Dealing with symptoms after Gallbladder surgery

Posted by roisemaire @roisemaire, Nov 30, 2017

Hi is there anyone out there that suffers from nausea and pain almost 4 weeks after gallbladder operation. Every time I eat anything i get pain in site of operation. And tired all the time no energy

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I had gaulbladder surgery 6 weeks ago and now I have pain from my side through the back and when I went back to the Doctor he said he never had anyone come back everytime they have a little pain. He just had me lift up my shirt and said everything looks ok, never checked a thing, I have to find out what is wrong. Wondering if anyone else has this problem after surgery

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@cnastu

I had gaulbladder surgery 6 weeks ago and now I have pain from my side through the back and when I went back to the Doctor he said he never had anyone come back everytime they have a little pain. He just had me lift up my shirt and said everything looks ok, never checked a thing, I have to find out what is wrong. Wondering if anyone else has this problem after surgery

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I think the stitches on the inside are healing, When you think of it the body is reacting to having been radically altered, the fascia gets moved aside or cut, the muscles are pulled aside or sometimes cut; scar tissue can adhere; the nerve endings are maybe coming alive again. Of course I’m just guessing as I am not a surgeon but I can imagine it takes quite some time to heal. It’s been nearly a month since my colectomy, and in some ways the scars feel worse than they did days after surgery.. but after time the cells in the tissues will do their wonderful job of carrying away waste and your body will be be ok. I’m going to get acupuncture to rebalance my systems.

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@cnastu

I had gaulbladder surgery 6 weeks ago and now I have pain from my side through the back and when I went back to the Doctor he said he never had anyone come back everytime they have a little pain. He just had me lift up my shirt and said everything looks ok, never checked a thing, I have to find out what is wrong. Wondering if anyone else has this problem after surgery

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@cnastu If your doctor was not concerned then it's probably normal to feel some pain/discomfort. Do you feel confident in your doctor? I presume you must if you chose him for surgery. I think that @maryswims is probably absolutely right.
JK

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Hi I was trying to look for someone that has pain in the surgery site. I am into my 9th week of having gallbladder surgery and everything else seems to be ok but the incisions I have alot of pain when I pick something up or move wrong. I just don't know whats going on. any body feel the same?

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@jamie1004

Hi everybody, my name is Jamie and I’ve been diagnosed with gallstones, but this wasn’t my first guess. In December, I caught a bad stomach flu and while 3 other of my family members caught it too, I was the only one who had nausea afterwards. Along with this, I had burping. Some reflux, but mainly after I would eat and lay down so I blame it on that.

I went to the doctors a month later in January and she said it was possibility GERD. This wasn’t my normal doctor, since she was out of town. But anyways, I started getting better slowly by taking a Tums every morning as I woke up.

Fast forward to late February, I was eating meals happily and not worrying about a thing. The only thing that caught my attention was after having a big meal of Domino’s, I had major pain and bloating. Thought I was gonna be sick but turns I just had to BM. Nothing happened until ‘that time of the month’ and I was back to not eating again, dealing with nausea and burping.

Finally went back to the doctor’s, got put on Omeprazole 20mg(?) capsules and went on my way home. Slowly built back up to eating without having to take meds. Then March comes around and on the 18th, I have the worst abdominal pain that I can only describe as labor pain. Started at 2 p.m., went to the E.R. finally at 12 a.m. when the heating pad clearly wasn’t working for me and it went away until I went to do a urine test. Immediately pain through my left shoulder, middle of my chest/abdomen, and nausea full force. Thought I was gonna be sick (and I hate to throw up, I do everything to avoid it.) but I wasn’t. We did a blood test after I calmed down, went to ultrasound and came back around 1:30ish. Fell asleep, they woke me up at 3:30 a.m. and turns out I have gallstones at 16! Prior to this hospital visit, I had another ultrasound at another clinic and the results came back as fine. So?? I’m a bit confused but anyways.

They gave me zofran to take as needed for my nausea but since that attack, I’ve had none. I’ve stuck to a low-fat diet, eating before 6 p.m., and not laying down after I eat. I’ve managed to be healthy this way but we’ve decided on surgery (I have consultation this upcoming Friday) and while I want to prevent another attack, I’m scared to death. I’ve read online that gallbladder surgery and gastroparesis are connected often. My mother had gallstones and the same surgery I’m getting and she’s perfectly fine but I know everyone is different.

So my question here is, what were your gallbladder disease signs? Did the gallbladder surgery help you? Has anyone found themselves with gastroparesis or other illnesses? Is there pros and cons to taking it out?

Please help. My anxiety and depression are having more bad days because I’m scared of this chronic illness happening to me. I just want to get better and feel ‘normal’. Is this selfish of me?

My current symptoms are: bloating, burping, brain fog, general feeling of unwellness, some days loss of appetite, burning gurgly stomach, constipation, orange-colored stools, maybe indigestion??? I’m not sure, I don’t feel full after eating and when I feel that, I normally burp and I feel fine. Nausea comes and goes. Get little bits of pain in my GB area. Wake up in the middle of the night randomly.

The only health issues I have are asthma and low vitamin D. I am also (hopefully) getting a lipoma out at the same time of the GB surgery.

I’ve never had prior stomach issues to this. I caught the stomach flu about three times in my life. But I did have bad eating habits. I’ve been through a lot of emotional trauma in my life as well and stress is not good on me either.

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You need to get it out, I had gallbladder attacks for years and kept putting it off and I finely went and did it and I feel better!

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Welcome to Connect, @alanny. Here are two discussions where @mikehow @dodgerblu818311 @johnetteg @vickiperk @suerc @smantzel have all mentioned having gall bladder surgery and pain at the surgical site.
– Pain at old gall bladder surgical site https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pain-at-old-gall-bladder-surgical-site/
– Nausea, Pain and Headaches after Gallbladder laparoscopic Surgery https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/nausea-pain-and-headaches-after-gallbladder-laparoscopic-surgery/

Have you consulted with your doctor, @alanny? How are you managing the pain?

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I’m new to the group. I’m almost 48 y/o. I felt more tired than normal right before Christmas and just didn’t feel well in general. I work with kids and thought it was all the excitement and hype with Christmas break coming up. On Christmas Day, I was still tired and started feeling very nauseous, tired, and sick. I thought it was a virus. Fast forward to the week of New Years. I had an ultrasound of gall bladder which showed no stones and everything looked good. I saw primary care physician and gave my symptoms which by this time included a “bubble”’under my right rib area, loss of appetite on top of the others. She ordered a HIDA scan to test gall bladder functioning. It showed that it was functioning at 10% or less and needed to be removed. I had surgery on 1-15-19. For the first week, I felt better, just a little tired. After one week and 2 days, everything went back as it was before. Nauseous, extremely tired, no appetite, shaky sometimes, can’t stand food odors cooking, etc. I’ve been to ER twice due to dehydration. I did get meds to help with nausea, however I’m constantly fatigued and anything I do requires rest or a nap afterwards. I have only worked 2 half days at school since school went back after Christmas. I’m scared I’m going to lose my job. I have lost 22 pounds to date since Christmas also. My story looks like that of some of you all recently. Please let me know if hat may have helped you if you have had better results since you posted. I have seen my primary care physician, re-visited surgeon (who says it’s just taking me longer to recover), a gastroenterologist (who didntheir own labs, an endoscopy, and a CT scan—-labs show slightly elevated liver enzymes, but negative for rare liver disorders), Endoscopy was negative for cancer and celiac and other disorders and CT scan was clear of abscesses and masses and said the liver, spleen, and pancreas all looked fine on scan). What else can be checked ? Please help. Micki.

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@johnetteg

Hello, I am still having constant pain in my right side where the gallbladder used to be. It will also go into my side and back. The pain will also off and on move into my upper abdomen and to the left side. I’ve been through so many tests and everything is coming back ok. I’m still not able to eat much and have lost so much weight. I am now under weight and feel so weak. The pain makes it hard to eat and just walking much makes it hurt more. I don’t know what to do or how to get better. I’m scared of continuing to get sicker and sicker and dying. Not to be dramatic but I feel this way sometimes. I need help but no one seems to know how to help or why I’m having the pain. I used to be a very active person and always making people laugh and a normal functioning person until I had my gallbladder removed. I am unable to work now. I have two children that I need to be here for.

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I just posted my story for the first time. I don’t have any answers, but my story is some what similar. My surgery was 1-15-19 and I too, continue to have nausea, fatigue, weakness, hate food smells, weight loss of 22#, and have had testing and no one can figure out what’s wrong. I hope we can all get some answers or ideas of what to try next. You can see my below

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@micki733

I’m new to the group. I’m almost 48 y/o. I felt more tired than normal right before Christmas and just didn’t feel well in general. I work with kids and thought it was all the excitement and hype with Christmas break coming up. On Christmas Day, I was still tired and started feeling very nauseous, tired, and sick. I thought it was a virus. Fast forward to the week of New Years. I had an ultrasound of gall bladder which showed no stones and everything looked good. I saw primary care physician and gave my symptoms which by this time included a “bubble”’under my right rib area, loss of appetite on top of the others. She ordered a HIDA scan to test gall bladder functioning. It showed that it was functioning at 10% or less and needed to be removed. I had surgery on 1-15-19. For the first week, I felt better, just a little tired. After one week and 2 days, everything went back as it was before. Nauseous, extremely tired, no appetite, shaky sometimes, can’t stand food odors cooking, etc. I’ve been to ER twice due to dehydration. I did get meds to help with nausea, however I’m constantly fatigued and anything I do requires rest or a nap afterwards. I have only worked 2 half days at school since school went back after Christmas. I’m scared I’m going to lose my job. I have lost 22 pounds to date since Christmas also. My story looks like that of some of you all recently. Please let me know if hat may have helped you if you have had better results since you posted. I have seen my primary care physician, re-visited surgeon (who says it’s just taking me longer to recover), a gastroenterologist (who didntheir own labs, an endoscopy, and a CT scan—-labs show slightly elevated liver enzymes, but negative for rare liver disorders), Endoscopy was negative for cancer and celiac and other disorders and CT scan was clear of abscesses and masses and said the liver, spleen, and pancreas all looked fine on scan). What else can be checked ? Please help. Micki.

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@micki733 Have you been to a gastroenterologist? Has anyone considered IBD? IBD is not the same as IBS. IBD includes a couple of different conditions but the symptoms you are describing make me think of symptoms that occur with this type of problem. These conditions usually also cause either diarrhea or constipation. Sort of weird that it can be either of two opposite things, but that's what I have read. If you have not been to a gastro I would definitely make an appointment. Also, there are pages on Connect that are about some of these conditions if you want to check them out further.
I will definitely be interested in what you find out.
JK

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@contentandwell

@micki733 Have you been to a gastroenterologist? Has anyone considered IBD? IBD is not the same as IBS. IBD includes a couple of different conditions but the symptoms you are describing make me think of symptoms that occur with this type of problem. These conditions usually also cause either diarrhea or constipation. Sort of weird that it can be either of two opposite things, but that's what I have read. If you have not been to a gastro I would definitely make an appointment. Also, there are pages on Connect that are about some of these conditions if you want to check them out further.
I will definitely be interested in what you find out.
JK

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Thank you for your response. I have been to a gastrointerologist. They did an endoscopy, a CT scan, and labwork to check CBC, liver enzymes, and checked fornrare liver disorders. They said liver enzymes are in the slightly elevated range and that I was negative for rare liver disorders. I do not have problems with constipation or diarrhea. It’s so weird. Mostly nausea, fatigue, loss of appetite, and weight loss. I’ve been to PCP, cardiologists (had a stress test and heart ultrasound and passed both), gastroenterologist, and I recently had an MRI of my head (checking for MS lesions due to fatigue). I see to be a mystery like many others here. I hope someone who had difficulty in the past could come back and give us “newer ones” an idea of how long this lasts or what the culprit was to cause this so we can all get better and help others that come after us.

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