Complications/symptoms after Gallbladder Surgery

Hello @lincolnpercy1944 and welcome to Mayo Connect. As you read through the posts in this discussion group you will read about many members who have discomfort post-surgery. From your post, it appears that your surgery was just a week ago. Is my understanding correct?

Your recovery can be determined by the type of surgery. For example, was your surgery laparoscopic or invasive? Generally, after gallbladder surgery it is important to follow a low-fat diet, and often frequent small meals are suggested as well.

Is your abdominal pain all the time or only after meals? Is your doctor planning on repeating the liver enzyme blood work?

Had my gallbladder removed a year ago and am now experiencing extreme acid reflux. Is there anything I can do to help this without going on a proton pump medicine. I’ve heard about ox bile but not sure what that is. Any help would be appreciated.

I was pretty much unable to eat after my gallbladder surgery and I thought I was gonna die, but they put me on cholestyramine which I guess removes the cholesterol from your bile or something? Anyway, I was on it for nine weeks and then we became allergic to it, so I had to stop it, but thankfully I had started being able to eating, but it took me a long time to get back to semi-normal. I'll never be normal. I had a functional medicine doctor tell me to use Betaine HCL and ox bile, but I never did. I'm super sensitive to things and I become allergic to things quickly, so I have kind of a phobia about trying new things. One of these days though I'm gonna get my courage up because that makes sense. Don't let anyone tell you that you don't have enough stomach acid unless they tested first because generally speaking, we don't have enough after our gallbladders are removed and as we get older we have even less and less. I think that would be worth a try, and if you do it, I would love to hear some feedback! Good luck! I also have acid reflux, but it's not terrible most of the time. It gets worse when I get stressed. As if that doesn't happen daily! Take care of yourself. Please try to stay off the proton pump inhibitors. They seriously do break your hips. Both of my mom's hips broke and then she died. Plus, she got two bacterial infections and her body couldn't fight them because she didn't have any stomach acid. Those medicines are dangerous! They've been written up in medical journals. 💕

Thanks so much. I’ve heard of ox bile but a friend suggested I try digestive enzymes first so will do that first to see if they help. I’ve been really lucky as my surgery went well and had no problems until now, a year later.

I use digestive enzymes periodically and they seem to help. I just have the off the shelf kind that I get at the health food store that are made from papaya. I hope the enzymes work for you! It's strange that you didn't have any problems right off the back, but now you do. Hmmm....🤔

I immediately went on a no fat diet and only ate small meals for the first 6 months and really have to credit that. Then I slowly introduced some low fat and now I eat everything (which I have a feeling is causing my problems). So I’m going back to a low fat diet, smaller meals and taking those digestives. Praying I’ll get back to normal again! Hope you do too.

Thank you! I also eat fairly small meals and low-fat. For some reason I can tolerate avocados, but I have to use a light margarine. I haven't tried any other kind of fat for quite a while, but it wasn't going well. I hope we both get back to normal as well. Take care!