If you've had gall bladder problems, tell me how you dealt with it...

[Leanna Tomlinson]

I have been having vague burning sensations in my upper right abdomen, off and on for a week. Last night I ate a bowl of potato soup with cheese and was basically miserable for about 3 hours. I was nauseated, had burning on my right side, and occasional shooting pains. Not the worst thing in the world, but not something I want to repeat.

 

I'm not in enough pain to go to the ER, but I'm also afraid to eat. In my book Prescription for Nutritional Healing it is recommended to go off solids for 3 days and drink apple juice. Has anyone done this? Did you hurt again when you started eating? Has anyone tried one of these gall bladder flushes that I read about online? Was it miserable?

 

Here's the biggest problem. My Dr. passed away in Dec. and I haven't found a new one yet. Someone was covering for him until today. I'm not in enough pain to go to the ER, and I don't want to go to the ER and be at the mercy of just anyone. I don't want surgery, but I do have to eat again sometime....

 

Any BTDT advice would be welcome.

 

Leanna

-who does not have time to have surgery this week...or this year...

[KatieJ]

Leanna,

 

AFter the birth of my last child I experienced gall bladder issues. I do need to warn you that was about 20 years ago ..he is getting married this coming weekend!

He was about 6 weeks old and I was in the ER and Dr.s office several times. They wanted me to do surgery, but since I had an 18 month old, newborn, 7 yr old and 13 yr old and my hubby worked out of town 5 days a week, well, major surgery was not an option.

My sister told me about the gallbladder flush and I found a very knowledgable chiropractor to help me thru it. The worst part was the olive oil mixed with lemon juice..but I was determined to not have surgery at that point in my life. It takes a few repeat flushes to get completely cleaned out. I was ok then for about 5 years and then I started having attackes again. One day surgery was just the best thing to do. My kids were older, hubby was no longer working out of town and surgery was now a IVP (?) procedure instead of major abdominal surgery. We also had moved and I no longer had access to that wonderful chiropractor or the natural food stores that I needed to purchase the apple juice..etc.

I think having a knowledgable chiropractor made the whole thing work for me. He talked me thru each flush and gave me adjustments to help along the way.

[Lori Di]

I had gall bladder problems that I ignored until.....A week before I was going to Italy, I had an attack. I went to the doctor and he sent me to get an ultrasound. I had over thirty yes 30 stones! They wanted to operate right away. NO!!!!I was going to Italy, and so I went. Two weeks later arriving at Newark airport, I had another attack. I went to the hospital and I had an infection in my pancreas and had to wait for surgery in the hospital for a week without eating. It was terrible! They took my gall bladder out and I have been fine ever since. My advise...Go to the doctor!

[MIch elle]

I have been having vague burning sensations in my upper right abdomen, off and on for a week. Last night I ate a bowl of potato soup with cheese and was basically miserable for about 3 hours. I was nauseated, had burning on my right side, and occasional shooting pains. Not the worst thing in the world, but not something I want to repeat.

 

Here's the biggest problem. My Dr. passed away in Dec. and I haven't found a new one yet. Someone was covering for him until today. I'm not in enough pain to go to the ER, and I don't want to go to the ER and be at the mercy of just anyone. I don't want surgery, but I do have to eat again sometime....

 

Any BTDT advice would be welcome.

 

Leanna

-who does not have time to have surgery this week...or this year...

 

My gallbladder problems became HUGH because I didn't know what it was. 2 trips to the ER (1st time ER thought it was acid reflux) after taking pain meds for too long turned into a liver infection which had to be drained (bag for several months) and then fluid in my lung (4 trips to the ER; they thought I had a blood clot) before my gallbladder was removed. AND untold PAIN like I've never experienced in my life (2nd pregnancy NO pain meds too). It was SIX months of misery!

 

DON'T wait to see a doctor! :grouphug:

[JFSinIL]

My teen dd has had similar discomfort for over a YEAR including one time that must have been a stuck stone, as she was in PAIN (yet did not have appendicitis symptoms so we did not go to the doctor.) She finally did get an abdominal ultrasound in December - it looked bad enough she had the gall bladder taken out - it turns out it was long and skinny like a pencil, not shaped normal at all, hence it was spasming instead of squeezing out bile as needed which caused pain - has did the many stones lining it.

 

Had she been older, we might have thought of her gall bladder as source of the problem sooner. Poor baby!

[TN Mama]

I experienced gall bladder attacks when my oldest was 8 months old. They were horrible! The first time I had one I seriously thought I was going to die - much more painful than childbirth for me.

 

After we figured out it was the gall bladder, we scheduled outpatient/laproscopic surgery. I didn't want to have surgery because I was still breastfeeding, but I didn't want to have another attack either. Dd was fine and I was so much happier post-op!

 

While waiting to have surgery I was told to take 2 advil if I started to have an attack to stop the pain. That only happened once,but I was amazed that it worked.

[dangermom]

I just stopped eating cheese or anything fatty, and that worked fine until I had the surgery about six weeks later. No more pain.

[TN Mama]

I just stopped eating cheese or anything fatty, and that worked fine until I had the surgery about six weeks later. No more pain.

 

I also stopped eating cheese & drinking milk, but veggies got me. I'm beyond glad that I don't have to deal with that any longer.

[cjzimmer1]

I have never heard about the flushes so have no opinion on that. My mom was able to postpone surgery about 6 months by changing her diet. Basically she ate baked fish or baked chicken. No fats, no dairy, no spices, no sauces, no acidic foods (including fruits) you get the picture. I'm sure she ate a few other things but all I remember was the endless fish and chicken. BUt it got her through the time period where surgery wasn't an option. Her doctor was able to advise her on foods that would help during this time.

 

On the other hand, when my gallbladder went out, I went from mild nausea to severe vomiting to excruciating admomal pain in just 2 days. I then spent 2 days just rolling on the floor in extreme pain because I lived in a small town and there was no surgeon because he was out of town for the holiday weekend. Unmedicated childbirth is a piece of cake compared to gallbladder pain.

 

At the very minimum I would find a doctor, any doctor, even if you hate them and never will see them again and get an ultrasound done and see what shape you are in. If it's just sludge a change in diet might stave things off, if you have stones or stones in ducts, you will probably have to consider surgery sooner rather than later.

[JenAL]

I just had my gallbladder removed Dec 29th. I had been having trouble with it for a while but I put off doing anything about it b/c I didn't want surgery. I knew it was my gallbladder...Well, the attacks finally got frequent enough & severe enough that I finally saw a dr & had an ultrasound. I had many stones & decided to go ahead with surgery. Before my scheduled surgery date, I had a major attack & landed in the ER. Fortunately, my surgeon went ahead with my surgery while I was there. I am so glad to have it taken care of.

 

It's best to at least get checked out by a dr. If left untreated, your gallbladder can become inflamed & infected and it could lead to pancreatitis as well. It can become VERY serious & life threatening.

[Saille]

If there's any chance that you're going to have more kids, I'd particularly recommend surgery. Sorry. The gb can go septic during delivery, which means emergency surgery with general anesthesia, which can screw up nursing and just generally be awful.

 

The only thing that worked for my gall bladder attacks was to just get up (they happened at night) and do something that engaged my brain so I wouldn't have to think about it. I did a lot of elimination diets when they thought it was reflux, and nothing helped.

 

ETA that the laproscopy was MUCH less invasive than you'd think. Four little incisions. No stitches. Just tape.

[Leanna Tomlinson]

Thanks everyone. Just knowing others have BTDT is comforting. I am presently gathering info about different dr.s Unfortunately, I got up my courage to call one and he isn't taking new patients. :tongue_smilie:

 

I guess I'll just stick with a low-fat diet until I can get in with someone. I still haven't eaten today and I'm not looking forward to it. Hopefully the Advil will work for me. At least I know some of you were able to delay treatment with diet, because it doesn't look like I'm going to get an appointment today.

 

Thanks,

Leanna

[lisamarie]

I haven't had gallbladder issues but I thought I was last year. I kept getting burning pain on my right side right below my ribs. It made me nauseated. I got it checked out and it wasn't my gallbladder. I'm having a total memory block here but they did a test where they injected stuff into my blood stream to see if it was my gallbladder and the test showed my gallbladder was fine but that I was having bile reflux where the bile from my small intestine was backing up into my stomach. Yeck! I now only get it occasionally, especially when I take antibiotics or vitamins. I was sick last month and the antibiotics really made it act up, then my vit D levels are really low so I tried taking a multi vit and it flared up big time, so I'm only taking straight vit D which seems to be working out okay.

[Quiver0f10]

I was terrified of surgery and am the type of person to treat things naturally. I postponed surgery @ 15 months by eating a very low fat, high fiber diet. I lost a lot of weight and felt great but by the time I did have surgery my GB was hardened, my liver was not working properly and I was in constant pain. It took About 6 months after surgery for my liver levels to return to normal and for the whole area to stop aching.

 

Many people have stones but unless you have symptoms it isn't an issue, but once you start having attacks the stones won’t just go away on their own.

 

I personally do not believe in doing flushes. I studied it and feel they don't work. Below is a picture of my largest stone. Yes, that is a quarter. There is NO way that would have flushed out and I probably would have gotten very very sick had I tried.

 

[Brooketopia]

I had a gall bladder attack when my second child was about six months old. Geez, what an awful experience! I had that sucker taken out the next day...took about three days to start moving about again, and about two or three weeks until I felt pretty good/normal again.

 

Goodness, I never wanted to feel that way again, so glad I had surgery. The scars are pretty much non-existent now, three years later.

[Starr]

By the time I had surgery I was eating chicken soup and bread and not much of that. I lost 25 pounds. I was tired and miserable. They found something like 200 small stones.

[Leanna Tomlinson]

personally do not believe in doing flushes. I studied it and feel they don't work. Below is a picture of my largest stone. Yes, that is a quarter. There is NO way that would have flushed out and I probably would have gotten very very sick had I tried.[/font][/color]

 

 

 

Thank you for this. I'm coming to that conclusion and I don't think I'm going to try doing the flush.

 

I can't get in with a Dr. until Monday. I guess it's bread and water for me.

 

Leanna

[TheTwinsMom1]

Before I had my gallbladder removed I was down to only eating Peanut Butter sandwichs. It was the only thing my body would tolerate with out causing major attacks to happen. I had surgery in the morning and went home in the afternoon, I woke up from surgery feeling 1000% better than I did before I went in.

[kalanamak]

Thanks everyone. Just knowing others have BTDT is comforting. I am presently gathering info about different dr.s Unfortunately, I got up my courage to call one and he isn't taking new patients. :tongue_smilie:

Leanna

 

You don't have to go to your gp. Skip the middle guy and go right to the best general surgeon in town.

[kalanamak]

Thank you for this. I'm coming to that conclusion and I don't think I'm going to try doing the flush.

 

I can't get in with a Dr. until Monday. I guess it's bread and water for me.

 

Leanna

 

And if it does pass, it can give a temporary plug to your pancreas and give you inflammation there that is painful, expensive, and can scar, giving you a tendency to get bouts of (I can't say how bad these are) pancreatitis.

 

Surgery is safer if you don't wait until you are septic, too.

[Ruby]

Just my two cents here. I had a year or so when I was having attacks and didn't know what they were. finally ended up with and ultrasound and found that I have a lot of stones. The doc said I needed to have it taken out but what i was frustrated with was the fact that with all of our modern day medical knowledge he still couldn't tell me what makes a gall bladder inflamed or pass stones. My insurance deductible was 4000 bucks and I figured if I was going to pay that anyway I might as well go to a naturopath and check my options. She gave me some natural supplements to specifically support my gall bladder and we had a long talk about lifestyle etc. We ran a hair analysis and saliva test and got some great feedback as to what was going on inside my body on a hormonal and nutritional level. I altered what I was eating and drank a ton more water. For me I took it more as a warning signal about the way I was treating my body. Lots of soda, not a lot of water, hardly any veggies, lots of carbs, sugars and fats. My poor gallbladder was seriously overworked as was the rest of my body. I did lose about 20 lbs. over the course of about 6 months because I was afraid before seeing the naturopath. That is one way to break the cookie habit. Your gall bladder does need to have some fat everyday though so going cold turkey on the fat can irritate it just as bad. I decreased my portion sizes and kept my fat grams to around 10-15 grams at the most and would wait four hours in between meals. I could time my attacks at that point. If I had too much fat or a super heavy meal, within four hours I would have an attack. I learned to work with my body and take stock of my overall health and have been pain free for 2 years. I do know others who have had the surgery and I think you will be fine if you do but for me I took it as a cry from my body to treat it a whole lot better. I still need to stay hydrated and watch the fat level but I'm doing great. So research all of your options first. If you can't get a handle on it then consider the surgery because I too have sat on the couch for 2 days in excruciating pain and it probably wasn't a good thing. I know that complications can be critical. I did go 2 days drinking only sport drinks to give my body a rest. Anyway I'm rambling. I feel your pain. After a heavy dinner I too would awake and end up on the bathroom floor where it was cool for hours waiting for the pain to stop. Probably the most excruciating pain I have ever felt. Hugs to you. Ruby:grouphug:

[MariannNOVA]

My advice would be NOT to do the flush before seeing a doctor and definitely not doing the flush so soon on the heels of an apparent gall bladder attack.

 

I had GB issues with one of my pregnancies, and thankfully it cleared up as soon as dd was delivered.

 

I do have to watch what I eat - going overboard on fatty foods will cause me great misery. There are alternatives to surgery - you might research alternative or homeopathic treatments.

 

In the short term, however, diet changes will bring you relief and the doctor can prescribe something when he/she sees you that will help.

[MariannNOVA]

Just my two cents here. I had a year or so when I was having attacks and didn't know what they were. finally ended up with and ultrasound and found that I have a lot of stones. The doc said I needed to have it taken out but what i was frustrated with was the fact that with all of our modern day medical knowledge he still couldn't tell me what makes a gall bladder inflamed or pass stones. My insurance deductible was 4000 bucks and I figured if I was going to pay that anyway I might as well go to a naturopath and check my options. She gave me some natural supplements to specifically support my gall bladder and we had a long talk about lifestyle etc. We ran a hair analysis and saliva test and got some great feedback as to what was going on inside my body on a hormonal and nutritional level. I altered what I was eating and drank a ton more water. For me I took it more as a warning signal about the way I was treating my body. Lots of soda, not a lot of water, hardly any veggies, lots of carbs, sugars and fats. My poor gallbladder was seriously overworked as was the rest of my body. I did lose about 20 lbs. over the course of about 6 months because I was afraid before seeing the naturopath. That is one way to break the cookie habit. Your gall bladder does need to have some fat everyday though so going cold turkey on the fat can irritate it just as bad. I decreased my portion sizes and kept my fat grams to around 10-15 grams at the most and would wait four hours in between meals. I could time my attacks at that point. If I had too much fat or a super heavy meal, within four hours I would have an attack. I learned to work with my body and take stock of my overall health and have been pain free for 2 years. I do know others who have had the surgery and I think you will be fine if you do but for me I took it as a cry from my body to treat it a whole lot better. I still need to stay hydrated and watch the fat level but I'm doing great. So research all of your options first. If you can't get a handle on it then consider the surgery because I too have sat on the couch for 2 days in excruciating pain and it probably wasn't a good thing. I know that complications can be critical. I did go 2 days drinking only sport drinks to give my body a rest. Anyway I'm rambling. I feel your pain. After a heavy dinner I too would awake and end up on the bathroom floor where it was cool for hours waiting for the pain to stop. Probably the most excruciating pain I have ever felt. Hugs to you. Ruby:grouphug:

 

 

Way to go!!!!!!! One of my older daughters took the homeopathic/alternative route and she is feeling much better -- took about a year and plenty of changes but she is much healthier!

[OrganicAnn]

I began vomiting. At first is was once every 6 months, then every month, then weekly and then non stop vomiting. I didn't know what was causing it. I thought food poisoning, stomach flu etc.

 

Gall bladder was removed. No problems after that.

[Peela]

Its not normal to "need" to remove an important organ from your body! It may be considered "normal" because so many people are unhealthy, and doctors know no alternative (what incentive do they have? )

It is a lifestyle/ diet related issue. It is totally reversible. Surgery is easier in one way, for sure, but what organ is the next to suffer? YOu are cutting out a symptom, not eliminating the cause of the problem.

Research gallbladder flush.