Gallbladder attack - OUCH !

[Kindle 8,667]

Pretty sure I had a gall bladder attack this afternoon. Acute onset, excruciating pain under my sternum and right rib cage. Pain radiating to my right shoulder blade. Broke out in a cold sweat, felt nauseous and literally had to crawl to the bathroom. Where I proceeded to curl up on the bath rug and drool. There was no position that helped. I called my doctor, who is also an ER doctor and his wife, but got no answer on either phone. She finally returned my call after I texted her. Luckily they were both home and she handed the phone to my doctor. I explained what was happening (between sobs and trying to breath) and he calmly states it definitely sounds like a gall bladder issue...or an MI. So he sent his wife down to my house with a bottle of dicyclomine to help with the pain. (She's had gall bladder problems, so they had some on hand).

Luckily the intense pain only lasted about 45 minutes and then it went away as fast as it came on. Since it resolved so quickly, my doctor thinks it was probably a stone stuck in the bile duct which either passed through or rotated and popped back into my gall bladder. He advised that I do an ultrasound tomorrow at work (I work with a veterinarian) and keep him posted.

I have a family history of gall stones, (mom, grandmother, grandfather, aunt...) so I guess it's inevitable that it happens to me. Not to mention the added risk of my weight loss. My mom said it sounded exactly like the pain when she had a stone stuck in her bile duct 44 years ago. Worst pain she ever felt...she said she'd rather give birth a 100 times before going through that again. But her stone was stuck good and she needed emergency surgery.

Anyways, it's been an interesting afternoon....

[Mellyb251 30]

Sounds very similar to my gallbladder attacks before I had it removed. Did you eat anything fatty before the attack? My attacks were all brought on by eating something really high in fat.

[slvrsax 301]

Kindle, I found out I had gallstones a few weeks ago. My GI doc ordered an ultrasound as a precaution. Sure enough, I have stones. I haven't had an attack yet. I'm sorry you had to go through that

[Kindle 8,667]

Mellyb. I had just eaten a small piece of garlic sesame chicken, a couple bites of zucchini and no more than 1/4 cup of regular cottage cheese....the cottage cheese would have had less than 3 grams of fat, so I wouldn't say that was a high fat meal.

Slvrsax, are they going to remove your gall bladder or just have you wait and see what happens?

[moonlitestarbrite 902]

yeah, i had two babies at home... the pain from my gall bladder was definitely much worse than 2 unmedicated births!

after following a super low fat diet (not good when you are nursing!) i gave in and had my removed. even the diet didnt stop the attacks and it was so freaking painful i usually vomited too when it started. much faster recovery than vsg.

[Busymomof3 181]

Sounds exactly like the attacks I had before I had my gallbladder removed. I had my first attack while I was pregnant. I thought maybe it was the baby's foot in my rib cage. I had two attacks after giving birth. When I told my mom she knew exactly what it was because the same thing happened to her. Recovery was super easy and I felt so much better without it.

[mi75 1,239]

i agree. i had gall bladder attacks for almost a YEAR before i had it out. two days after that surgery, i had a stone which lodged in my greater bile duct. MORE pain!

sounds exactly like it to me...sadly even after your gb is gone, you can still have problems with stones, a story i am all too familiar with. it's all on me though, i never followed the diet that they encouraged after my gb surgery...

[slvrsax 301]

Kindle, the surgical clinic called me to set up a consult. My doc definitely wants it out. I declined for now. Dr. So also told me just to go ahead and get it out because I run the risk of pancreatitis if I don't. I'm so close to hitting my 100 lbs lost, I want to reach that goal before I schedule surgery. How bad is that? I know surgery will put me on an exercise break for probably six weeks. Without exercise my weight loss will stall. I'm afraid of losing momentum with my exercise as I'm on such a good roll. I just started C25K yesterday. Seeing what you went through, I am now reconsidering!

[BookWorm 87]

I know exactly how you feel. I just had mine removed. My advice, get it taken out and never have to deal with the pain again.

[Kindle 8,667]

We've been so busy at work this week, I only just got around to ultrasounding my gall bladder. No obvious stones, but the wall is inflamed and maybe I saw some sludge in there. I let my doctor know and he is leaving it up to me to pursue further or just wait and see if I have another attack. I'm going with the later, because in all honesty, I don't have time for surgery right now. January or February is really the only good time for me to take time off work. (My December VSG surgery date was a fluke). So I'm crossing my fingers for now and hoping I don't end up in emergency surgery.

Slvrsax, don't know what to tell you except good luck!

[Kindle 8,667]

Btw, for those of you that had your gall bladder out, what's the recovery time compared to VSG?

[moonlitestarbrite 902]

had my surgery outpatient. was up and around normally in 2 days.

[Healthier2day1227 326]

I went to the ER three weeks ago with that horrible pain and found out I had multiple stones. It always got worse after I ate. They admitted me and removed it the following day. They said it was very large. I felt well enough to work 2-3 days later but my boss wanted me to wait a week. I resumed my walking regime one week later. Similar soreness to sleeve surgery also similar incisions. Since surgery I have noticed certain foods I have to avoid. I bought my kids ice cream (full fat) and had some. It gave me horrible diarrhea. Also spicy foods don't sit well with me but my doctor said this might resolve itself in a year. At least avoiding fatty foods will keep me on track.

[awold0 246]

Btw, for those of you that had your gall bladder out, what's the recovery time compared to VSG?

I had mine out at 7 months post sleeve. You would rather have it done now instead of being in hospital with emergency surgery. That is open surgery and more invasive. That takes weeks to recover. Having it out now would be in and out same day. I recovered in 3 to 4 days fyi. I too was horrified I had to go in for surgery again. It was super easy. Hope you feel better.

[Shells_Almost_There 357]

I have just had an ultrasound as well, after having weird right side pain, and it looks like I have gallstones that aren't inflamed. So in a couple weeks I have a consult with a surgeon to see if I need surgery (I'm 100% certain she will say that it's time for a quick outpatient procedure) - I'm irritated that I've been religiously taking the Ursodiol since surgery and it didn't work! I really don't want a 3rd surgery in a year's time (I had knee surgery a couple months ago), but I don't want to have an attack either - sounds very painful!