I have been all over the internet reading about gall bladders. You would think I would have something better to do. I had my gall bladder removed when I was 18 years old 38 years ago. I also had the knife as the removal tool. I had no idea what a gall bladder was let alone know what the surgery entailed, however, I would have died if the thing wasn’t removed as I had large gall stones the size of Cocoa Puffs as my grandmother put it; and infection. I had run to the hospital at least once every two weeks for nearly two years and they would shoot me with morphine that didn’t help one bit, the pain was still there but I was too doped up to complain about it. So really had gall stones when I was 15 or 16. At the time my doctor told me I was the youngest person he had ever diagnosed with this. I see many posts now that are from very young people and in fact my own son at the age of 23 had to have his removed. I am sure that it has to do with the diet we are now subjecting our stomachs too. For all of you who have just had surgery it does not get better, and I hope that someone finds something to make it better. I don’t care what anyone tells you…if you take a part out of your body something is going to suffer. Remember when tonsils and adenoids where removed with no thought at all? Well they say the tonsils and adenoids are not needed … false, now they won’t take either out unless you have a long history of problems. I just look at it like this, everything in my body must have a reason to be there cause I don’t think we have spare parts. I take my car to get it fixed and when they fix it something else breaks so is this not what happens to our body as well? I have had all kinds of symptoms after the surgery. One that is most prevalent is the eating and running to the bathroom. Now you would think if you eat and then do a 2 minute jog to the potty you would not be gaining weight … which leads me to symptom 2 … weight gain and not only that; it’s weight that seems to be centered over the spot where the freaking gall bladder was removed. Mid-stomach area. It is uncomfortable when you sit, lay down and it feels just like someone stuck a bunch of wood under your ribs. I haven’t felt this way since I had kids and I know all you woman know what it feels like to have a kids foot under your rib cage! This is the same feeling only worse. Symptom 3 and this one is the strangest of all … sometimes when I grab for something and use my stomach muscles I feel like someone took a pair of pliers and pulled my guts out, it’s like something dropping from my ribs to my lower stomach and the pain is horrible. I was told this is a muscle spasm around the surgery … WHAT is that about? Symptom 4 at times I feel like I can’t get up, I get depressed and tired to the bone, so tired it hurts if that is possible and I believe it has to do with my liver after having a few blood tests reveal that it is not working well, I don’t drink much so I haven’t fried my liver. I have a lot of muscle and joint pains that keep me from doing certain types of workouts. My vitamin D is almost non existent again this may cause the tired feelings too. Year after year I keep thinking it’s going to get better but year after year it gets worse and worse. If I keep going I will be a puddle of doo doo in another few years. Doctors will not or cannot give me help so I really don’t understand why they would take something out unless they knew how to give a person some kind of quality of life. Yes the pain was bad when I had the attacks but at least the in between times I was normal. Anyone who says that your life does not change after this surgery is a nut case … just imagine only having one of these symptoms, the most common, stomach dropping … I have totally stopped going out to eat because of the embarrassment of running to the bathroom and waiting until everyone leaves in order not to scare them all away with the explosion and waiting makes your eyes pop out and the pain is excruciating to say the least. Just imagine you can never go anywhere and eat without this happening. It’s not always just food that does it either like when I first had the surgery, now it could happen if a drink a glass of juice or even water so it has gotten worse. If I knew then what I know now I think I would rather have been put out of my misery.