I am back to work today for the first day since my surgery to remove my gall bladder. I went to the ER Sat. night, and was told there was basically there was nothing they could do. I was in so much pain on my way home, that it scared my husband, so he took me to a different ER!!! They ran a mirage of tests to find that it was my gall bladder. I spent Mother's Day in the Hospital and then to top it all off, was given a bad mix of Demerol and some other drug for nausea, and it threw me into respiratory arrest. They called Code Blue and revived me, and I must say, a scare like that makes you happy to be alive!
I feel much better today, 1week after surgery, but I am wondering about my Atkins diet......? Does anyone that has been through this know if it is safe for me to continue on this diet? I am still in the induction phase. I lost 25 pounds in 14 days which was a contributing factor to the collapse of my gall bladder. So....should I continue? I am aware of the eating greasy foods concern....I learned that the night my husband thought it would be nice to treat me to pizza (the toppings only of course!).
Let me know if anyone has any advise! Thanks guys!

I lost 90 pounds when I was 16 years of age, via a starvation diet. I ended up with very bad gallstones and many months of attacks.

Finally I had my gallbladder removed when I was 17. They tried to give me an ERCP first, but they couldn't sedate me enough so that I'd stop trying to pull the tube out. The actual removal of my gallbladder went fine, though.

I was terrified of "going under," but it ended up being the best thing I could have done for myself. During my attacks I was starting to become severely jaundiced, meaning that my common bile duct was being blocked by the stones. It'd get so that the palms of my hands, my belly, and the whites of my eyes would start turning yellow. I probably could have died if I'd let it go on much longer.

Anyways, the surgery was a breeze! I have four tiny scars now from the laser (three on my side and one in my navel) and I've never had a problem since then.

Good luck!

Thanks for the support! I am realizing that I am going to have to be careful with what I eat for a few months just to see what agrees with me and doesn't....if you know what I mean, but other than that, I am hoping life will get back to normal soon.
After the surgery did you gain weight back...or did it help you to keep it off. If it was many years ago things might have changed, but just wondering.
Thanks again,
Gena

I was 5'4" at the time (I'm 5'5" now) and I went from 225+ to under 135 in about 7 months or so. I've stayed at between 150-160 in the almost eight years since then, most of the time. The lowest I've been since gaining a bit of weight after the big Crash Diet is 142 and the highest is 185, but neither of those weights lasted long. I seem to always come back to around the 155 mark. That's a big part of why I'm doing this WOE..

Here are some things I've noticed sincing losing my gallbladder... my stomach is a little more sensitive, I have mild gallstonish "cramps" from time to time if I eat certain things, and my ability to have a proper BM has degraded. I'm either constipated a lot of time or just the opposite. I go through time periods when extremely high-fiber diets will even things out for awhile, but somehow my body seems to resist the idea of fiber the majority of the time. Some of these things may be due to age, my own body, etc.

Since losing my gallbladder I've found it very easy to lose weight doing low-calorie diets... not that it's necessarily related. I don't like how I feel while I'm doing low-cal, though... tired, hungry, etc. Doing low-carb seems to be affecting me slowly, but I feel way better when I'm doing it. I'm not sure exactly how having a missing gallbladder may or may not be affecting me doing low-carb, but I would love to hear about it from others!

I'd like to hear as well. I still haven't gotten my gallbladder out. I was put on the waiting list, but I am enrolled in an accellerated program in which there is no way I could miss 3 or 4 days of school without having to repeat the program... so I took myself off the waiting list.

Now I am starting to hear more scary stories about the after affects of having your gallbladder removed. I'm thinking I may want to keep it and just put up with the pain.

Linnea

Hello!

Listen, if you are having gall pain...you are in misery, and let me tell you the pain will only get worse and never get better! You need to go ahead with getting it out as soon as possible. I JUST had mine done over the weekend and I already feel much better. It is really not a major surgery, and you will be much better off afterwards. I am not sure what negative side effects you have heard, but the ones I have come across are things such as constipation or diareha (sp?) at times, and trial and error with what you can and can not eat for about 6 mo. after the surgery. My doctor says that after 6 mo. my body will be used to the change and I should be able to go back to eating whatever I like.
If I were you, I would go to the General Health Thread in this forum and look for the other threads labeled with something about gallbladders. You will learn alot just reading the tales of some that have had it out for many years or are in the same boat as you are.
Hope this helps, school is important, but when you get a chance, you should take care of the matter before it takes care of you. I did not have a chance to wait, they did mine as emergency surgery and gave me no choice!
Gena

I should mention that I left the hospital the same day that I had my gallbladder removed... I didn't stay over night. I have very minimal pain after that, too... they gave me pain pills but I never used them.

My belly was very tender for a couple of days, but it was easily tolerable as long as I was careful about not bending too much or hitting it against anything. I think the only reason I had any pain at all was because of the incision they made in my navel... I say that because since the surgery I've had my navel peirced and I found the pain to be slightly similar.

I think my speedy recovery may have had something to do with my young age, but who knows. It really is a simple, quick procedure.

Three years ago I had surgery to remove my gallbladder and a 15 pound fibroid tumor that resulted in my having a hysterectomy. Because of the extreme pain I was in and my serious anemia (from the fibroid and excessive bleeding during my TOM) I had to have both operations done at the same time.

I had absolutely no pain from the gall bladder removal. It was done laporascopically (4 small scars) and they itch sometimes, but that's all. The pain after the hysterectomy was more intense.

BUT I would do it again in a heartbeat. I have never felt better than I do now. A lot of that has to do with this WOL but the pain from the stones was excruciating. And, thinking back, I had lost 40 pounds on Jenny Craig right before I started noticing the attacks. By the way, my Doc told me that I had over 300 gallstones and that if I hadn't acted when I did, I could have died. Believe me, life is a much better choice.

Last night was the 2nd time that Ive had excruciating cramping in my stomach (not belly).. the first time it happened was Sunday night... I thought it might be from dairy products, but then when I didnt have any dairy and still experienced the stomach pain I just thought I was constipated... so last night I took a nice concoction of pills.. first GasX, then Pepto.. then, I was like, wait, havent had a nice BM in a while, so then I took some laxatives.. and then finally 4 Ibprofen, and an hour later, 3 more.. finally, cramping stopped..(i love ibprofen..) then of course this morning I had to make 4 trips to the bathroom.. but its okay.. now my stomach is tender.. i can sorta feel it, and Im wary of everything..

just called a bit ago to make an appt with a doctor I found through my insurance website.. they said, "the doctor wants to see you a 1:30 today"... so.. Im going.. anyways, any advice would be awesome.. the pain didnt move anywhere else other than my stomach.. so... I dontknow what it is but we'll find out.. thanks for this thread..!