Gallstones....anyone had an attack and NOT had their gallbladder removed?

[ChristusG]

Last night I spent the night in the ER with a horrible gallbladder attack. What a crummy way to end Christmas. An ultrasound revealed stones. They gave me vicodin and the pain finally stopped....I feel pretty normal today. They said that gallbladder attacks are pretty common postpartum.

 

My dilemma is what to do next. They gave me the name of a surgeon and I'll be setting up a time to talk with him. But I'm just not sure what to do. I'm paranoid of another attack and don't know what brought it on. Ideally, if I have the surgery, I'd like to wait until my baby is closer to a year. She's 9 weeks now. I don't want our nursing relationship interrupted. Closer to a year she will be eating some solids, can go longer between feedings, and can be entertained with toys.

 

Has anyone had an attack and not had any more issues and kept their gallbladder? Any experiences?

[Hockey Mom]

:grouphug:

 

I had mine removed shortly after the birth of my DD. The attacks just got progressively worse for me. Mind you, it's been 19 years since mine was removed, but I recall only being sore for about a day or two. So while it's still surgery, it's not they type of surgery that will lay you out for a week or two. You should definitely discuss your options with the surgeon.

[GraciebytheBay]

Unfortunately, I had to have my gallbladder out after an E.R. visit much like you describe. However, in retrospect, I was able to see that my worst attacks were after eating high fat foods. (The E.R. night was after a Christmas party with high fat appetizers and cheesecake for dessert.:eek:)

 

My doctor said that I could try waiting and see what happened. What happened was horrible pain every time I ate anything with significant fat. Avoidance was obviously helpful. There wasn't always consistency, either. Sometimes I had an attack even when I had eaten normally.

 

I think if I were you, I would adjust my diet and see if that helps you stretch it out until you want to have surgery. If it is post-partum related, I suppose that will help as time goes on as well.

 

I also want to tell you that my niece had her gallbladder out when her daughter was three months old. I think she only had to stop nursing for 12 hours, and she was able to nurse when taking her pain meds after that. Patients go home the same day, assuming there are no problems. I opted to stay the night, but I was not nursing, or I'd have been home a.s.a.p.

 

Good luck to you. I know how disruptive this can be!

[Word Nerd]

I had two gb attacks while pregnant with my older DD, and they got worse post-partum. I had the surgery when she was a few months old after initially deciding to wait and see. Diet made little difference for me, and when the attacks started happening about every other day even when I hadn't eaten anything, I decided I'd had enough. Mine was an outpatient procedure, and I was back home the same day (though not back to normal immediately).

[lmrich]

no...but the surgery and recovery is easy compared to the pain and discomfort :grouphug:good luck

[melissel]

My mom had GB surgery just a few months ago, and it was incredibly easy for her--outpatient and very simple. My aunt also had GB surgery post-partum and still went on to nurse successfully for 9 months or so.

 

That said, my uncle has had three bad attacks and still has his GB. Hes experimented with his eating and is to the point where he's eating vegan-style (with a few leftover things he can't let go of yet, like an occasional shrimp :D). He says he feels great, has no more reflux, has lost 20 pounds, and has no more GB problems.

 

I'll be :bigear: for others' experiences. I know my GB is loaded with stones, but I'm not having any pain...yet. My doc wants me to have it out right away, but I don't see why, if it's not bothering me.

 

:grouphug: I hope you can push the surgery off for awhile and don't have anymore pain!

[teachermom2834]

My gall bladder surgery was easy and there was very little pain after. I took the pain medication for a very short time. I wasn't nursing and didn't have the motivation to quit taking it. I just didn't need it.

 

It is possible the surgery might not disrupt nursing as much as you think. It was such an easy procedure with easy recovery. I was amazed.

 

I think it is a gamble. You could put it off and hope you didn't have another attack for awhile. That might work out just fine but if you have a bad attack you might have to go in and have an emergency surgery. That would be much more traumatic with a hospital stay and cause much more disruption to nursing.

 

I think once you have gall bladder problems it is a matter of "when" not "if" you'll have more problems. It is a gamble to put it off. I ended up deciding to have mine out so I could have the easy less invasive procedure and do it when my dh was available. I'm so glad I did it that way.

[fhjmom]

Before my kids were born, I apparently had a "sludgy" gall bladder for a while and the pain that they kept telling me was panic attacks was actually from my gall bladder. They figured that out when I ended up in the hospital with pancreatitis, which can be a potentially very serious effect of gall stones. I was in the hospital with that over Christmas and they removed my gall bladder in February (long weekend over Presidents' Day) bc the doctor was too concerned to wait until Spring Break. I was still teaching and wanted to avoid using as many sick days as possible and I still had to push to get him to wait that long.

 

I understand your reason for wanting to put it off, but I would consider getting it done sooner rather than later if at all possible.

[regentrude]

I had my gallbladder out, and I am very happy with it.

 

It does not have to harm your nursing relationship, because gallbladder removal can be done very quickly as an outpatient procedure: I went in at 7am and was home in my own bed at 8:30am, spent one day resting and that was it.

Edited December 27, 2011 by regentrude

[Quiver0f10]

I put off having mine removed by eating a very low fat diet with lots of fiber. I made it about 16 months from diagnosis to removal, but by the time I got it out I was in pain just about all the time.

[Dolphin]

I just replied on the other thread

 

I had been passing stones since I was 14 (misdiagnosed with everything and finally as an over reactor with irritable bowel syndrome). Gall stones usually start after pregnancy (but sometime with other hormone changes such as puberty or menopause)

 

Anyway, I passed one stone when my daughter was 6 months old (on a plane, NOT FUN) then when she was 10 months old I got pancreatitis from the gall stones. 10 days in hospital and bye bye nursing. dd was not interested.

 

I would get it done on your schedule in a non emergency situation. It can be done key hole and if you rest you can be on tylenol and advil within 24 hours and nursing again.

[catz]

I have 2 friends who had to it done while their babies were small and had no problem getting back to nursing. It's a relatively simple procedure when it's a non-emergency. Certainly much easier than recovering from a typical c-section (which one of the mom's had before the gall bladder removal).

[Enough]

I DID have mine removed- but I totally understand your need to safeguard your nursing relationship, so I hope it's okay for me to respond. :)

 

Mine was an emergency/catastrophic scenario- and if I could go back and change anything, it would be to have had my gall bladder removed BEFORE it got that bad.

 

It can be a very- MINIMALLY- invasive procedure- even in my emergency scenario, the removal of the stones was the crazy fast/ER part, the actual removal of the gall bladder was laparascopic and not a big deal AT ALL.

 

It is very likely that it would be very easy to "schedule" a removal around your nursing baby, even one this young. Very likely, you can nurse right up to very soon before surgery, and depending on the medications used- you should be able to nurse even immediately after surgery, when you wake up. It's very likely that the medications used are the same (or very similar) to what is used for c-sections- and therefore should be totally okay for you to nurse right afterwards, if necessary.

 

Do you have access to a LLL leader? She would be able to research the medications and give you specific information about the medications and any contraindications (if any) with breastfeeding. FWIW, my pain meds made me sick to my stomach and I quite taking them very soon after surgery- the nausea was much, much, much worse than the pain.

[MrsMommy]

I haven't had mine removed, and it's been over five years since my first attack.

 

Even though I'll be having my fifth c-section in a few months, I can't stand the thought of another surgery. I've learned what foods to stay away from, and I've also learned that it's really more about portion size than what I'm eating. I've had a few flare-ups in these five years, but only one that was as bad as that first one.

 

Until it becomes a routine problem, I'm leaving it alone!

[LostSurprise]

You can usually put it off a bit with diet and care. Pump and freeze breastmilk until you feel more prepared.

 

I started having attacks a few months after my first was born. I put it off. By 9-10 months it was an emergency situation. The month before surgery I spent mostly in bed. That's not the case for everyone.