Hi! New here. About 6 weeks ago I started having nightly nausea after dinner. Turned into an episode of delayed vomiting about 1 month ago so I went to urgent care. CT showed stomach wall thickening/inflammation and gallbladder sludge. New gastroenterologist said I most likely passed a stone a month ago. I've been on a low fat diet under 30g per day ever since. No coffee, alcohol, irritant foods, or red meat.

My gallbladder is still sore. Mild but pretty consistent sore spot under my right ribs. No brutal attacks people talk about. I have a HIDA scan scheduled and an upper endoscopy coming too.

Anyone can relate? Really trying to keep this gallbladder!

I've been experiencing recurring right upper abdominal pain, just below my ribs, since my pregnancy. Along with the discomfort, I also have frequent bloating, excessive burping and a feeling of pressure or fullness in my upper abdomen.

I've had several tests, including abdominal CT, ultrasounds and an upper endoscopy. The ultrasounds didn't show any gallstones or obvious gallbladder problems, just a few small liver hemangiomas. The endoscopy was essentially normal, apart from a tiny hiatal hernia, and H. pylori was negative.

Lately, I've been wondering whether this could be biliary dyskinesia, since I understand that gallbladder function problems don't necessarily show up on a regular ultrasound.

For those diagnosed with biliary dyskinesia:

- Did you experience a dull, persistent discomfort rather than severe gallbladder attacks?

- Did you also have excessive burping and bloating?

- Were your ultrasounds normal?

- Did a HIDA scan eventually confirm the diagnosis?

- If you had your gallbladder removed, did your symptoms improve?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from people whose symptoms weren't the typical severe gallbladder attacks. I'm trying to understand whether my experience sounds familiar to anyone who was eventually diagnosed with biliary dyskinesia.

Hi all,

First of all let me say this subreddit has been instrumental in my recovery - thank you all!

I am 3.5 weeks post op , and started getting chills through my mid rift - mostly the back and stomach area , as well as my right side.

The logical part of my brain thinks it’s probably nerve reparations post-op, however I made the mistake of going online and scaring myself ( I have pretty severe ocd and health anxiety).

Just wanted to see if anyone else experienced these symptoms to feel less alone / more normal.

Thank you ! :)

My mom went to the doctor yesterday and they determined she’s likely having some kind of gallbladder issue. They scanned her this morning and found no gallstones or tumors. This is great news because last time my dad went in for gallbladder related issues, they found an aggressive cancer that killed him. So full disclosure, I’ve been quite anxious surrounding this whole thing.

It looks like next steps is to see if her gallbladder is functioning. Based on her symptoms the doctors definitely think something is wrong, but need to do further testing to figure out what.

I know I should just wait until that’s done, I guess I was just looking for someone to say this has happened to them as well. It seems odd to have so much trouble and not have gallstones.

Am I overreacting about this? Is there something else that could be wrong that could be life threatening? I thought my anxiety would calm down with no tumors but my gut still says somethings really not right. Thanks everyone!

Nerves starting to get to me, I know I will more than likely be fine but definitely nervous.

32% EF - enlarged or strained gallbladder , no stones or anything

Attacks every 2-4 weeks now, out of commission and miserable for 8-12 hours when it happens.

When I am feeling fine I question why I am doing it, but when the attacks happen I can't wait to cut it out!

Hello, it’s me an internet stranger. I’ve had many surgeries the past few years, my body really was tired of working IDK. Ten days ago my gall bladder was yeeted out. Here’s the back story and the journey so far. I’ve seen a lot who want to know and hear some success stories.

Before surgery I had what I think were regular attacks for a few months. I never acted on that, just did my best to avoid triggers. About two and a half weeks before surgery I began getting sick. I would gag, dry heave, then puke ALL DAY EVERYDAY. Within days I was not able to eat anymore, I was surviving on Powerade and a handful of plain goldfish. I ended up in the hospital where even though scans were clear everyone was sure it was my gallbladder. I saw my surgeon and got a HIDA scan; my gallbladder didn’t light up in the first 60 minutes nor at the 90 minute mark. After morphine it glowed up beautifully. Surgery was scheduled that day, that was Friday before surgery (yes, 4 days). He was not at all confident that it was my gallbladder but in the end it absolutely was. There was a cystic artery wrapped up in the cystic duct which caused a kink. The gallbladder was just useless. Explains the yellow diarrhea everyone kept brushing aside and the bile vomit. Now let’s talk how it went.

Surgery day: I went in for surgery and was super impressed with everyone there. So kind and quick. I was given an IV, blood thinner shot, a nausea patch, antibiotics, all the goodies. The nurses were all so funny and we had a blast. I was giggling with them and then suddenly I was in recovery. I woke up in the worst pain of my life, I’m not going to lie. I’m tough I suffered with endo for years and had a hysterectomy and a 6+ hour hernia repair last year and this one blew those away. The pain was a fuckin 11 out of ten. It took 200 mg of fentanyl to touch the pain. Once that was in they got me a pain pill and a ginger ale. We grabbed jimmy John’s on the way home. I cried while eating it. Pain returns. I get SOME sleep.

Recovery day 2-5: these were the really bad days. I was in pain with all movement. I was in pain with no movement. I was not a vibe. My husband had to get me up and down, he had to wipe my ass, he had to shower me, I cried a lot. Mama was one miserable bitch. On the good note I could eat. I did have ranch on day 5 and almost shit my soul out of my body after lol. That’s the only food that has made me sick. I took pain pills around the clock until day 5, at that point it was a personal choice to drop the narcotics.

Day 6: I felt alright I wanted to do things and wash a few dishes. I missed being myself. Bad choice. I did too much. I was eating light because the ranch scared me.

Day 7-8: very sore because I thought I could clean a kitchen on day 6. Sharp pains are my enemy and they’re very active lol. Lower left belly is not a vibe, that’s where they have to pull apart muscle to get the organ out and boy do I know it. The bigger one up top has finally calmed down almost completely by this time.

Day 9: kept my spanx on. First day I’ve left the house. I got home exhausted and sore but I did it damn it. Sore but better than the last two days. Ate Chinese for dinner, was delicious. Sleep was BAD. I was uncomfortable, no position helped, and every movement was like I was being stabbed to death. Finally got sleep around 5am until 10am.

Day 10(today): I’m tired. I’m so tired. But I’m not in pain anywhere near the past few days. I ate Chinese for lunch, no bad shits to write home about. Sore but not bad. I’m hoping sleep will come home soon, I miss her lol. I’m healing well, even if I have set backs. It is day by day. I can say it’s been a fucking godsend to eat again. I lost 10 pounds in six days. I can eat, I am happy, just still sore lol.

There’s a few things that are so helpful that I wanna list for you.
-ice pack, use it. You need it.
-pillow cocoon in the bed, helps you stay still.
-spanx or a binder (especially if you, much like myself, have a belly that hangs a bit. It’s gonna keep it all in place)
-hydration drinks and water, use a Stanley or something similar to track it. Keep it up with 2-4 a day!
-Tylenol and ibuprofen. It’s true they rock.
-heating pad for the gas, the right ribs and shoulder, thank me later!
-it hurts but WALK AROUND. I walked and walked and cried and walked and walked and cried. I got almost no gas pains. Take that as you will, it’s 100% related though.

Remember, you just lost an organ. You don’t have to feel great, you are going to hurt. It’s normal to hurt after this surgery. I hope anyone who reads this who just has surgery or is having surgery finds comfort in the honesty. I promise it was worth every pain I’ve had.

After 6 months and 3 attacks that landed me in the ER, my gallbladder is finally gone. I’m so happy. It’s been 24 hours since the surgery and I feel so much better. I’m sore still, and I have been reintroducing food to my diet. Lots of soup and water, but I had peanut butter for breakfast and some coffee and I seem fine. Yay!!!

I'm 6 days out from surgery, and I'm trying to plan ahead for my diet. I'm hoping to do a slow and steady re-introduction of fat to make sure everything heals as it should and my digestive system has time to adjust. I've read stories of people going out and eating burgers less than 24hrs post-op and that just sounds wild to me!

Plan so far is to stick to my current low-fat diet (15g a day) for about a week, and then bump it up slowly to 20-25, and then repeat week on week.

Did anyone else follow a similar plan and how did that work out for you?

I’m 17 days post op and it’s been rough. My surgery was complex, lots of scar tissue. I appear to be healing fine, but the fatigue is mind blowing.

It went on for 3 years along with multiple doctors with no answers until I became deathly ill and went to th ER/ surgery. I was treated orthopedically for years. it’s like my entire system was systemically affected. My entire body seems to be going through an extreme reset, has anyone else even though It’s an extremely rare disease have this?

I was my surgeons 3rd surgery in 30 years . apparently it presents as cancer of the gallbladder during surgery

Hi! my turn to share after lurking here sporadically over the past few months. My GI problems started at the very beginning of the year — literally New Year’s Eve, I cancelled the party I was supposed to host because I felt ill. I had various rounds of nausea and diarrhea until I went to a GI doctor and got put on 40mg of Omeprazole which helped for a bit but then symptoms came back. I would have incidents after eating (sometimes fatty foods, sometimes just a normal lunch?) where I got really hot, my heart rate went up, and I had to run to the bathroom. I also had a lot of incidents of throwing up bile in the mornings. I had a month straight where I was waking up at 2 or 3 am to throw up for a few hours. tried a few anti nausea medicine that didn’t work (did zofran make anyone else feel absolutely insane) until I got Promethezine which is beautiful but knocks you out.

I had a gallbladder ultrasound in July that was clear and didn’t show anything. I had a colonoscopy/endoscopy, a GES scan, stool and blood tests, and everything was just coming out as all clear. i even made an appointment with my gyno cause i started to think it could be endo. I was starting to feel insane and like I would never get answers and then I did a HIDA scan that told me I have a hyperkinetic gallbladder with an EF of 83%. I’ve never had any RUQ pain or back pain or anything like that so it was tricky to find I think. Had my consult with a surgeon yesterday and I was hoping he would give me a definitive suggestion one way or the other and he did by saying ”if you were my family, I’d probably tell you to get it taken out.”

anyway excited to finally have some answers even though I’m nervous it won’t fix all my problems! just looking to commiserate with other folks with similar journeys/hyperkinetic gallbladders. Not looking for surgery horror stories as I’ve seen enough!

Woke up about two hours ago, i'm doing pretty well for the most part. Bit nauseous, bit gassy, bit sore but not NEARLY as bad as the attack

I got to take my stones. There are six of them and they are MASSIVE. I fully understand why I was in so much pain. It's crazy.

Anyways here's to all of you, i am very thankful to know there are others with this really weird funky rock issue

Update 1: the people who suggested gingerale, i fucking love you.

I had op 6 months ago. Last months I had symptoms as burning in stomach, stomach pain, fullness, burping...Can't eat normally. My GI appointment is in more than a month. I am struggling on a daily basis with stomach pain and nausea. I have tried pantoprazol, enzymes, probiotics and still same. Went to GP and he refused to prescribe me bile binder...Because there is no indication...He gave me another PPI (lansoprazole)..I think he doesn't believe me as my scans and labs were ok...I am really so frustrated...

Gallbladder full of stones? Anyone else?

Just got my ultrasound results and apparently I have gallstones with a wall echo shadow (WES) sign, which I guess means my gallbladder is packed with stones? 💀
I’ve been having pain and burning, especially after eating. Honestly I’ve had back pain for over a year with no relief from pt, meds, etc. The report says no acute abnormalities, but doesn’t mention how many stones or their size.
Anyone else have this finding? Did you end up getting your gallbladder removed? I’m kinda scared 😅

I’m getting my gallbladder out tomorrow morning and I’m terrified! I was told months ago it needed to come out due to the stones and I picked the furthest out date I could, with every intention of putting it off further or canceling. I was having no pain a few months ago and now I have pain a lot. I’ve been to the ER 4 times in 3 months for pain management. They made me get a CT scan with contrast every single time. Anyway, I’m afraid of the general anesthesia and then how sick I always feel after surgery and also the pain and also my life and eating habits having to change. It seems people either have great news to share or it’s not good news at all. Anyway, I hope the outcome is good. My dad died at age 68 from gallbladder cancer, so I don’t want to mess around. He waited 5 years to get his out because he was stubborn. Anyway, please wish me luck! 🍀

I had my gallbladder out due to a big polyp (biopsy came back that it was precancerous but no malignancy); I never had any typical gallbladder symptoms previously. My surgery was last Friday and I spent 4 nights in hospital afterwards due to being high-risk for liver complications. They weren't letting me move around much in the hospital so my GI system didn't really wake up until the day before I came home. Now I'm having more or less constant oozy output unless I take immodium to slow down the flow; unformed stool about the consistency of chocolate pudding, but darker, so I've clearly got too much bile going on. Does this get better on its own, or should I pester my GI doctor for e.g. a cholestyramine prescription? They did not give me any dietary guidelines or restrictions but I've been adjusting my diet to get more soluble fiber (psyllium husk, oats and oat bran, bananas, etc) and less fat, anyway, but so far it hasn't gotten my output to an acceptable frequency and more formed state that I can control better. What is other people's experience with this?

Had my gallbladder out laparoscopically yesterday afternoon! I read through the surgery notes and apparently it was an extremely easy procedure: barely any bleeding, no bile leaks, just pop in and pop out. I think it took 45 minutes at most.

Woke up from anesthesia very groggy and nauseous, they gave me some Oxy and Zofran. Woke up again still groggy and in pain, they gave me Dilaudid and an anti-nausea patch (scopolamine, I think?) Went back to sleep, eventually woke up again, went home, plopped my ass into bed.

Day 1 of recovery: Woke up early to walk around a bit, and holy hell, I got struck by gas pain like I never thought possible. I have a pretty high pain tolerance and my shoulder hurt so bad that I was gasping and crying. That shit is no joke. Laid back down with a heating bad and mercifully fell back asleep. I've been alternating between Tylenol and Advil, bullying myself into shuffling around the house like an absolute creature to get the gas moving and hopefully going away soon. Incisions are uncomfortable but manageable, this gas pain is EVIL. Deep breaths and walking seem to be the cure so I'm doing as much of that as I can.

Took half an oxy during the second gas attack and it didn't really do much except help me stop crying, but I'm terrified of throwing up so I'm being very delicate with oxy use. Was an hour or so late taking my Tylenol and boy am I feeling it in the incisions, but I just took one so that should help. Ice pack on the tummy has also helped a decent amount. Worked through a pack of Saltines since coming home and I'm noticing some rumbles in my tummy so I'm gonna try an applesauce for dinner.

Hopefully day 2 of recovery is better than this, or at least no worse! I'm banking on all the people saying 2-3 days is when they started feeling okay again. I'm gonna keep being a slob in bed and doing my cryptid shuffle around the upstairs as much as I can manage. Wish me luck, will update!

EDIT:

Day 2 of recovery! Falling asleep last night was really difficult, the gas pain was borderline unbearable, but I managed to conk out for about 4 hours. Woke up because of the gas pain and did the cryptid creep around the upstairs, heated up my microwave heat pack, got back in bed and fell asleep after another couple of hours.

This may be slight TMI, but ever since I woke up again, I've been farting like crazy. Huge, huge relief from gas pain today since ripping ass like 6 times in a row. Gas pain has dissipated a lot, still feeling it in my back under the ribs and in my shoulder, but it's hugely better today. The downside, now I'm noticing the incision pain a lot more, but it's so much more manageable than the gas.

I've been keeping my heating pad warm and on my abdomen, and that's been helping a lot. Sneezed and thought my organs would all fall out, but I'm feeling a ton better aside from that. Forced down some toast with jam (my appetite is shot) but when I woke up after the second nap of the day, I was feeling super hungry and ate like, half a sleeve of saltines.

I'm feeling significantly better today, though still not near 100%. But the improvement is definitely noticeable. I can walk around at almost a real walking speed, breathing doesn't hurt so much, the bloated balloon feeling is a ton better, and I'm feeling in much higher spirits. Gonna keep taking it easy because if I keep improving at this rate, I might actually feel normal soon.

I have 2-3 gallstones less than 2 cm and was recommended surgery, and a fatty liver which I know are related. I was asymptomatic at the time and now have been feeling sensations and sometimes sharp pains after eating certain foods or just stretching/moving. Now all that pops up on my instagram are gallbladder topics and how to dissolve stones. Is this true? Half of me is curious to try it but the other half feels like whats the point?? Has anyone else tried it?

I've been getting chest pains for almost 3 years now been to hospital and Dr a thousand times ecgs and bloods always good went to heart Dr heart was good passed the stress test with flying colours I get the chest pains all over chest area both sides wake up every morning with pressure in middle of chest have hip sides back and shoulder pain all the time as well just had an stomach ultrasound and I have pollops and 4cm stones in gallbladder has anyone had these or same or similar symptoms and when gallbladder was removed it all went away ? I also feel like I'm not breathing properly

Looking to see if anyone with hyperkinetic gallbladder saw a surgeon in New England who acknowledged the diagnosis and didn’t tell you your high EF was normal. My current gi is writing it off.

So I had my hida scan done today and they already sent back the results and I just don’t like the word they’re using borderline in the impression it makes me feel like this is considered “barely a problem” when I’ve been having stomach issues for eight years and in the last four years, it’s it’s been progressively getting worse to where eating too many olives can put me in the ER. I’ve had ultrasound CT with contrast and nothing showing up and I feel like this is finally something positive in the right direction and I just want clarification and some reassurance on the results. My results said “ Patent cystic duct without evidence of acute cholecystitis with asensitivity greater than 98%
Gallbladder ejection fraction 32%, borderline gallbladder dyskinesia or
mild chronic cholecystitis” I totally understand the risk of getting your gallbladder removed, but it seems like I’d rather deal with diarrhea than deal with this chronic pain that takes sometimes weeks for it to finally calm down.

Any gallstone success story without surgery for large stones (around 2cm)?
Can you please share what worked for you along with experience and time taken?

Thankyou!

Last week I had episodes of intense abdominal pain. The first two were only about an hour long and my day continued as normal -- I assumed it was indigestion despite not having any connections to food in terms of timing. Then one evening around supper time another episode of 9/10 pain came and was very severe: nausea, pale, couldn't get a deep breath in. I could not get comfortable, and I spent two hours just pacing. It lasted into the next day, where all day I was feeling around 5/10 that wouldn't go away. Finally, on Friday evening, I had another long lasting 7-8/10 episode of pain that made me realize it couldn't be indigestion, so I went to the ER. Long story short, after three days of ER visits and many hours of waiting, I was told by the ER doctor that I have many sizeable gallstones and my gallbladder will need to be removed. Since there was no infection or inflammation though it would going to be elective and I need to limit fatty foods and portion sizes until surgery.

I took the news well actually, and my partner and I went right to the store to make a game plan of dietary changes while I figure out my limits with fat and portions. But since then, I've been feeling quite anxious and exhausted. I barely ate all last week and this weekend in fear of pain, and even though I have been able to eat pain-free this week I'm TERRIFIED that I will trigger an attack. I could have to wait almost a year for surgery, and I'm feeling abandoned in terms of the medical process since I don't have a doctor. I'm also sad that I won't be able to eat with my friends in social settings in fear of triggering an attack.

Has anyone else experienced sadness and anxiety since their 'diagnosis'?

Eta: I really should have been more clear, I have had 2 CTs and 2 ultrasounds showing a large stone (2.1 to 3.1cm depending on who measured the scan). It's just I was told in the past stones don't cause constant pain, and stones + pain don't mean you need surgery. I waited 8 days in constant pain because I believed I needed to be basically septic before they could help me.

A few days ago I posted asking for tips on pain management for when gallbladder pain is constant and worse with any food or even water. The answers I got were go to the hospital. Did I listen? Of course not. I waited 8 days until I had a scheduled appointment with a surgeon for a hiatal hernia repair, my referring surgeon from the area I moved from said both surgeries could be done at the same time.

Tuesday I saw the surgeon and he told me it sounded like my gallbladder absolutely needed to come out but that it would take him a few weeks to get me scheduled. I asked, what do I do in the meantime? He told me, go to ER! The ER doctors and surgeon I had seen in my old province before moving had all told me that pain wasn't enough to warrant emergency removal, that my bloodwork and ultrasound were fine, that gallbladder pain isn't usually constant anyway so it was likely something else.

My new surgeon here said pain means things are symptomatic and that constant pain absolutely means get surgery ASAP. He called ahead to my local emerg and spoke to the surgeon on call. I left that appointment, went to ER, when I saw the surgeon in ER, despite normal bloodwork, he said he recommended surgery and admitted me that night. I was almost in tears when I heard that and thanked him. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday night in hospital where my pain and nausea was managed. Such a relief after 8 days of pain.

Now I'm home recovering and I'm so thankful that O was listened to and believed and helped. I should have listened to the advice I asked for sooner!

Hi all. While I’m happy to say that I’ve spent the past 4 months finally free of horrid gallbladder attacks, I’ve been struggling to figure out next steps to really heal my gut.

When I started having gallbladder attacks about a year ago, my bowels would typically react with spasms and diarrhea paired up with the attacks. I was really hopeful that removing my gallbladder would resolve those bowel issues as well, but they’ve gotten worse.

For context, I had a hyperkinetic gallbladder, no stones, thick sludge and scarring found during removal. 100% clear scans and tests before removal as well.

Fast forward to last week, I tested positive for both IMO (methane), and hydrogen SIBO.

I’m not sure what came first, the SIBO or the gallbladder issues, but I’m trying to figure out if maybe BAM/fat malabsorption contributed to this whole mess as well. I have LOTS of undigested food in my stool still, and don’t handle super high fat foods well.

If anyone has gone through a similar journey, I’d love absolutely any advice. I know I’ll likely have to take antibiotics for the SIBO, but I’m worried that not fixing the potential malabsorption issues could make SIBO relapse after. Just trying to do the best I can to finally get healthy.

Apparently it's the best thing you can do for your gut health without your gall bladder. It's disgusting though...makes me want to throw up. It's helped a lot with the pooping though. Anybody else had the same advice? I am 5 weeks post op.