Danny5:

It is the reason. I don't "believe" it. I know it. Why?

1. Again, I was perfectly healthy prior. I never had a single one of these issues. No health problems at all in fact. I went to the doctor once a year for a checkup and blood work. I always had a clean bill of health. I didn't feel bad in any way. I rarely even got a cold. I was very healthy. Again, I was a runner and very fit as well. I ate a healthy diet. I had no health problems.

2. Within weeks after getting my gallbladder out I started having issues. I was vomiting bile very quickly after. Within two weeks I was getting my first endoscope where they found gastritis...newly developed. Then the health problems began to fall like dominos: one after another.

3. You said all that about the doctors and getting a second opinion. Sure, that is great in hindsight, but let me tell you the story of what happened:

I'd never had a health problem before. Nothing other than the average cold. I remember exactly four of those in my life prior to this. I was 36 years old the morning I woke up to pee and right after had a sudden horrendous pain in my right side. I'd never felt that kind of pain before in my life. I went to the ER. This was July 2020 (the height of COVID) and they wouldn't let my family come in with me. So I was all alone and in the worst pain of my life. There, they ran tests all day until it was about 9pm at night. They didn't give me pain meds or anything to help, so it was hours of agony. Then, around that time, a PA comes in to tell me it is my gallbladder and they want to remove it. I get very worried and tell her I've never had a digestive problem in my life. So I'm confused. She says they see some sludge in my gallbladder. I ask her what happens if I just go home instead of getting it removed. She says that my gallbladder could burst. Now, the only comparable thing I'd heard of was an appendix bursting and I knew that could kill you. So, I agreed. Keep in mind I was at a pain of about 9/10 and had no family with me to help make the decision. I did ask what the side effects were. I even ask if it messed up the gut microbiome. My surgeon was called in specifically for my surgery. I ask him. He said 1% get loose stool after and the rest is fine. He said no problems with the gut microbiome. I ask if he was sure because I didn't really want my gallbladder removed. He said that it needed to come out.

So, not knowing much about medicine and thinking that doctors always tried to "do no harm" I agreed.

After the surgery I was at a 10/10 pain and the nurses said they had never seen that before. Well, two weeks later I was back in the ER for the same pain. That is when the doctor on staff finally told me the truth. She had looked at my CT from that first night and it turns out...I had a right kidney stone. They never told me that and I ask them if it could be anything else. THAT was causing my pain. After, I requested a copy of my gallbladder pathology report. It showed no infection, no swelling and no stones. My gallbladder was fine.

I cannot sue them because my state governor signed a law at the time saying that no doctor could be sued during COVID...even for non-COVID reasons. Am I to be blamed for trusting the doctors? Two of them? The ER doctor and the surgeon? Am I to be blamed because they didn't tell me about the kidney stone even thought I told them I didn't think it was my gallbladder? I even ask if there were other ways I could treat it or other ways to make 100% sure it was really my gallbladder. They said no, which was an outright lie as I found out later about the HIDA scan. So yes, I was naive and trusted doctors. I guess I learned my lesson, but it is a lesson I shouldn't have had to learn. What they did was wrong on every level. They lied to me more than once. Guess what...the negative outcomes isn't just 1% and they have all sorts of research showing it changes your gut microbiome. And I thought it was an emergency to SAVE MY LIFE (as you put it). The doctor told me my life was at risk. I had no idea it wasn't.

Anyway, yes...I am sure my gallbladder removal is responsible for this. It was like flipping a light switch on my health. One day I was perfectly fine and very healthy. I felt incredible. After, I feel like I'm 80 (I'm now 40 years old) and I struggle with chronic health problems every day.

I passed that kidney stone about four weeks later btw. I apparently wasn't drinking enough water. Like I said...I was a runner and it was July when this happened, so that is how I got that kidney stone.

Not all people have the opportunity to do all the things you said, unfortunately. I didn't.

FYI your profile states you are currently dealing with a disc at L5-L6. There is no L6. The lumbar spine transitions to the sacral spine - so that disc is L5-S1.

I would just add that in response to your post regarding gallbladder removal and consequences of that, your experience is yours. But it need not be presumed to be universal. Docs are no better nor worse than the rest of us. Some are empathetic. Some are jerks. Some are brilliant, some not so much. Some are collaborators, some are arrogant about their ability and see no need to collaborate.
I try to give people who had the actual experience the benefit of the doubt about that experience.
It’s their reality - I honor that.

Danny, I'm not sure what are you trying to accomplish with your post but I don't see anything helpful there. Are you saying that those of us who have had this experience don't know our bodies, or what we're talking about? I can assure you that my health was excellent prior to the surgery, and that the surgery was unquestionably the turning point. However, what's done is done and what I'm looking for are others who are dealing with similar consequences and have some practical advice derived from their experience to offer. You don't seem to fall in that category so you may want to keep to yourself.