[health]

[wispfox]

Seems very likely that I have gallstones (will hopefully find out for sure on Thursday). Made for an... interesting weekend, and much of last week. I wish google would have taken my various symptoms and made the suggestion, instead of me having to notice a fat intake association, and guessing gallstones, because all of my recent various confusing symptoms fall under gallstones.

I'm really rather tired of having to worry about stones in my organs, dammit! Stupid hereditary things... (asked; it runs in my family, just like the kidney stones)

Ah, the joy.

Also? Ow. But at least now I know about the fat association and can _sleep_ at night without having to take strong painkillers.

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

(thinks)

(reconsiders seeing you as Queen of Pentacles, i.e., stones)

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

*stares at you in confusion*

You mean you already did, or you're thinking about starting to do so?

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

But unlike your kidneys, they can take away your gallbladder and nothing really bad happens. They just did this to my dad: the surgery is laproscopic, takes only a couple of hours, and generally only requires one night of hospital.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Possibly complicated in terms of what one can eat for a while, but still less complicated than things are _now_.

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

It can take 2-3 weeks to get back to normal, but aside from anesthesia-related stuff, the side effects postop are generally mild enough that restricted diets aren't necessary.

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

Gallstones are not fun. I'm very glad that I no long have any gall. :)

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Not having it is not affecting what you are able to eat?

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

The first year or so, I found that I had to watch high fat foods (e.g. cheese) and alcohol because my body was adjusting to the lack of participaton by the gallbladder (which normally aids in the digestion process by secreting more into your stomach as it needs it). However, now that my body has adjusted to the change, everything is back to normal and I don't experience any issues at all with any types of food.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Noted. Is a relief to hear that!

[randysmith]

"Fat Association" means "Don't eat as much fat, you can sleep at night?"

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Means don't eat _ANY_ fat before sleep - since bile from the gallbladder is necessary for fat processing, and probably is blocked by stones from putting bile into my digestive system - and I can sleep at night. Really, I'm avoiding all fat regardless of if it's before sleep, because it hurts too much if I eat it.

[randysmith]

Pardon my callousness, but I'm feeling really glad, because it sounds like you have a very likely diagnosis. That's fits all the symptoms I'm aware of you having, which is really cool.

But yeah, I'm not sure how to fit that diagnosis path with gallbladder removal not really cramping your style (in terms of what you can eat). Hopefully there are things that can be done about stones short of removal.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Someone replied above saying that the removal of it only caused need for caution about high fat foods for the first year or so, to allow the body to adjust to the lack of gallbladder participation. So perhaps it won't be awful.

[(Anonymous)]

Seriously, my dad had his out while in the hospital and reasonably sick with something else and could eat a normal diet without any unusual-given-his-other-conditions amount of pain within a couple of days. He was walking the day after surgery and off prescription pain meds in less than a week. Your gall bladder *holds* bile but doesn't make it, and it's very unusual to have any long-term effects from removal.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

ow - doesn't sound like fun at all.

[cutieperson]

boo :(

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

Gah! They thought my mom was getting these. She had "Sludge". It was awful. My deepest sympathies :(

n.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

What is 'sludge'?

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

The formation of biliary sludge involves a dynamic and reversible process. Composed of cholesterol crystals, calcium bilirubinate granules, and mucin glycoprotein suspended in bile, sludge may appear, disappear, and reappear. For most people with this condition, it ultimately either disappears, remains silent, evolves into gallstones, or causes acute cholecystitis or pancreatitis. (http://www.postgradmed.com/issues/2003/01_03/babb.htm)

Kinda like gallstones, but slushy. :(

n.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Ah. Yuck!

[psongster.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad to hear you have a working hypothesis that seems to be plausible, allows you to control the symptoms short-term, and is fix-able long-term.

But it would be nice for your body to give you a break for a while...

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

getting a break from my body: Quite. It would be nice, and is approximately the same thing my massage therapist said. :)

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you've got an idea of what it is. baratron has an ongoing battle with gallstones, and has posted some low-fat recipes. I'm starting to wonder why young women are so prone to gallstones.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

My various research online indicated something about estrogen causing the liver to take in more of what most often becomes gallstones in the gallbladder. So it's actually not surprising, although frustrating.

[alecto23.livejournal.com]

Stupid gall bladder! I'm sorry it's so painful and icky for you at the moment, but glad you have a probable diagnosis (and therefore possible solutions?).

*hug*

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Possible solution, yes, if gallstones. Surgery to remove the gallbladder.

Unfortunately, first I need to take care of a nasty case of constipation (probably caused by this, since bile is a laxitive), so I have to go back on Tuesday. And then, perhaps, ultrasound.

[australian-joe.livejournal.com]

Annoying that none of the doctors or the tests they ran suggested this... but I hope you're right, as it's treatable.

Luck!

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Ugh :/

Be aware that having your gall bladder removed isn't the only treatment - there exist drugs to dissolve gallstones. They don't work for gallstones that contain significant calcium deposits, but the type will show up on the ultrasound - calcium ones are much more opaque than cholesterol stones. Doctors will push for the surgical option because about 50% of people who have a bout of acute cholecystitis go on to have another within 5 years. That does, of course, mean there's another 50% who have no problems at all, but it seems doctors aren't very good at probability. It's perfectly possible for gallstones to go "quiet" after a flareup, where they exist without causing you any trouble at all.

My gall bladder currently contains around 10 stones of size 5-8mm. The bile duct is around 1.5mm in diameter, so these stones aren't small enough to try to escape. They aren't causing me much pain either, as long as I keep my daily fat intake below about 30g. I have completely changed my diet over the past year, and now I can't ever imagine eating what I used to. I eat an enormous amount of vegetables, fruit, rice & pasta, with tofu, small amounts of nuts & seeds, soy milk & desserts - and vast quantities of homemade cake. I have a gingerbread that is 0.25g of fat per large square, and chocolate brownies that are around 2g of fat per slice - I'm currently experimenting with a chocolate fairy cake recipe that should turn out a bit lower than the brownies, I think. I also make rice puddings, pancakes and all sorts of stir "frys" - it turns out that putting oil into a stir fry is purely optional if the wok is hot enough and you use vegetable stock instead.

I'm aware of several people who've had their gall bladders out and can now eat anything, and several others who have a range of problems, including two whose diets are more restricted now than before they had the operation and have to take several pills a day. Without a gall bladder, you have no regulatory system for bile, so it leaks constantly into the small intestine. In some people this can cause severe irritation, like IBS. I'm *told* that complications are rare, but I think it really depends on how good your digestive system was before. People who were otherwise healthy tend to recover from it a lot better than people who previously had IBS, lactose intolerance or other such issues.

Good luck. It hurts like hell. Passing a stone is the most horrendous pain I've ever had, and I *really* don't like projectile vomiting for 2 hours without feeling better. (Normally, if you have food poisoning or whatever, throwing up helps because you've started to get the bad thing out of your system. With gallstones, there's no way you *can* throw them up, so it doesn't _help_ at all.) Don't ask me for more details than this, I have something like PTSD around the whole hospital experience which is how come I still have the gall bladder and have been on the drugs instead. You *can* ask for details of the recipes, although translating from brain to coherent instructions that other people can follow is difficult and takes a fair amount of energy that I don't always have, which is why only a very small number of my recipes are online.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Not sure if your wanting to not talk about the hospital exp extends to what I'm about to ask, but feel free to refuse to answer, if you need to.

You mention that they sometimes go quiet after a flareup, and I'm wondering if that means no longer causing problems with fat intake, or if that means calming down with no fat intake at all? I'm asking because it's going on two weeks now with having pain at any fat intake at all, so it seems unlikely that it'll calm down. Also, apparently, my mom's dad had his gallbladder get infected from stones, so it seems at least somewhat more likely that would happen to me.

My mom has no troubles eating whatever she wants, and being as it's from her side of the family that this comes from, at probably means I will not either. Additionally, otherwise my digestive track is the least likely part of my body to cause me problems, as far as I recall. So I suspect I'd be one of the ones who would be fine after the surgery. (but yes, I was a bit concerned about the whole lack of storage receptical for bile post-surgery, and commented as such to my mom, who said it caused her no problems)

I am curious about the recipes; I'm generally not one to eat huge amounts of fat anyway (although my diet has been crap lately, due to my wrist tendonitis restricting what I can easily make/eat), so that tends to not be a huge issue. I actively dislike fried foods, and tend to dislike hugely fatty foods.

Thanks for the detailed reply. :)

(also, I'm now wondering if passing a gallstone is worse or better than passing a kidney stone. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Yet another thing I've learned from all my dad's recent stuff (besides that this summer is not a good time to have an abdomen -- sheesh!): passing gallstones can cause big trouble (like, say, an inflamed pancreas that lands you in the hospital for three weeks) on the way out. Because these complications are so horrific and the surgery is generally not so horrific, it seems to be recommended unless there's a pressing reason not to.