile into the intestines. It is the job of the small intestines to reabsorb what bile that is not used to form feces. When there is too much moving through too quickly the small intestines cannot absorb it and it moves into the large intestine. The large intestine is responsible for absorbing water and doesn’t know what to do with the bile so it quickly gets rid of it (hence the cramping and diarrhea). Fortunately there are a couple of medications whose off label use is bile salt binders. They bind the bile in the intestine. The 2 I know of are Welchol and Questran. Welchol (which I take) is a pill. Questran is a powder you mix with water. The Welchol is personally a Godsend. I take 2 pills every morning and I am usually good to go. If I don’t take it one day I sure regret it!

Hope this helps. My biggest issue now is constant nausea. It’s especially worse in the morning and has been going on every since my GB removal in Oct. 07. I’m not sure what’s going on there. No one else seems to have an answer for me either”