I had a severe gallbladder attack last weekend and went to the doctor. He said to steer clear of lettuce because it make the liver produce bile, which is what my gallbladder doesn't need right now. Plus, I am probably going to have to have my gallbladder removed.

ACK! I have been trying to be SO good, and now I can't have my salad for lunch I don't know what to do. My mom said she had never heard to steer clear of lettuce. What have you guys heard? Is there anything else I should steer clear of?

Eating LC has just gotten harder!!

Kick that nasty gallbladder to the curb! I ditched mine almost 3 years ago and it was the best thing that I could have done!

In regards to lettuce, I ate it before the surgery and then less than a week afterward. I had problems with *ahem* "bathroom dashes", but then again just about everything set me off for a little bit until I adjusted. My MIL says she has trouble with lettuce and she had her surgery 20+ years ago. IMHO, I think it's the westernized diet of junk that she eats. My mom also is gallbladderless for 20+ years and is following Atkins as I type-- no problems w/anything other than the standard sugar alcohols (that's my scenario, too). BTW- what kind of attacks are you having? Pain from stones trying to pass? Digestive disarray? So that I wouldn't lose my mind between scheduling the surgery and actually having it, I was shown how to remedy pain from stones trying to pass. I'd lay on my left side and have DH pat/thud my back (not painfully, of course *lol*) and the stone would break loose and stop trying to pass. It sounds goofy, but it helped get me through the week I had to wait.

I don't know if this helps much, but if you're having attacks now, I'd fully recommend getting it yanked and recovering from there. Oh yeah, a good friend of mine had hers removed last Thanksgiving and is now a fellow Atkinite.

In short, and long, I've never heard of steering clear of lettuce. Good luck and best wishes on finding the solution that's right for you.

Nikki

If you can't eat lettuce...I think there's a list of acceptable veggies in the same category in the Atkins book. I've had cucumbers, mushrooms, and green pepper strips instead of lettuce occasionally...they can make a good salad. Just watch the carbs...use a carb counter. You might also try fresh spinach leaves...but that might not work either.

Perhaps, if all else fails, a milder lettuce such as "butter lettuce" ? I find that one less harsh than iceberg and romaine. Good luck....

I would try an alternative treatment for passing a gallstone, if that is the problem, instead of surgery. This is one report I found. An Internet search could find other suggestions.

Gallbladder Surgery Alternative

The Lancet recently reported the use of one quart of pure apple juice for one week. After one full week of the apple juice one cup of olive oil was used just before going to bed. The person was instructed to lay on their left side during the night. A high dose of magnesium can be used to facilitate the removal of the stones.

Lancet December 18/25, 1999 354:2171

http://www.mercola.com/2000/jan/9/g...alternative.htm

Kent

Please don't even try to do this. Gall bladder surgery these days is performed by laparoscopy, or "keyhole surgery" and is safe and one can recover quickly and easily.

Alternative "treatments" however, can be extremely dangerous. Most gallstones (and as a registered nurse I have seen many) are jagged and irregular. Passing them can lead to a lot of internal damage. Perforation and rupture of the bile duct can and does happen. Why take such risks?

I know that if I were ever diagnosed with gall stones, I would be requesting surgery as soon as convenient.

Back to the lettuce question - I have never heard of that either. Fat causes bile to be produced by the liver, so you may need to lower your fat intake until you can have the surgery. So yes, I would ask the doctor why he suggests cutting out lettuce.

Hope you can soon have your surgery, and that your recovery is quick and not too uncomfortable.

Rosebud

"Keyhole surgery" is NOT safe. No surgery can be called safe and without risks. I have read many horror stories of the "keyhole surgery" going wrong. The doctor can cut the wrong place. Leak fluid into the abdominal cavity. Cause life threatening infections, etc. Many gallbladder surgeries are unnecessary. The doctor told my sister if he went in he would take out the gallbladder no matter what the condition. He was getting paid by the insurance company to take out her gallbladder and that he did. She didn't even have a gallstone and the symptoms were from her colon as I had told her before the operation. She is worse now than before the operation. She got an infection and was placed on antibiotics. This only made her intestinal bowel disease, which they had not diagnosed, much worse. So much for professional medicine.

Bowel Disease and Candida - News You Can Use.

Kent

Ellen-Mom,

Please remember that all the opinions expressed here are just that: OPINIONS. Don't get scared by some of the responses here ... Check things out with your own health care provider and ask lots of questions.

That is the only way may your own health decisions.

My doc told me to avoid fatty foods, not high fibre ones, before I had mine removed. A large meal high in fat causes bile to be sent from the bladder to the digestive system (a throwback to our cave dwelling days) and thus an attack is imminent as the flow of liquid can cause a stone to lodge in the duct. I really feel for you, wouldn't wish an attack on my worst enemy. All the best!

Nicole

Kent, I don't think that scaring someone who is approaching surgery is a particularly good idea.

The fact is that yes, anyone having surgery can have complications. My point is that laparoscopic removal of the gall bladder is relatively safe. The possiblity of problems is very low. The probability of having major problems after "alternative methods" of gall stone removal is very, very much higher, even if it succeeds, which is by no means a foregone conclusion.

Anyone facing any kind of surgery should ask their surgeon what are the relative risks and how likely they are to occur. As AntiM says, ask lots of questions. If you are unsure, seek another opinion. But please, do not take advice from the internet. Your own health care provider is the person you should question.

Rosebud

I should have given this story of my other sister in my previous post. She had a gallbladder attack about 5 years ago. The doctor said she had a gallstone from a test, perhaps ultrasound. The doctor advised she have her gallbladder removed. When did a doctor ever pass up advising gallbladder removal? My sister delayed the operation to learn about alternative medical treatments. (Most doctors hate alternative medicine. I love Dr. Atkins because he always turned to alternative medicine first.) She tried a procedure. Perhaps it was similar to the one from Lancet. She has never had another gallbladder attack and has had no other gallbladder symptoms whatsoever.

Doctors have a strong bias against alternative medicine; the mortgage, the kids and their college education, a cruise to Alaska, etc. Never ask a used car salesman how good the car is and question a doctor's suggestion to rush to surgery.

Lancet is a world renown, highly prestigious medical publication. A flippant discharge of their information should not be done.

Certainly everyone has the decision for their own health, medical treatments and what they eat, and there are many erroneous recommendation from individuals and professional associations. We all know that by looking at the USDA Food Guide Pyramid.

Kent

I think it's great to know there options out there on both sides of the fence that divides allopathic medicine and naturpathic medicine. There are times when one side of the fence does not have all the answers.

So Ellen-Mom, arm yourself with information, ask questions, and make an educated decision for what is right for you.

Okay, the nurse said that lettuce induces the liver to produce bile, and that with the gallbladder full of stones, there is no place for the bile to go, and that is why I have abdominal pain and nausea. She also suggested that apple juice is a good thing to drink.

You are right about the fatty foods, but I am still LC’ing, I am just eating more chicken and fish, less red meat. In addition, I dusted off my George Foreman Grill and am grilling my meat now. I miss my salads though. I found that cucumbers make me gassy though. Not a good thing in an office environment.

I do not know if I could drink a quart of apple juice a day for 2 weeks though. Bleah!! I am not a big juice drinker. However, I am trying to drink a glass every morning.

I am planning to have the surgery. In fact, I go back to the Dr. on the 12th and will probably schedule it then. I am not looking forward to it, but I have to do what I have to do for my health. They said I would only miss one or two days of work, so I am planning to schedule it for a Thursday, that way I have the weekend as well.

Apparently, I didn’t have enough stress in my life planning a wedding, moving, and finishing my college course. I really needed one more thing thrown in there!! ACK!!!!!!!

I wish you the best of luck with your surgery. My husband has had abdominal surgery twice in the past couple of years and while it wasn't fun, he recovered just fine with no complications.

Two pieces of advice (based on my husband's experience):

1. Ask the doctor at your appointment before the surgery if he or she is planning to give you a prescription for a painkiller after surgery and if so, see if you can get it in advance and fill it before the surgery. The first time my husband had surgery we did not do this and after bringing him home from the hospital, I had to leave him home with the kids while I went and filled the prescription and waited for it. He was in a lot of pain (it was not laporoscopic and he had a large incision -- although they did it out-patient as they do almost everything these days), plus he had just been diagnosed with cancer and was trying to deal with that diagnoses while still recovering from general anesthesia, and he wanted me to be with him, not off at the drug store getting his medicine. The second time we asked for the prescription in advance and the surgeon thought it was a great idea and said she was going to start doing that with her other patients as well.

2. Take it easy after the surgery! I think that doctors minimize the amount of discomfort you will have and the length of time it will take you to recover. After his second abdominal surgery, my husband did too much and the incision swelled up (it was also not laparoscopic), which caused him a lot of discomfort for about 24 hours. In retrospect, he wishes he had just stayed in bed for a few days -- he thinks doing so would have speeded up his whole recovery. You don't want to totally stay in bed because of the risk of blood clots, but you do want to take it easy.

I have a question for you. Is the doctor planning to do laparoscopic surgery and if so has s/he raised any questions about your weight? About 10 years ago, when I weighed somewhere around 275, I discussed having my tubes tied with my gynecologist and he said that I had too much abdominal fat for laparoscopic surgery and therefore he advised against the tube tying. I decided for other reasons not to do it, so I never got a second opinion. However, I've always wondered if other doctors also refuse to do laparoscopic surgery when they think the patient is too fat.

Thought I'd chime in again...

Not sure what Ellen's doc has told her, but I figured I'd share what went on w/me and my surgery. When I scheduled the procedure, the doctor told me flat out that they would try to do the laprascopic version, but if they were obscured by too thick of abdominal fat they would do the large incision. It was pretty scary to think of this b/c I was just about 300 lbs. at the time and really wouldn't know how things went until I woke up from it all.

Thankfully, things went well and I woke up w/4 small incisions (3 in the upper/side of my abdomen and 1 at the navel). I did have a bit of pain for a week or so b/c of the shifting of my muscles to do the surgery, but I was back at work and school the next Monday (had surgery the Tuesday before). I must mention that I was not working out or losing weight at the time, so that is definitely on your side, Ellen.

BTW- I can TOTALLY sympathize w/your situation. When I had my surgery a few years back, I was in my second-to-last semester in college, planning a wedding and trying to find a job for after graduation. Then... a few months later (in my last semester), my FIL-to-be had 2 massive strokes, my doctor thought I had cancer (lumps were found in my breast) and I was still planning the wedding and trying to find a job. I think I about lost my mind (or what little was left of it) at that point. You can do this! I have all the faith in the world that you can accomplish all that is in front of you.

Best,
Nikki