About two months ago I started having abdominal pains. At first they began only with intense exercise (ie, 30 minutes on a treadmill) in the upper-right abdominal area, right below the chest. Over the next few weeks, the pains began to spread throughout the entire abdomen and back, and began to get more severe, so I went to the family doctor. There was no pain felt when she applied pressure, and the urine test showed nothing. At first she thought I was making shit up, but “just to make sure,” she had me get an abdominal ultrasound—and low and behold, “a bunch of gallstones.” She said she’d never seen them in a 21 year old male before. So, I waited a month before seeing a specialist/surgeon, but the pains really didn’t go away. I consumed extra vitamin C, cut down on fatty and cholesterol-ridden foods, but no progress seemed to be made. No longer connected to exercise, the pains occur randomly throughout the day. Only seldom were they “strong” pains accompanied by a feeling of nausea; mostly a nuisance, and my daily life wasn’t inhibited. Finally I saw the specialist this past week, fed up living like this, and she basically said my only option was to wait and see if the pains get worse, or to get the gallbladder removed. The specialist said she wasn’t certain that my symptoms were a direct result of the gallstones, but that it was the most likely scenario. Since I only have a few months of insurance left, as I’m about to graduate college, I decided to go ahead and schedule the laparoscopic surgery for January. I’m having second thoughts, though. My surgeon told me I basically wouldn’t notice the gallbladder missing, but I’ve been looking around online, and some websites suggest otherwise: chronic diarrhea, malnutrition resulting from inability to process foods properly, increased risk of colon cancer and various other diseases. I’m wondering of the cure isn’t worse than the disease. On top of that, I’ve been having a “good week” with virtually no pains (except near the end of my treadmill run yesterday) since I saw the surgeon, even though I’ve been consuming lots of fatty foods and what not (holiday season and such). That’s not to say that the worst pains won’t be back in a week, though. If I cancel the surgery, I may not have insurance coverage when the need for it becomes absolutely clear. I don’t care to end up in the emergency room six months from now, especially since I intend travel abroad to East Asia over the next two years. If I go ahead with the surgery, however, there’s a small possibility (1) that it won’t help my symptoms or (2) much worse, that the side effects will be such that I’ll regret the surgery. I don’t know what to do.
I would PM Alphaman about this thread. I would also speak frankly with your doctor. Lastly, you need to make sure you have insurance and that it will cover this.
My sister had her gallbladder removed last year. She now suffers from malabsorption which has led to anaemia. (That's what the doctor has told her.) She has to take medication for this at the moment. I'm not sure what will happen long-term. She only had one "attack" of gallstones, but it was so severe she was hospitalised and was strongly advised to have the surgery. I don't know how common these side effects are but I know that she doesn't regret having the surgery at all. I'm not sure if this helps at all. I know there are lots of people who don't have the surgery and live fairly normal lives apart from needing to take a day or so off work when they have an attack.
This is very helpful, actually. Do you happen to know how long the "attack" lasted and what, if anything specific, prompted it?
She can't be 100% sure, but at the time she thought it was started by eating fish and chips. (Fairly greasy.) She started feeling unwell during the late afternoon and by around 11pm it was so bad she couldn't move. Luckily she was staying with my parents who took her to the hospital. She was put on morphine at that point and she was released about 36 hours later. She was still in pain when she left, but they gave her strong painkillers and booked her surgery. Her pain continued (although no where near as bad) until her gallbladder was removed.
She was in pain on a daily basis until she got the surgery, and before the first attack she had no experienced any obvious symptoms? I almost wish I would have an attack that warrented hospitalization, so at least I could be certain of what needed to be done. As it stands, I'm caught in a sort of limbo between healthy and ill.
Dude, if it's giving you trouble at the tender age of 21, it ain't gonna get better. You can live without it. My advice (not expert OR medical) would be to lose that puppy and press on.
She'd had pains on and off for years before hand. She thought it was something like IBS, she didn't even think about it being problems with her gallbladder until it flared up that time. I guess the one advantage of such a bad attack is that the path you take is fairly clear cut.
Rob - I"ve had the surgery and I don't miss the monster at all. Have the surgery (especially if it's the laparoscopic one) and be done with it. The problems are the exception rather than the rule but the law says you have to be told about them. oh, and I'm a nurse
From what I've been told, the medications are only recommended for people who aren't strong enough to undergo surgery, because there's a strong chance that the stones will reappear sooner or later. Plus, meds have their own side effects. The removal of the gall bladder is the only permanent solution. I haven't seen or heard inadequate hydration as a cause of the problem. I think you're thinking of kidney stones.
Wife had this on November 3. My dad found out at the last minute and started reciting his hypochondriac wife's litiney of suffering and regret about having it done. Promised us we'd regret it when she had daily episodes of diarrhea and all the rest....you have to know my stepmother to know how easily I disregarded these dire warnings. My wife has experienced exactly ONE episode of diarrhea in the past almost 4 weeks. The surgeon said about 20% of people would have issues with it and that could largely be dealt with through diet. Anyway, I can't give you any kind of medical advice about it but I can present this caution: No one EVER says "I had this thing taken out and my life is great now!" if surgery works, you seldom ever mention it - however if something negative results, one will piss and moan about it for decades. What that means is that you hear a lot more from the 20% (or whatever it is for any given procedure) than from the 80%. and you can probably compound that when you are talking about comments you find on-line because the question is usually framed as "What might go wrong?" which is going to be a magnet for more negative responses than positive. Not to say disregard poor reviews, but just keep them in context.
I agree about keeping the negative responses in context. A lot of people online have given completely positive reviews, perhaps even the majority of what I’ve read. Some people have spoken of diarrhea, but I'm actually prone to constipation—the procedure might actually balance it out for me. My surgeon, however, warned me of constipation in the immediate wake of the surgery, but I believe that’s only until the liver secretions get flowing again.
believe it or not the constipation is due to two things: anesthesia which slows down EVERYTHING and the pain medication that folks take after the surgery. The more pain medicine, the more likely one gets constipation
My friend had his gallbladder taken out about a year ago and he is doing great now. Doesn't mean he always will I suppose, but it's encouraging. I think if I were in your situation I would do it. Shep my friend had a piece of her intestine removed and says it was the best thing she's ever done and wishes she had done it sooner. So it's nice to hear someone say surgery did something good for them.
I had some minor surgery. While I did get Codeine laced Tylenol, they wanted me off of them as soon as possible for that reason.
