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Victim Statements
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I can’t believe that I am reading all of these types of conditions for gall bladder surgery. My husband is 5http://lifewithnogallbladder.com/forums/topic/operation-complications/ and had a tumor removed 1 1/2 years ago and it was a 13 hour surgery compared to the gall bladder and the pain and suffering it has caused him since it was a piece of cake to have the tumor out. The pain was bad enough but being jerked around by the Doc. and going back and forth into the hospital and the bills that just keep coming are out ragious. Where is it that things have gotten this bad and Doc’s just don’t care like they used to. We are still dealing with the after affects of the surgery and now think that there is something wrong with his liver, like pool of fluid or possibly something else, not end in sight. It was mentioned that a bile duct or the liver might have been snipped so now two months later and two CT scans, thousands of dollars plus co-pays time off of work and extreme pressure it is more than a person should have to deal with. I do hope that someone starts collecting on some of the trauma that is caused by the Docs and the hospitals, it has to stop.
“Hello,
I am so glad to have found this discussion. I had my gallbladder out 6 months ago after two years of suffering and the doctor telling me it was all in my head. Now that my gallbladder is out, I too still have pain. I have a swelling sensation in my right side that feels as if it is relocating organs. My new doctor, who is great, says that I am still healing and this will go away. I don’t know. I was told to eat anything I wanted, but I think I am going to try to no fat diet for a while and see how that goes. I have lost 25 lbs with weight watchers in the past year. Thinking back on these last 6 months, I can see where the things I have been eating are the things that have hurt. I love salads but find that the lettuce hurts me. I am going to try the low to no fat for a while and see if I can add things back in a little at a time.Thank you for validating me. I don’t feel as if I am crazy now.”
“I’m struggling w/ the same problems. Exhausted, liver pain, brain fog, insomnia, indigestion. I went to the gastro doc and he essentially told me my pain is fictitious. Like I said, if the know you’ve had your GB out then you are useless to them and they just politely kick you out. The gastro doc told me I have gas pain and give me a little sampler box of a high fiber cereal. I told him I take psyllium and eat salad every day as well cholestyramine. My symptoms don’t fit IBS.
Pancreatitis is a problem – be careful with that. I had pancreatitis, that’s why my GB is out – bummer.
The Liver Flush won’t hurt you though. The oil lubes everything up and the stones come flying out. And believe me, I have tons of stones in me, even though I have no GB.
I should mention that there are things that help bile flow. Bile flow is important for everyone. It helps blow the stones out. Things like Mint, tumeric, dandelion, cumin and artichoke help bile flow. I take something called Stone Free that has a mix. I also take something called guggul lipids that increases bile flow and increases HDL. Most people w/ stones have bad cholesterol (like me). That’s why diet is so important. I eat really really light and exercise constantly. I take fish oil to increase HDL and lower LDL also. With all of this, I still have my down days. The other thing is fiber – it really helps clean out junk and helps the liver do its job. The liver has to work so hard.
I just want to be free of this.
I have this pet theory that chronic fatigue and liver congestion are one in the same.
You have to ask yourself why so many people have this problem. I think it’s from horrible stuff in the diet like trans-fatty acids,
too much carbohydrate and terrible high fructose corn syrup.I bet this is more info than you wanted.
”I had my gall bladder out 3 years ago and after 6 months, I couldn’t eat anything or I’d be sick. I took a medication called colested (or something like that) for bile dumping from my liver. It helped. However, I still have problems about half the month with my stomach, leaving me nauseated and foggy-headed and hot flashes (not menapausal related). I do better if I eat smaller meals, but sometimes, I can’t function for a few days. The doctor told me that there are about 120 enzymes in our stomach and any of these can create havoc once your gall bladder is out. I have problems with hypoglycemia since my surgery as well. I have learned that alot of people have their gall bladder out that may not need it. I encourage you to talk to a “legitimate” naturaopathic doctor before you decide on surgery. Gall Bladders can be working poorly and natural medicaitons can help improve their function resulting in NO surgery at all!
My gallbladder was removed in feb. I was already nearly incapacitated with pain and nausea and somehow got worse afterwards. I have since been found to have metals poisoning, explaining all my symptoms, not just the one the slice-happy surgeon wanted to hear. Anyone stewing over the fact that they had an unnecessary surgery? What did you do? I’m filing a formal complaint, not about the gallbladder surgery itself, so much as the doctor’s refusal to entertain, or let me explore the idea that there were alternative options that were more urgent than the surger. It would be hard to complain about the surgery being unnecessary, as doctors seem to think all of their surgeon friends need as many gallbladder surgeries as will keep them in business. My gallbladder was not infected, and none of my symptoms were related to gallbladder, excpet nausea is a common thread.
I have had my gallbladder out for 5 years now and I feel the same way as hope4me. No it does not get better that is just a doctor talking. No one knows how this feels until they have been threw it. You cannot live a normal life. I would like to sue that doctore butt off for not telling me I would feel this way for the rest of my life. And yeah I talked to a different doctor and he said this will be this way for the rest of my life.
I too have had this pain for almost 2 years…had all of the gallbladder test which came back healthy but they took it out anyways…the pain came back almost instantaneously after my surgery..then the MD thought I had pancreatic stones…I then had more scopes done..scopes into my pancreas. They discovered I had sphincter of ode disorder. Where your sphincter muscle is uncontrolled and also my duct is quite small…I had a stent put into my pancreas which subsided my pain for about 3 days… The drs then pretty much said there was nothing more they could do but start pain therapy.. I am now 23 weeks pregnant and my pain has doubled. I believe there is something more to my pain, bit now there is nothing they can do until I have my baby.. I always said there was more than just pain but the MD didn’t have proof so he didn’t agree… I am only 21 years old but I feel like my body is telling me something is wrong.. But I cannot do anything until after January and then I won’t have time to worry about myself :/
“My husband had his gall bladder removed 6 years ago, since then he has had attacks of some kind.
Then 8 months ago he had a pancreatitis attack and then another one last week. He was hospitalized on both occasions, given morphine and liquid plus antibiotics. He had test both times and showed nothing so he now will be making an appointment at Vanderbilt, Drs, are telling him he has blockage from a gall stone that managed to escape.
I can’t believe al the problems people have after what drs. convince us is a simple procedure.”I just read your entry and I felt like I was reliving what happened to me 15 years ago. I, too, had my gallbladder removed, and I felt that same bloated feeling afterward. That was due to the gas the doctors pump into your abdominal cavitiy so they can get a good look around in there while they’re performing surgery. It will go away- for me it took about three weeks before it was totally gone. In the meantime, it was uncomfortable and annoying, and I felt really gassy. It does get better. I felt really good for about 6 months post-surgery and I, too, felt like I could eat anything. Then BLAM!!! All of a sudden, on day I had diarhhea 5 times! I fely like I was going to die! I thought I must really be sick, like I had the flu or something. I stayed home from work th next few days, and I was fine. Over the next few months, it started happening more frequently, which lead me back to the gastroenterologist who did my surgery. I asked why this started happening and was there any connection between no longer having my gallbladder, the food I ate, and why I kept getting these HORRIBLE bouts of diarehha. He said no. I knew at that time there WAS a connection because I had already started some research on my own. I went to several more doctors, who were also NO HELP, so I kept researching and researching. I found that 30 percent of people who have their gallbladders removed have food issues and other problems afterwards. Sadly to say in my case, it took me almost EIGHT years to get my problem under control, but happily I did. In my case, and it sounds like in your case too, my body can no longer process the gluten in most foods, such as wheat, oates, barley, rye, malt, (most grains) and casein, the protein in most dairy foods. I have bordeline Celiac disease, which is what I just described. Because my ballbladder is gone,and you too, the liver now has to take over the function of the gallbladder, and it doesn’t do as good of a job. The gallbladder used to gradually thoughout the day squirt small amounts of bile to help digest food. The liver, on the other hand, does a dumping action, which means large amounts of bile are released a few times a day. You can see were this would not be as effiicient. But, that’s what we have to deal with. So, because of that, our bodies now can’t digest and process foods as well or as easily, OR AT ALL, which is where the problems come in with any food with gluten or casein in them, which is HUGE (a few examples-bread, pasta, ketchup, mustard, salad dressings, milk, ice cream. yogurt, cheese). I, too, for years thought it was a lactose intolerance issue- it’s not- it’s the casein in dairy we can’t process. (It’s also not the fats; I thought that too at first) Anyway, like I said, it took me EIGHT years of my own research, with no help from doctors, to find out what was wrong. I suggest you see a specialist in Celiac Disease so they could run the special blood test and do biopsies of you intestines to see if you are Celiac prone. If you are, then you nedd to be on a gluten free-casein free diet. I have done this for the last 5 years and fell SO much better. Believe me, knowing if you have that problem is better than not knowing, because then you can properly deal with it. I now eat only gluten free-casein free foods. It can be done. It is a life-long issue since there is no cure currently, but to be gluten free means I am no longer damaging my intestines, and the food I can eat is properly processed. I wish you all the best, and I hope you don’t have Celiac Disease, but I would get tested if I were you.
The doctors say that it will cause no complications. Let me ask you a question. Did you have any complications for the first few months after your gallbladder surgery? I had my gallbladder removed on May 1http://lifewithnogallbladder.com/forums/topic/operation-complications/, 2006. Things seemed to be great until about a week after surgery then I got this constant nausea. This sent me to the ER twice and finally they Doctors found a medication that helped and I then went back to normal, however on a very strict diet. Then just last week it came back. I had to go to the Doctor and he keeps telling me its from the bile in my stomach… I was just wondering what you went through after your surgery.. Thanks!!
I had my Gallbladder removed 2 weeks ago at the age of 17 (now 18). The doctors didn’t explain much to me about how I should keep my diet or anything. I knew that in the future there could be possible difficulties with my digestive system, but I had no idea how badly I could be affected. Thanks for all the posts. They have definitely helped me to understand that I need to take good care of myself and watch what i eat to hopefully avoid some of the side affects of having one’s gallbladder removed.
“Biliary stent with ERCP
After reading these, I realize I am just one of the unlucky victims in these ‘safe’ lap choles. I thought I came out of it great, but one day after the surgery I was in the ER ($6000). They pumped me full of drugs and sent me home. The pain was horrific. It was off & on for a few days, until I had to call http://lifewithnogallbladder.com/forums/topic/operation-complications/11 for the paramedics to take me to the ER at 12:30 am. They admitted me, put me on ‘pain control’ for the weekend. All the doctors were off playing golf or something, because I only saw one on-call doctor. He said I “”May have had”” a bile leak. I was still in pain, but not constant. They let me go on Monday. Gave me some Norco. I won’t go into how bad the hospital experience was. Suffice it to say I had to ask for my medication every 4 hours, or they wouldn’t bring it to me. One little 5mg Norco every 4 hours doesn’t do a thing for this pain. When they brought me in the 2nd time, the ER doc said the EMT’s had given me enough morphine to stop my breathing. Didn’t make a dent in the pain.
During the 3rd WEEK (!!) I had to have my daughter take me once again to the ER. They finally did an ERCP, and there in fact had been a bile leak, so they put a stent in. Immediately the pain resolved. Why would they not recognize this pain at the very beginning?? Especially with a bloated stomach full of bile? So this means that for 3 weeks I had bile eating away at my insides. I have no idea what will happen when the stent is removed, nor what my life will be like from now on. I’m convinced the doctor was so arrogant, he could not admit he made a mistake, and all the doctors work together to make sure they don’t get sued. I’m disgusted, and can’t figure out when medical care in this country got so bad. They did every test on the world on me ($$$), but the only one they should have done was the ERCP. Would have stopped it right away. I’m angry because of all the pain and down time it’s caused. What should have been a 1-week recovery ended up being 3 months of agony. I wish I would never have had the surgery done in the first place. I’ve been told by 2 separate doctors that the symptoms I was having (no stones) did not warrant surgery. Who do you listen to???”“Biliary stent with ERCP
After reading these, I realize I am just one of the unlucky victims in these ‘safe’ lap choles. I thought I came out of it great, but one day after the surgery I was in the ER ($6000). They pumped me full of drugs and sent me home. The pain was horrific. It was off & on for a few days, until I had to call http://lifewithnogallbladder.com/forums/topic/operation-complications/11 for the paramedics to take me to the ER at 12:30 am. They admitted me, put me on ‘pain control’ for the weekend. All the doctors were off playing golf or something, because I only saw one on-call doctor. He said I “”May have had”” a bile leak. I was still in pain, but not constant. They let me go on Monday. Gave me some Norco. I won’t go into how bad the hospital experience was. Suffice it to say I had to ask for my medication every 4 hours, or they wouldn’t bring it to me. One little 5mg Norco every 4 hours doesn’t do a thing for this pain. When they brought me in the 2nd time, the ER doc said the EMT’s had given me enough morphine to stop my breathing. Didn’t make a dent in the pain.
“I had my gallbladder removed laprascopically on 11/10 and if I would’ve known I’d have this kind of pain I would’ve kept it in. At least when I had an attack it was only once every couple of the months. Now I feel like I’m having “”attacks”” almost every other day. I mean the pain is almost the same, not as severe. I’m nauseous… and I have constipation.
I guess at the point when I went in to the ER there was really no choice of what could be done (my liver, pancreas, and gallbladder had become inflamed) but geez. Also the belly button incision is taking a long time to heal (not healed as of today 12/1). As you probably can tell I’ll be going back to the doctor to raise some ruckus.
As far as food goes not much that I can eat. Definitely no fat. I tried a little one day and felt the symptoms of the full blown attack. I actually had to take pain medications to get over this. My diet now consists mainly of broth, oatmeals, couscous, vegetables, and fruit. I find that proteins usually dont sit too well with my stomach either so it’s mainly a vegetarian diet. For those who get this operation you should try to stick to a very low fat diet. I find that this works the best. I have read alot of other posts of people saying that they’ve gained weight but I’m not seeing it. I’ve lost about 20lbs so far. I wasnt big on carbs and ate no red meat, or fried foods before the surgery.
For anyone considering this surgery try to find some alternatives before you do it.
Good luck.”Hello everyone. 5 years ago I got my gall bladder removed. Not because I had issues with it, but because they happened to find one in an Xray. I’ve always been healthy & skinny my whole life and lucky to have a fast metabolism. After my gall bladder was removed, it took a while for the chronic and painful diarrhea to take effect. I have been given cholestyramine which does work. However, I’m not one to take medications because I believe in natural ways to cure myself. I did notice that after eating a heavy pasta meal, my symptoms were even worse. So I did an experiment and my conclusion: Go Gluten Free! I have been doing it and everything is solid now! I feel normal again. I still eat food with the same amount of oil and none of them give me problems. I wish doctors would be more creative to find solutions rather than give us all these medicines. Try it and read into gluten. [ NOTE : This Testimony is an example of medical fraud, GB removed for no just reason and now this person is on medication for life]
“Hi everyone. I’m a new gall bladder surgery patient and like the rest of you, found this board by searching to find out why this is so difficult. I’m very surprised to not see depression listed very often. I’m having a terrible time with it. I am 5 days post-op and haven’t even had time to experience the horrors that obviously await.
I am a 50 y/o female, divorced, no kids. Though the new year, 2011 should be a time to be thinking positive, I don’t have an ounce of positive thinking in me. I fully regret having the surgery, but I really had no choice. Did any of you feel like you simply did not want to go on?”
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