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Ongoing Complications (1000+)
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“I had my gallbladder removed on 1/30/07 I am 22 years old and have since continued to have pain. The pain right after surgery was unbearable and I was told by my surgeon that this is not normal and he made me come back for a quick followup and I was told everything is normal. I then started to feel a lot better I still experieced a stabbing pain on my right side when I sat in the same position or over stretched, but recently within the past three weeks I have been experieincing horrible gallbladder attack type pain in my upper right side and into my back whever I eat or drink anything it seems. I also feel nauseous and it gets so bad sometimes my right arm will start to hurt. It feels worse then when I had the gallbladder. When it was removed they did not find any stones only scarring on the gallbladder and it took them 6 months to diagnose the gallbladder in the first place. I am having an endoscopy done, but from the looks of the other posts that may not find the issue.
Any suggestions?”
I had my gallbladder out in November 2010 and have been suffering with this diarrhea ever since. I can’t eat anything without having to run to the bathroom..If I know I have to go somewhere I don’t eat. Can’t go out to eat unless I plan on coming straight home..which really *****. I want my life back..Have been reading all the comments and glad to know I am not alone in the matter. Does anyone know if the Questran or Cholestid are OTC or prescription. Thanks everyone for your help
Donna, seems we share some of the same symptoms, chest pain that the doctors say is not heart related. I made one visit to ER, ekg, x-ray, and cardiac enzymes were negative. Nonetheless, I have an appointment on Apr 5 with my cardiologist. Just want to be sure. The Nexium seems to be working, just started it yesterday, better than the famotodine or protonix. Guess everyone’s body chemistry is different. Anyway, today I had the least amount of chest pain since this all started in early january, but I still had some. At least the night time pains/burning through to the back have subsided. Have been free of that for about 5 days, thanks to the famotodine. Hope the Nexium continues to work. My endoscope did show gastritis and a hiatal hernia. So I do have problems that would explain these symptoms. It is too bad that there isn’t something that might explain your chest pains. The echocardiogram is a pretty good test. The angiogram, invasive procedure, is the gold standard of course. Did you have an endoscope exam? If not, perhaps you should. You mentioned upper GI. Did they have you drink a barium liquid while they observed your stomach/esophagus on a screen?? Usually that will pick up reflux and possibly ulcers. Then there is the nasty little affliction called stress. It can do just about anything anywhere in your body, including the chest.
Just a note of encouragement – I had my gall bladder removed on May 1, 2000, and have never felt better in my life. Gone is my pain, indigestion, etc. I can now live in peace – knowing that I don’t have to live in fear of another gallbladder attack. I understand that many people encounter problems even after their gall bladder was removed, but I just thought that some people might want to know that many people get their’s removed and feel great. Thank you!
I had my gallbladder laproscopically removed 3 weeks ago, and I wanted to come on here and post my results because people’s horror stories really scared the hell out of me when I read them before getting the procedure done – in fact, I almost didn’t get it done because of the side-effects that people spoke of. My stats, so that you know them: Female, 29 years old, 5’6, 150 lbs. If you need to get your gallbladder removed, don’t fret too much – while there are certain less-than-ideal side effects that CAN happen, the fact of the matter is that they usually don’t. Gallbladder surgery is THE most performed surgery in the USA with over 500,000 operations performed each year. The handful of people online who post serious problems are the minority – the vast majority of people experience little or no side effects, and therefore don’t go looking for gallbladder forums to post to. I had my surgery 3 weeks ago, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how few side effects I’ve experienced – the procedure was a cinch, I went home the same day. It was quite painful to use my abdominal muscles for about 3 days – I was on Percocet for about that long. After the 3rd day, it was still painful (obviously, I mean they DID cut me open) but it was bearable with just an OTC pain reliever. Getting off the Percocet quickly is definitely something I’d advise, as it constipated me pretty badly – I had to take stool softeners, a laxative, and milk of magnesia to get my bowels moving (don’t be afraid to take these – they make pooping unpleasant, yes, but pushing is NO fun right after surgery… Gross? Yes. But the softer, the better). Now that I’m off the Percocet, I go once every day in the afternoon and that’s it – I have absolutely no dietary restrictions, I eat whatever I want. One thing that I’ve noticed is that I’m unable to eat as much as I did before, and I’ve lost a few pounds since the surgery, so that’s a positive side effect. I don’t have any emergency poops, I’m not running to bathrooms. My cuts are healing nicely, but aren’t all the way healed so I can’t speak to scarring – but they are very small, the 2 in the center of my stomach are about 1″ wide and the 2 on my right side are about half an inch. I’m still sore, but healing nicely and hoping to be back at the gym in a couple weeks – I was walking around by the end of the first week. Anyway, since there’s so much negative out there on this subject, I figured I’d post something positive – the surgery and the recovery, while not the most pleasant thing I’ve done this year, weren’t as bad as I thought. The side effects weren’t either 🙂 Good luck!
Yasmin or yaz birth control is under investigation for killing gall bladders in young women. If they were on it that could be why. No gall stones just death to the gall bladder from the progesterone that is used
Now that it has been some months- do you still feel the same way???? I had mine out in 04, and I can say that I STILL have pains!!! Terrible stomach reactions to everything I eat…
I had my gall bladder removed in mid July of this year, along with a bladder tumor. I still continue to have mild stomach pain every other day or so. Although overweight, I have always been in good health so it was the shock of my life to find that I had bladder cancer. The tumor was small enough that my Urologist did not suggest any further treatment other than monitoring. I did opt to receive immuno therapy just to be on the safe side. Since I still have the stomach pain that I had before I had my gall bladder removed, I really want to find out if it is normal or if I have other problems. The pain is never bad enough that I need to take anything but I know it is there. It seems to be worse when I eat beans, spaghetti squash, or raw vegetables, or I eat too much. I find myself not wanting to eat but I’m afraid the pain will come if I don’t. I may wake in the middle of the night with stomach pain. The pain comes from my mid stomach/belly button area. I have also had pain in that area of my back that comes for no reason on some days and will not go away until the next day. I have not had any problems with diarrhea. I just went to a Gastro/Intestinal doctor and he asked me if they had done any other tests other than the CAT scan of my abdomen (they did not). There were also some small nodules on my liver which none of the doctors were too concerned about and I have kidney stones. The pathology report said there were no stones but my gall bladder was diseased. My new doctor’s prognosis so far is: Post-Cholectstectomy Syndrome or Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction. I am scheduled for a colonoscopy (upper and lower) and they will be putting a scope down my throat within the week. Am I describing the symptoms that are normal for post gall bladder removal? When I told my urologist and my gynecologist about the stomach pain, they said to wait two months. When you find out you have cancer in one organ and you feel the same pain that led you to find it in the first place, it is not very comforting to be told to wait. I’m hoping my new doctor can shed some light on this. I can live with the pain if this is what it is.
“The issues I have been having since the removal of my gall bladder last year are the following: I can no longer eat fatty or fried foods due to the pain and diarreah, now I can not eat any vegetables because they are making me vomit everytime I eat them. I am not sure what is up with that, and certain breads will upset my stomach and cause vomiting also. I asked my doctor about these issues and he said only fatty foods should be bothering me. So he was no help. I am trying to find a way to still get all the nutrition I need without these side effects. Due to the vomiting issue I am gaining weight and not losing it.
If any one can help I really would appreciate it”
“Abigail,
You sound almost exactly like me. If you read a lot of the earlier posts on this very thread between Sophie and I you will see how much alike our symptoms are now and how it all started with a low functioning gallbladder. Even now, I GREATLY regret getting mine out. I would think your upper GI might have shown it but has your doctor talked about a gastric emptying study (GES) to rule out gastroparesis? The GES is the definative study for this. I wouldn’t wish gastroparesis on my worst enemy but although I have my bad moments I have some good days too and am learning to live with this. I was VERY depressed by all this at one time (especially when finding out I have what is most likely a permanent condition) but I am better now. Domperidone (Motillium) had done wonders for me. Don’t know what I would have done without it. It is not an easy drug to get here in the US as it is not FDA approved. Somehow some compounding pharmacies here still can can sell it and it is easily available through the internet. Ask your doctor. Good luck. ”
“I had gallbladder removal surgery in November and it took until late January (two and 1/2 months) to get over my nausea and be able to eat solid food. During that time, I drank Ensure and lost close to 30 pounds…the smell of food made me sick to my stomach. Finally, my doc put me on Prednisone and the nausea decreased within a week and I was able to start eating again. Since then I haven’t had any problems with my appetite and the nausea is gone.
During the time I was unable to eat, I was in a great deal of fear and despair about ever being able to eat again, but a post by a doctor who said it can sometimes take months helped me to keep the faith and believe that it would change. So, take your time, eat light, non greasy food, drink Ensure for nutrition and calories and eventually your system will recalibrate and settle down.”
I was in an automobile accident in August of this year and within a 2 month time frame lost over 30 lbs. during this time the medication they put me on caused my galbladder to become diseased so they took it out. it has been almost 2 months since the surgey now and though i find it somewhat easier to eat more and more foods but still get the nausea all the time and don’t eat as much as i use to. i find ginger ale is best to drink and helps with the nausea most but i fear when will i start gaining weight and will it happen? i have not gained a pound since my surgery and this bothers me as i have always struggled with my weight. true i do find myself in the bathroom sooner than before and have diarrhea constantly but this just concerns me. i have also heard lot of people get IBS after having the galbladder removed and that the galbladder can grow back. is this true?
“Thank goodness for all these replies, I had a lap choly done 3 weeks ago and the pain in the sternum area by the wound is quite worrying, I have been told by my GP that she will refer me back to the sugeon this week if it is still worrying me. I just hope it gets better and I won’t be like you people after so long.
Good luck to you all”
I’m having similar problems! I had my gallbladder removed on 10/28/08 along with ERCP to remove stone in common duct, and have been suffering with what they call GERD ever since. Never had it before, though about a week before the surgery I started having a low level warm sensation in abdomen. Dr put me on pepcid, which they kept me on after surgery. It stopped working, so they put me on Prilosec which did nothing, now I’m on Prevacid which worked a bit, though not lately! I have a dr appt on Jan 30th and was told to stay on Prev and take one chewable Pepcid at night. I was also given sucralfate right after the surgery which is to bind bile, but it did nothing. So is this acid or bile? Did you have endoscopy before gallbladder surgery or after? Did you have stones? I’m at the point where I just wish medication would actually work – I don’t even care if I have to be on something the rest of my life. The pain is getting worse.
I am having alot of acid reflux and went to the dr. and he said I had a hiatal hernia too, I recently started having pain in the right middle side of chest when I swallow food and pain goes into the ride side of back near shoulder blade and into my shoulder. I read where this could be gallbladder and wondering if anyone else has this with gallbladder. I noticed it comes it comes when i eat really fatty foods.
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