Advice on Gallbladder Removal

My husband had it done A., laproscopically, and was very happy he did. Recovery time wasn't that bad either.
S.

I had my gallbladder removed last year and am very happy that I did. I no longer have the pain and other symptoms associated with it. I do suggest that you do try to take it a little easy for a few days. (I know that's hard with a little one around.) My only regret is that I didn't and I think it made the recovery time last longer than it should've.

I had my gallbladder removed almost exactly one year ago and I've had no problems, best decision I've ever made! I had several gallstone attacks though so the pain was unbearable (worse than chilbirth) so I really had no options. I've had zero side effects and have never felt better. Good luck!:)

I had mine out in 1998. Of course there is some pain and discomfort after surgery. It took a few months for my body to adjust and I still had diarreha during that time. No major problems for me. I had the lap procedure done. Good Luck!

I had my gall bladder removed 5 yrs ago, and it was practically a snap! Only 4 little incisions maybe a 1/2 in long. I can't even find them anymore. I was in my mid-50s, and had no problems whatsoever. It's an outpatient surgery now. The first day I was groggy and slept most of the day, but it gets better and better. REally, I don't think you have anything or much to worry about.

Of course it probably depends on how well you do with other medical procedures. I'd not had any experience at all, except for 3 childbirths, and I did fine.

I had mine out three years ago and haven't regretted it one bit. It was amazing how good I felt after it was out! Mine was infected though, so I was just "blah" for awhile before they figured out the problem...then I had three "attacks" and it needed to come out. The only thing I don't like are the three laprascopy scars, but what do you do? I suggest to get it out - good luck!

I had my gall bladder removed by emergency surgery when I was 15 after many many attacks and trips to the ER. A stone ended up getting stuck and then my billirubin was too high so they were worried about my liver. I realized just how excruciating the pain was when I gave birth to my son naturally. The pain during the attacks was in my opinion just as bad as that!
After having my gall bladder removed I healed completely in a few weeks. And no more attacks. So yes, I was happy. It's a pretty routine surgery and you'll be home probably the next day... two at the most.
There are horror stories about everything- every kind of procedure and surgery out there. I wouldn't listen to any of those because they are likely exaggerated and a very rare instance of something going wrong. There are tons of horror stories about things going wrong during labor but that doesn't mean you should forget about having kids...same goes with everything else. You will hear horror stories forever. I guess I would ask your doctor- what are the risks if you don't have it removed?

A.,
Personally, I have had no issues with my gallbladder. But I know a woman who did...6 weeks before we left on a business trip she was hospitalized for severe pains in her side. The doctors thought that she was having a heart attack (gall bladder attacks mimic heart attacks). They sent her home with nothing. For 6 weeks she started dropping weight and had very little sleep because the pain was so bad. We were on a business trip together and I was afraid that we were not going to get her home! Thankfully, we did! Upon arrival she went to the hospital where they discovered her gall bladder had stones and was infected. She was able to have it laproscopically removed through her belly button and was home in a matter of days. She has 4 little scars on her stomach~but she will never be able to wear a belly button ring again. However, she is eating, sleeping and functioning at her normal levels again. Very happy that she had it removed!!!
Good luck!
J. L.

I had mine removed on July 2nd, 2009. It was really no big deal at all. They made 3 very small incisions. I was off of work for 5 days, but really could have returned after 3.

My daughter is ten and had hers removed when she was five. She is very happy without it. When you first have it removed you will need to watch your carbohydrate intake, but after awhile, you will adjust. Her body automatically has lowered the amount of carbs that she craves now. Her scars from it are almost gone too. Good Luck!

My husband and I have both had ours removed. No problems for either of us!! I was glad to be rid of the stomach pains in the middle of the night!!

After I had my 1st child, my gallbladder was causing problems for me. It was not all the time, but when it did, I was in a lot of pain. I did have it removed in 2004 and have not had any problems like before. I do occasionally get heartburn from certain foods I eat. I am very happy that I had it removed and I can go about my day without doubling over in pain. The incisions are very small; I have 5 on my abdomin that are hardly noticeable. Good luck with your decision.

I am a SAHM to a 6y/o boy, 3 1/2y/o boy and 1 1/2 y/o girl.

I had my gallblader out when I was 17 now I'm 29, never had any problems, alittle more prone to get diarrhea or constipation, but most of the time you can figure out which foods might disagree with you. If its not working I would get it removed.

I agree with the other posters, most anything is worth not having the pain from the attacks! I too have a difficult time with stomach side effects, but it seems to be mostly from fatty foods. It's been 9 years and I still think twice about a meal from McDonalds! But, once it is over and done with, you'll feel much better!

I am very thankful that my gallbladder was removed! I had gallbladder testing done several times throughout the years and know that I had gallbladder attacks. However whenever the test was done, there were no stones. This past time that I had the test, there were stones. I had my surgery 2/08 and feel so much better without it. My doctor said that I have probably been passing stones since 1991 and that my gallbladder was barely functioning. If you have other questions, feel free to contact me. K.

As a surgical nurse I'm very open to alternatives to surgery. If diet can do it, great. One thing to consider is this surgery is often done laproscopically, which means 4-5 small puncture wounds and a relatively quick recovery. If you wait until your gall bladder becomes very sick, you may be more likely to have a surgery where they have to do a large incision with a longer recovery and more potential for complications. I would just try to get as much info as possible and make your decision from there. Good luck!

Hunny, I had my gallbladder removed in April of 2001, less than one month after I had my first child, and I have never had one regret!!! I never once had a problem with it, I have never once noticed that its gone, and the only thing that you can tell that its not there, is the teeny tiny little scars that are there from the surgery.

I was in so much pain, doubled over, curled up in a ball, not being able to take care of my newborn daughter, before I had my gallbladder out!! I was in and out of the hospital within a day or so (this was 8 years ago, so please don't quote me lol) and have never been happier than I was after I had the surgery and was no longer in that pain!!!

Go for it girl!!!

Hi A.,
I had my gallbladder removed laproscopically 12-13 yrs ago and am sooooo glad I did! I was in severe pain for over 4 months before they found out that it was a huge sized gallstone upstructing everything.

The day after my surgery (I only stayed in the hospital over night) I felt 110% better! It was like the weight of being sick had just vanished. I had 3 o4 4 tiny incisions on my right side (I think only 2 of them needed 2 stitches each). I have had absolutely no ill affects from having it removed either. I'm 52 yrs old and can eat anything I want, spicey or not and I love hot spicey foods. I was back to work in about 10 days after the surgery.

My only regret is that it took the doctors so long in finding out the reason for me being so ill for so many months.

Best of luck,
D.

Hi -
I had mine out about ten years ago, and I could not be happier! Before the surgery, I had horrible attacks that would last for hours. I looked into other options (acupuncture, modifying my diet, etc.), but the surgery seemed to be the better way to go. My recovery was fine... I was just really tired. I was a little sick from the anesthesia, and my shoulders were achy for a day from the gas they used to pump up my abdomen. I was back to work in a week, as the surgery was the laparscopic. Don't panic - it'll be worth it! I am so glad I did; I can eat anything without the side affects they warned me about. Good luck!

I am a 30 year old mother of three children. I had my gallbladder removed two years ago. Everything went smoothly for me with the surgery and I feel much better. There are a few drawbacks though. I am one of the few whom cant eat just anything. I still cant eat red meat without having a major case of stomach cramps and diarrhea the next day, so I try to stay away from those foods. Also certain foods seem to not go well like spaghetti without meat. I do feel much better than before but have had to change my diet and deal with the stomach cramps or diarrhea about once or so every two weeks. After my surgery I found recently that if you have stones in your gallbladder like I did that your body can still produce the stones even without your gallbladder. I would look into this more if I were you before surgery if you have stones. Surgery may still be the only option but at least you cover your bases.

I have two sisters and a cousin that had their gall bladders removed and all three are happy with the results. No regrets.

Hi A.!

My niece had hers taken out, she said the only time she has problems is when she eats greasy foods and she says she has to make sure she is close to the rest room.
The mangosteen juice helps with gallstones, if thats the problem! Good luck to you!

Tracey

____@____.com

Not me. I'd tell you my horror story where I almost died because of it... but it wouldn't serve any purpose. Plus today I still have "phantom" symptoms the same as when I had my gallbladder which no one tells you that is very normal... Well till you complain about it afterwards to doctors then you hear oh yeah that is normal and can last the rest of your life. Thanks for the heads up guys!

I am currently pregnant and it has made it just terrible. Having trouble eating alot of things. Even more trouble gaining weight. Because of this I've been put on high risk.

My mother has had a "diseased" gallbladder since the 80's and she's just always babied it when it acts up. She refused to remove it because of some of her friends experiences with it. I wish more than I can even explain that I'd had done that too. I believed the doctors that it was too diseased and needed to go. One of the biggest mistakes of my life.

I was not only happy, but relieved to have mine taken out. Mine was developing stones which were terribly painful. My surgery was laporoscopic, so only 3 small incisions were needed - one you can't even see b/c it's in my navel. Aside from the typical discomfort following surgery, no complaints here!

I had mine removed and I am glad that I had it done. I was having a lot of pain from mine not working properly and it took care of that. I still have some days where food runs right through me but after a while you can figure out your trigger foods and stay away from those.

This article is rather long but I thought it very appropritate, for both those who've had theirs removed and for those who are contemplating having it done. Therefore, I have pasted its entirety.

What conventional medicine won't dare tell you about gall bladder removal surgery
Sunday, May 22, 2005 by: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

A reader asks, "After having gall bladder surgery three weeks ago, I am having a lot of discomfort, bloating, nausea, and in general, not feeling well. My doctor says it will pass, but it seems to be getting worse. I am a 65-year-old woman. Do you have any advice?"

The first piece of advice I have for people who are considering gall bladder surgery is to get advice before the surgery, not after it, because once you've had the gall bladder removed, your options are quite limited. Remember that conventional medicine loves to go in and remove organs that are presenting symptoms rather than addressing the root cause of the problem in the first place. They think that by removing the organ that hurts, they've cured the problem. Hogwash!
Gall bladder disease and gallstones are almost always the result of poor nutrition. For example: consuming a lot of soft drinks, sugar products, highly acidic foods like red meat and products made with white flour all contribute to the formation of gallstones.
Gallstones can be reversed, but it’s something that takes quite a bit of time. After all, they have been formed in your body over a period of decades, so it's not something you can get rid of overnight from a nutritional standpoint. At the same time, I know that a lot of people are experiencing extreme pain when it comes to passing gall bladder stones. So obviously, those people are looking at surgical procedures as a more immediate technique for getting rid of the pain.
Let's look at some information about gallstones because it is something that affects somewhere around 18 million people in the United States, and maybe even as many as 1 in every 12 people. And yet most people don't know they have them.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), pain from gallstones results in about 800,000 hospitalizations and more than 500,000 operations each year in the United States. Unfortunately, the NIH doesn't give people a lot of information about how to actually avoid gall bladder problems. It's also critical to recognize that the gall bladder has an important function in digestion. And, if you just remove it (which by the way is quite the barbaric thing to do), you are compromising your digestive health for the rest of your life. Surgeons who remove gall bladders are complacent in educating patients about nutritional changes they need to pursue after losing this important digestive organ.
For example, you're not going to get the same quality of digestion you would have had if your gall bladder were in place. You're not going to get the excretion of the bile from the gall bladder into the small intestine, and as a result, you're not going to efficiently digest foods that are moving through your digestive tract. This is especially true for dietary fats, including essential fatty acids.
Without a gall bladder, you're not going to be able to digest dietary fats with any degree of efficiency. This means that if you don't take bile salts as a nutritional supplement every time you eat healthy fats, you'll miss out on all-important omega-3 fatty acids and other healthy oils. That's why people who have had gall bladder removal surgery usually suffer the classic signs of EFA deficiencies: poor nervous system function, irritability, learning difficulties, heart disease, poor blood sugar control, and so on.
Doctors and surgeons flat out aren't telling patients this all-important information. It's downright criminal, if you ask me. This basic education should be required by law. It's flat-out evil to remove an essential organ from a patient's body and neglect to tell them about the long-term adjustments they need to make in order to compensate for that missing organ.
And you know why surgeons don't tell people the truth about gall bladder removal surgery? I suspect it's because if people knew the horrifying nutritional consequences of the procedure, they'd refuse to do it, and surgeons and hospitals would lose out on those paying customers. Talking to a gall bladder surgeon about your gall bladder health is sort of like taking your car to a greasy garage mechanic and asking, "Is there anything wrong with the transmission?" The answer you get is designed to pad his pockets. If you want honest answers on gall bladder pain, go visit a naturopath.
As always, I strongly recommend that people who are considering this surgery look at naturopathic options, because removing a functional organ from your digestive tract is never a health-enhancing solution. It's just something that's too easy for conventional medicine to do. They do hundreds of thousands of these surgeries a year. They don’t consider it a big deal so the patients don’t think it’s a big deal either!
But it really is a big deal. It's sort of like saying, "Well, doctor, my tongue hurts." And the doctor says, "Let's cut out your tongue." In fact, your gall bladder is far more important for digestion than your tongue.
Do everything you can to protect your gall bladder. Along those lines, one of the most important things you need to do is physically massage your internal organs through body movement. A lot of people are surprised to hear this, but your internal organs need to be massaged just like your muscles and skin.
Massage therapy is something that I recommend everyone pursue to enhance his or her health. Massage moves lymph fluid around the body. It stimulates the skin. It even stimulates the brain indirectly and helps create an immunostimulating relaxation response in virtually everyone. The internal organs need this same massage and the very best way to massage these internal organs, such as the gall bladder, is to engage in gentle body movement exercises.
One of the very best you can pursue is Tai Chi. By following the gentle, pivoting movements of Tai Chi, you will massage your liver, gall bladder, pancreas, and even your heart. These organs are not fixed in place. They're not fixed in your body like they are on an anatomy chart. Your organs move around, and they actually benefit from movement just like massaging a limb.
Also along those lines, one of the most important things you need to do is engage in breathing therapy because conscious breathing and deep breathing offers an outstanding massage to all the internal organs in your torso. Your lungs take up a tremendous amount of space in your chest cavity, and when you inhale and really expand your lungs, you are moving the other organs in your cavity and giving them a massage at the same time. Breathing is an excellent way to oxygenate your internal organs and get some movement.
And by the way, your average conventional medicine physician isn’t going to recommend any of this -- nor will he or she even believe any of it. They've never been taught that massage is important for internal organs. In fact, most doctors I know don't think massage is useful at all, which sort of just goes to show you how little they know about how the human body really works! But massage is critical. And of course, so is nutrition. Once again, your best strategy here for your gall bladder is to avoid removing it. Instead, support gall bladder health through diet, nutrition, and physical exercise.
For the reader question in particular, if you've had the gall bladder removed, and you're having a lot of discomfort. What should you do now? I'm sorry to say that these are the predictable side effects of having a gall bladder removed. And chances are your doctor or surgeon probably didn't explain this fully to you. Surgeons have a habit of making everything sound really simple, up until the day you have the procedure done. Then, you start experiencing all sorts of rather serious side effects, and they say, "Oh yeah! That could happen as well."
Hopefully, in this experience, you've learned a lesson. And that lesson is, don’t have body parts removed by overzealous surgeons. I don’t know how to state it any simpler than that. I'm sorry I don’t have a simple solution for you to regain your health after having your gall bladder removed. But the fact is, when you start removing important organs from your body, it is going to have some serious negative consequences -- by the way, bloating and nausea is really only the tip of the iceberg here.
The worst effects are the ones you probably won't feel, that is, impaired digestion for the rest of your life and chronic essential fatty acid deficiencies. In fact, people without gall bladders need to take special care of the foods they consume for the rest of their lives. And above all, they need to avoid all fried foods and any snack foods containing hydrogenated oils or trans fatty acids due to the role of the gall bladder plays in neutralizing excess dietary cholesterol.

I had mine taken out with the laproscope, where they just do the 3 small incisions, and there really wasn't a lot of pain afterwards, the areas healed quickly, and I felt alot better after it was done. I didn't realize how my gallbladder had been making me not feel good, until it wasn't there and I felt so much better without it! I also had a young one at home, and one in early elementary school, it's been a few years now, so I don't remember exactly what they're ages were, but the recovery time was a short couple weeks and not that hard. I would do it over again if i had to!

I had mine removed November of 08, three months after having my first child. It runs in my family; my mom and 4 of her sisters had it removed. Each one of the stories that they told me were different as far as what they go thru now that it's removed. I have had no problems what so ever. I am glad that I did it. I would recommend it to anyone. Also make sure that you have it done laproscopic (laser)

I also have to say do it! I had mine taken out less then 2 months after I had my first daughter over 6 years ago. I use to have attacks and was told to get it out asap. I had a bunch of stones also. I have 3 litle scars but I don't have attacks anymore. There will be certain foods that not having ur gall bladder you may have a problem with them cuz they may make u run to the bathroom quickly but thats about it. I'd rather have to do that then have the attacks. Get er done

Do it. I had mine removed June 11 of this year (in Cali) and moved here to Lincoln 11 days later. It was painful for about a week, then after that it was sore for a couple of weeks- but bearable. I am glad I had it done because now I don't have my "attacks". For over 6 years I would get these occaisional attacks and no one could ever figure out what it was. Duh! It was my gallbladder! I wish I had found out sooner- it would have saved me a lot of sleepless nights keeled over in pain!