Post-cholecystectomy or gallbladder removal surgery

I underwent emergency gallbladder removal surgery about 8 weeks ago. Now I am wrestling with near daily nausea, acute constipation, and occasional vomiting, I’m afraid to eat much, don’t have any appetite anyway, and am curious to know what has helped anyone else in a similar path? I’m wearing scopolamine patches round the clock, and taking laxatives to move my bowels. But this is really a tough recovery process, I can tell you!!

My husband got a colonoscopy about 8 months ago and they diagnosed him with mild crones. They put him on medication for it, the inflammation went down however it did not take care of the symptoms that he was having: abdominal pain, back pain, weight loss, cloudy urine and stool, shakes, sweating after eating, long/loud burps, nausea and the whites of his eyes were turning off white/creamy color. My husband decided that he wanted to get his gallbladder checked . The HIDA scan showed that when the gallbladder was stabilized, only 5% of it was working..when he walked around, 14% of it was working. His gallbladder was not functioning and all of the symptoms he was experiencing led to a diseased gallbladder. He had it removed 6 days ago and started feeling really good. However today (6th day) he started feeling some of his old symptoms (nausea, sweating after eating and back pain) again. We are devastated that he’s starting to feel bad again. God led me to this Mayo platform. Has anyone gone through this or can anyone point us in our next direction?

After a very painful event I had surgery to remove my gall bladder. Surgery took 2.5 hours. Follow up seems ok except I have uncontrolled diarrhea. I am living on imodium . I am weak as a baby with no aid in sight. The doctors offer no real help except telling me what to eat or not. Any similiar experience or advice.

I just had another thought about this medication. Is this the one that's related to Ozempic, that was renamed. I would strongly encourage everyone to delve into Dr. Bryan Ardis's podcasts and see what he has to say about these meds!

Thank you!! Thank you!! This is very helpful! I will share with my Gastroenterologist on my next visit.

@bunnycuddlez
I am assuming you had extensive bloodwork, an abdominal ultrasound, endoscopy and colonoscopy to check your gastrointestinal system before moving to the HYDA scan? Have you had updated testing/imaging since your surgery? You have been suffering way too long.

I had all of the above and the HYDA scan last. My gallbladder is ejecting only 7% bile when the minimum should be 35%-40%. I was told to get my gallbladder out but I have held off due to other higher priority surgeries needed (spine).

I have read some have had issues with getting their gallbladder out where symptoms continue or they have complications. This makes me nervous about getting mine out. I do know that having smaller, more frequent, lower fat diets can help reduce symptoms.

Have you ever been tested for allergies to foods or autoimmune illness? Have you ever worked with a nutritionist/dietitian to review diet/supplements? Do you take any other medications or supplements?

@blessedwildapplegirl
Thank you❣️❣️❣️

Based on your story and experience (thank you for sharing), I will try to keep my low functioning gallbladder as long as possible. 😉

Unless your gallbladder is filled with stones that they can’t get rid of, or is actually dead, don’t let them take it out! Oh, my God, I almost died after they took mine out because I couldn’t digest anything. I weighed 73 pounds for five years and subsisted on mashed potatoes and canned carrots. I’m 5 foot four. I’m finally back to being able to eat, although I’ve had something going on since last November, but before that I was eating, but I cannot longer eat any raw vegetables, no spices of any kind, so no prepared foods, fat doesn’t go down, (except for avocados and for a while, coconut milk yogurt, but then that started making me sick), the list goes on. Without a gallbladder, you don’t have enough digestive acids to fully digest your food and then you don’t absorb your vitamins, etc. It’s really dangerous and they shouldn’t even do it. They should check our gallbladders periodically and make sure they don’t have stones so they don’t have to take them out ever. It basically killed my mom because after they took hers out, she had constant diarrhea and began kind of wasting away and then she had such terrible acid reflux that they put her on a proton pump, inhibitor, which broke both of her hips, and also she got two infections, C diff and E. coli, which I have read is not that uncommon if you don’t have enough stomach acid. Her body couldn’t fight them. I would give anything to have my gallbladder back. I told the doctors for six years before it went out that it was going out and because they’re Pipida scan said that it wasn’t they didn’t believe me. I was right, but by the time they found it, it was already dead, and I had to remove it, or I would’ve gotten sepsis. I’m scheduled to have a colonoscopy in a couple of weeks and honestly, I don’t even trust doctors. Not sure what to do. I guess I’ll go, but I haven’t had very good experiences with doctors. It seems so difficult to find a really good one. Good luck to you, but again, I would keep your gallbladder if you can, unless it’s actually dying. 💕

@bunnycuddlez
I am assuming you had extensive bloodwork, an abdominal ultrasound, endoscopy and colonoscopy to check your gastrointestinal system before moving to the HYDA scan? Have you had updated testing/imaging since your surgery? You have been suffering way too long.

I had all of the above and the HYDA scan last. My gallbladder is ejecting only 7% bile when the minimum should be 35%-40%. I was told to get my gallbladder out but I have held off due to other higher priority surgeries needed (spine).

I have read some have had issues with getting their gallbladder out where symptoms continue or they have complications. This makes me nervous about getting mine out. I do know that having smaller, more frequent, lower fat diets can help reduce symptoms.

Have you ever been tested for allergies to foods or autoimmune illness? Have you ever worked with a nutritionist/dietitian to review diet/supplements? Do you take any other medications or supplements?

Okay, this is a long one so stay tuned… LOLAlright, about 2 years ago now i started feeling crummy, actually kinda pregnant (my ladies will understand) i was experiencing nausea, vomiting, bloating, indigestion, diarrhea, constipation, (i literally have to undress to potty, i sweat so bad) food aversions, the pain comes and goes. I can be miserable for an amount of time then just poof its gone, but it comes back on and off throughout the day, i also experienced no period with this so it actually made me think i really did seal the deal. I started out at the OB, turns out not pregnant but guess what still all the symptoms. As time went on the pain worsened and then i started to notice my pain got worse after eating foods, especially Italian. So went to my PCP went thru a bunch of testing to get to the last one, the HIDA scan which tests the function of the gallbladder mine was at a whopping 22% so it automatically got taken out, now a GI did not do my surgery or check me out she was like a general surgeon she only covered some things, she tried medicines and diets nothing helped, then sent me off to the GI, so now here i am a year after my surgery and im still experiencing the same pain. Instead of the pain being under my right ribs like a boot feeling, most of my pain is on my left side, i have all the same symptoms listed above with a pain under my left ribcage on my side, my stomach feels like an accordion just being shoved downward when im trying to stand, day to day life is unbearable anymore. Doc is setting me up with a CT to test pancreas and liver function, then the stomach emptying test for gasteopareosis…… has any else ever experienced this!? Im in desperate need of help trying to get answers, maybe someone has been thru this that can help a girl save a few months of pain and agony?Oh- period did come finally before gallbladder surgery but went without one for 6months😬