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Ongoing Complications (1000+)
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i have had chronic pain for 13 years following gallbladder removal…squeezing pain starts in stomache and moves between shoulder blades, been pain on 12 hour pain meds for years, doctors have done so many tests and tried so many things with no help or relief. If anyone has answers I would love to hear them..and for the record it is not heartburn or gerd…I have been tested for it all!
“I was perfectly healthy too August 2008 and then I had my gallbladder removed September 2008. My problems started 3 months after the surgery with episodes every 2 weeks of nausau feeling, bloating, tightness around waist area. I went to the gasterologist 7 months later because my regular doctor kept telling me this is normal after surgery. Then my episodes kept happening faster. So the gasterologist thinks a stone was left behind so they have to do a an xray.
”“It is so great to be able to relate to someone on this level.
I am also 30 years old. I had my Gallbladder removed April 1997, approximately 2 months after the birth of my son. I suffered from Toxemia during my pregnancy. After suffering my attack, I had emergency surgery to remove my Gallbladder. My doctor told me that my attack was the result of the complications related to the Toxemia. I have had consistent bowel problems ever since. It is not fun at all. I have to carry Imodium AD with me everywhere I go. Sometimes I have to RUN to the bathroom after I drink water in the morning. Good luck and God Bless all of you.”“Me! I just made a post to this effect. I’m desperate for relief. It landed me in the hospital this past weekend….my started shortly after my GB was removed and that was 5 years ago. A good friend of mine had hers out earlier this year and she’s having problems like this now too.
I’m going to see my doctor on Thursday to beg for something.
I hope you feel better.”
I had my GB out via laparoscope when I was 18, and about 2 weeks after, I began experiencing symptoms similar to that of someone having a heart attack (severe chest/upper abdominal pain, pain between the shoulder blades, pain radiating down left arm, sweating, salivating, nausea). The surgeon just shrugged and said not to worry. Well, this still happens (12 years later) usually once every 6 weeks or so. It comes on suddenly, without warning, and disappears just as suddenly. The “episode” usually lasts about 20 minutes but has, in a few terrible cases, lasted for 12 hours. I have found no triggers for this, and the only thing that helps to bring relief is to lie down on my side (I have been known to lie down on airplanes, on the floor at work, in my car, etc..) It is the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced, and I’ve given birth twice. I have since consulted numerous doctors, and they say, based on my symptoms, that I am experiencing esophageal spasms. I know that something they did during my GB surgery caused this.
I had my gallbladder removed on July 9th and for several weeks was severly ill from cramping and terrible bilious diarea. I got so severly dehydrated and my incisons just couldnt heal etc. I am still experiening pain in my right side and under my belly button and need to go back to the surgeon BUT I did want to tell all of you having stomach issues that my surgeon sent me to a gastro and what they gave me helped alot! They gave me a medication to bind the bile since its seems my body wanst figuring out how to do it without my gallbladder and that was causing the diarea. i dont have to bottle with me ebcause i am nt taking it anymore but it was originally designed to bind cholesterol. Ask your dr about it! I took it in pill form, they are huge but coated so easy to swallow. Also, to help with the cramping I put levsin under my tongue. I was doing it before every meal but it make sme feel so out of it so now I just use it if I feel something starting. For every one person that had their gallbladder removed and can eat whatever they want and says they feel great I hear 3 people talk about stomach issues and and continued pain and that their surgeone act like they are hearing something unusal which is such bs. I am limiting my fat intake greatly and that also has been helping with the stomach issues. Now i Just need the pain to go away! Hope this helped someone. Asked your dr about those meds!
For 2 years I was throwing up everyday at least once a day and at the most 24 hours straight to the point where I thought I was having a heart attack because the pressure on the chest. Approximately ten times I had 24 hour episodes where I would be stuck on the toilet with a bucket in front of me. On about 5 of those occasions I was taken to the emergency room after suffering for hours. One time I went in, pooped my pants in my own car and was physically throwing up all over the ER, they did a bunch of tests on me and nothing came up so they told me I was having a panic attack and I needed to calm down and sent me on my way. Months go by until I told a friend from school what was going on and he said his girlfriend was having the same problems and she got her gallbladder out and feels much better. I HAD TO TELL MY GASTRO DOC TO TEST MY GALLBLADDER. Sure enough thats the problem. I had my GB taken out on Feb 14 2011. Ever since I’ve been having constant severe pain right where my top insision is. It feels like I’m being stabbed 24/7 and I will do anything for any type of relief. I get dizzy multiple times a day, at the least I get fevers to the point where I burn up about 6 times a day. Sometimes I wake up and my body is soaked head to toe in sweat. I have severe back pain in between my shoulder blades that only gets worse by the day. I cry everyday because Im in severe pain to the point where I can barely function. I can’t sit up straight because it only hurts more. I’m nausea from the time I wake up until I go to bed. Somebody please help me! On top of all that I live with my boyfriend, working, paying bills, going to college…………………and I’m only 19 years old. Please please please help!
“I had my lap chole in July. I’ve been getting achy and sometimes sharp pains around my right shoulder and thought this was just to do with the op.
Before the op I used to love wearing a strapless bra, but post-op it kills. In fact, any bra kills especially when I’ve been walking around all day or doing things. I’ve been to my GP who’s ordered an x-ray but that came back clear, I’m getting minor pains in my side as well on gallbladder site but I think this is mainly sue to eating stodgy, fatty foods and is only minor so I can live with it.
My surgery went fine, it was the post op care that I didn’t like. They didn’t take all the stitches out- they left the nylon ones in there and it was only when I got an infection in my belly button site (which the RMO denied over the phone it was even possible) and I went back when it became too sore to live with that they noticed.
By this time the damage was done and the skin had grown over most of them, they were only able to remove some of the stitches and it was bloody painful and has scarred me. This was a primary care trust instead of an NHS hospital and I dearly wish my local hospital could’ve been able to do it for me”I had my gallbladder removed three weeks after giving birth to my daughter. They said it would feel so much better to have it out….ya right! I ended up with the worst pain you could ever imagine. I couldn’t breathe or walk. They sent me home after 2 days in the hospital even though my urine was dark amber in color and I had not passed gas. They told me all my pain was gas. The same night I went home I ended up coming to the ER and they discovered I had a bile leak. They took me into surgery and put in a drain. I was shipped out to a bigger hospital the next day where they fixed the leak and found 3 stones that were suck in the common bile duct. They put in a stint that had to be removed a month later. This was turly a horrible expirence and what was supposed to be one simple surgery turned into 4! The worst part about it was missing all that time with my new baby girl 🙁
“I had my gall bladder out in May 1996. I was pretty nervous, as I was 27 at the time and had never had any type of surgery before in my life, except wisdom teeth extractions, which was no big deal for me. So needless to say, I was nervous and scared, but after years of gall bladder-related pains, which weren’t diagnosed at first because nothing was found, I was willing to have the darn thing taken out once and for all. I had the laparoscopic (sp?) surgery.
Basically for me, the surgery was a piece of cake. I was given a sedative prior to the surgery to calm me down, and all I remember is being wheeled into the operating room, which was smaller than I’d expected, and a radio was blaring music, which surprised me. Then they put a mask over my face and told me to count backwards from 10. I don’t think I even made it to 8 before I was out. Next I knew I was waking up in the recovery room and I was wheeled back to my hospital room. I slept a LOT that day, and had absolutely no appetite. I tried eating dinner that evening, which I only tried to eat jello, and I threw that up (due to the anesthesia reacton), so I gave up on eating that night. During the night I had to get up several times to go to the bathroom (urinate), so I’d call the nurse in and she’d help me wheel my little fluid carrier into the bathroom with me. I had crackers to munch on as the night went on, and by morning I was ready to eat a full breakfast with no problem.
I went home within 24 hours. My stomach/abdomen area was very sore, as you can imagine. With laparoscopic surgery, they make 3 small incisions. One between and a little lower than your breasts, one by the bellybutton, and one on the side of your torso. The longest one for me was maybe 1/2″” to 3/4″” long. I literally had band-aids on them, no stitches. My abdomen was sore for a few weeks. It hurt to sit up, lay down, push a vacuum or anything like that, it even hurt to laugh. Anything that utilizes your abdominal muscles will cause some pain. It’s amazing, you don’t think of vacuuming as using your abs!
The only after-effects I had was pain in my right shoulder when I would try to raise my arm above my head. I told my doctor about that during my follow-up visit 2 weeks after the surgery, and he said it was because when they do the surgery, they basically inflate your stomach/abdomen area with gas so the wall of your abdomen is away from the gall bladder and other organs. You basically look like you’re pregnant during the surgery! (They also aired a gall bladder surgery on TLC the weekend after mine was done, and I watched it – WOW!) Anyway, when they’re all done, they deflate your stomach, but sometimes all of the gas doesn’t come out, and it may migrate to other areas of your body like between the shoulder blades, etc. I basically had to “”work it out”” of my system, and after a month I didn’t have any more pain in my shoulder.
My personal experience with this surgery was GREAT. I had no problems and healed excellently. But not everyone will have the same experience. A friend of mine had the same surgery done, and one of her incisions was almost 3″” long, due to the size of her gall bladder when they had to pull it out. And she had a lot of problems during the healing process. She told me that if she’d known it was going to be that bad for her she wouldn’t have had it done! But I know that she had a lot of pain due to her gall bladder attacks, and I’m sure she’s much better off now.
Just thought I’d add my 2 cents worth here and give you an idea of what you may go through if/when you have the surgery done. ”
It’s been a year since my gallbladder removal / bile leakage episode. I’ve gained 40 pounds and cannot lose it no matter what I do. Whatever I eat goes right through me. I cannot be far from the bathroom after a meal. Does anyone have any suggestions for someone like me? I’m at my wit’s end.
I had my gall bladder removed in 2004. it was literally killing me, if i had not had it removed i would have died within the next 2 weeks(my gall bladder at mutated and attached itself to my intestines, kidney in between my ribs,, it was the length of my right side abdomen, and extremely diseased). i dropped 50 pds in 2 months. i wasnt healthy but i was around 190, but im also 5’11”. now i weigh almost 280pds. the doctors have not been helpful. im always tired, sick, and in pain. the added weight has caused problems with my joints. i have tried everything from a to z except plastic surgery and they doctors look at me like im crazy. im sorry that everyone one on here is experiencing these problems, but its nice to know im not crazy or alone.
“Hi I am having this same problem.I am always bloated after my gb removed. I am so sick all the time espacally in the morning if I dont eat something carb before bed I will always throw up the bile in my stomach.
the docters keep telling me im depressed and want to put me on meds right away but I will not do it because I know thats not what I need.
I have sever acid reflex and problems digesting food.
it really sucks.”I have the same problem with weight since I’ve had my gallbladder removed. I wasnt sure if it was something else or the removal. I have diarehea constantly and I keep thinking how can I gain weight when I am constantly crapping everything out that I eat. I swear I can eat something and 5 minutes later its coming out the other end. The only thing I have found to work for me was when I was taking pain medication for my back, they said it would constipate me but it basically made me regular. I have no energy as well. I keep thinking I’m getting fatter because I have no energy to do anything. Probably because all my energy is flushed down the toilet. Anyways sorry I dont have any answers for you but I can tell you I know where you are coming from and hopefully someone can give us some answers.
i just had mine removed a week ago and after talking to the surgeon, the gastroentologist, my regular doctor, and my mother who had hers removed @ 25 ( she is 62) this is what I found out: for the first year stick to a low fat and low grease diet. I found this website that helped a lot: http://www.gallbladderattack.com it tells you everything you need and honestly works. I too couldnt use the bathroom without having pain so i used prescribed colax tablets but you can get them over the counter as ducolax. The website workd great but even my mom said that for the first 5 years she had problems learning which helped and hurt but then once that was figured out everything went away, the pain, constipation/ diarehha, heartburn etc. its something to look into.
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