12 days post op and just want to say I’m so so glad I had that little stinker removed.
My journey:I had a terrible attack on New Year’s. I had lost about 70lbs over the previous couple years, and like many people who lose weight, I developed gallstones. I have some other health stuff, so it took until August to find the right timing/surgeon/plan etc. in that time I had 1 other “medium” attack. I cleaned up my diet and I didn’t really have any attacks after those first 2 in the early part of the year. The only trigger food I had was quesadillas. It was hard to justify to myself the risks of the surgery and subsequent digestive issues when I was “doing ok” with the stones.
I really wanted another baby though, and felt sure that the gallstones were going to be too much of a risk going into pregnancy.
So on August 20 I had “elective” gallbladder removal. And boy am I glad I did.
My recovery story:
-my surgeon is a newer graduate from a top 10 medical research facility. He makes the largest incision and removes the gallbladder via the sternum cut. And actually this was awesome! No belly button pain, much lower herniation risk, and my largest scar is going to be concealed by a bikini top 💪
-the post op pain was intense when I first woke up. I was gobbling percoset and they’d loaded me with toradol, but it wasn’t helping. I asked to be sat up and my pain disappeared. lol. Do not underestimate the power of changing positions
-the first 24hrs were the hardest of course. I slept on the couch because the support on my back was really nice. Mostly just changing positions hurt really bad. I used 1 x5mg oxy in the first day and then could handle all pain with Tylenol /ibu. I was done with Tylenol by day …4?
-I work 100% from home and have a short day. My surgery was on Thursday and I was able to work a full day Monday (from my recliner on the laptop).
-I had absolutely no gas pain. Walking around post op did nothing for me except worsen everything. I spent 3 days in bed and that’s what was right for me and what I needed
-I took both scopolamine and zofran but still had a lot of nausea immediately after surgery. As I added food back in, I only wanted saltines and Gatorade and “sick food”. Then more ambitious food within a couple days. By day 7 I could eat chipotle burritos with no problem 🤷‍♀️ I have had absolutely zero digestive issues or changes. I eat whatever I want for the first time in almost a year!!
-I want to reiterate how glad I am I did this. When they took my gallbladder out, the entrance was almost entirely covered by a massive 2.5 cm stone with 2 smaller ones stacked behind it. A lymph node was also removed because they couldn’t tell if it was a mass or cyst. The lymph node was showing signs of local infection. So even though I wasn’t having a ton of gallstone symptoms, the stones were causing local inflammation and infection was imminent
-the hardest part of this for me was actually the preop liver shrinking diet! I was already calorie deficient from my weight loss journey, but for 8 days before the surgery my surgeon asked me to do 800 calories/day. It was so so hard. Cranky, cravings, fatigue. But if you are told to do this, just suck it up and comply. I lost 10lbs in 8 days and my surgery took 30 minutes instead of the scheduled 90mins. Undoubtedly doing the diet made it safer for me.
-even 12 days post op I have so much more energy than I did preop. I did not realize how much my inability to break down fats was holding me back. I have greater satiety, greater energy after eating, I haven’t needed to nap at 3pm since my surgery.
I had so much fear before this surgery but my only regret is not doing it sooner!

Thank you to everyone who has shared their journey on this subreddit and I wish you all luck and safety in your journeys!!

I don't want to scare anyone, but I was scared myself... someone I know had gallstones and refused to have them removed, until it turned into cancer, and now she is in very bad shape in the hospital.

Hello all!!

About 1 week ago I started having pain after every meal, and eventually it got so bad (I thought I was having a heart attack) my husband called 911, and I was admitted to the hospital with gallstones.

I was given some medication and referred to a surgeon who I saw today, and am having surgery later this month.

I had TONS of questions, unfortunately my twin 2 month olds made it hard to ask them or remember them. I will be seeing him again about thought I would ask here, for some people that have been through it.

PRE-OP
- Is there any special diet to follow? Currently I’m on very low fat, and no spices, I just want to know if should adjust anything else’s
- Is there activity restrictions?
- What can I expect from a pre-op appointment?

POST-OP
- How long will recovery take?
- What is the recommended diet post-op?
- My doctor recommended not lifting more than 20lbs for 6 weeks. Can I still bend, jump, other things? Thinking about my twins 😂
- What changed in your life, not having a gallbladder?

Any advice would be appreciated!!

Doomscrollers beware, this can cause panic.

I'm fit, male, fourtysomething with gallstones.

I yesterday had planned laparoscopic gallbladder removal. With an very experienced surgeon. After the surgery I felt great and was surpised how small of a thing it felt. Surgeon summarized that everything went great and gb was totally full of small stones. I ate some food and went to pee, did resting, and walked around the recovery area.

Then I was ready to head home and started feeling sweating. However, continued to walk to car that my partner was driving. We got about 10 minutes in the road when I went unconscious multiple times with body covered in sweat. Ambulance was called which which was luckily only few mins away.

Fast forward 36 hours later. I have internal slow bleeding somewhere. I had body schock of internal bleeding which caused rapid failure on the body. Now pain in the stomach area and they are now contemplating on doing a new surgery as the bleeding continues. They could see blood but not any active leakage with ct scan. I'm currently at the countries (Nordic country) best hospital but still pretty scared to be honest how will this play out.

I also did the doomscrolling on this sub and felt that people exaggerated things but it seems that I also am unfortunately a statistic in operations gone bad. Its suprising how this relatively simple procedure can go this bad this quick even I was so prepared to the surgery and no inflammation/current gb problems when entering.

Take care everyone, remember to take your extratime in the recovery area and ask many questions before you head home!

I will maybe update my continuation here.

Ugh, I had hoped not to have to return to this community again...

I had gallstones for more than a decade. I knew I had one 1.3cm stone from previous ultrasounds, and when I actually had the gallbladder out, it turned out I actually had several stones. I didn't have attacks, but by the end had nearly constant, gnawing pain, and poor digestion.

After the surgery almost 4 months ago (May 11) I was amazed how fast I felt better. I could seemingly eat anything, though I didn't push it too much. I have a fairly healthy diet overall and so I wasn't suddenly eating things that I couldn't eat for years, as that's not really how my gallbladder problems worked. My gallbladder pain was quite random--I could get it from a burger or a salad, but it hurt more often than not.

I had a great summer. My diet overall was pretty good, and I didn't avoid alcohol but didn't drink too much either. My digestion was better than it had been in years.

Then all of a sudden two days ago I started feeling terrible. I thought it could be food poisoning, and in fact it may have been something like that because I had a fever the night before last. The backstory is that I just spent a week in Spain and another few days in the Czech Republic, and ate more and heavier foods than I normally do, as well as drank more. Just today I had bile diarrhea, which was upsetting. I want my solid poos back!

If this is just my intestines going haywire because of some kind of food poisoning, this will hopefully be normalizing soon. But I also worry that this is a new change that I'll be stuck with, because of the sudden bile diarrhea. Is there something I should do to help? (For example, I bought Tudca and a Probiotic Complex, but never started taking them because my digestion seemed to be doing so well without).

Thank you for any advice and sharing your experiences too!

Getting my gb removed on Thurs. Not gonna lie, I’m flipping terrified! I already cancelled the surgery once. But I guess I’ve finally convinced myself that it’s better to do it when it’s planned as opposed to it becoming an emergency. Anyone else have hernia repair done at the same time? They are actually going in through my hernia to remove the gb and then going to repair that.

I started having bad gallbladder attacks about 7 weeks ago. I have had multiple that have sent me to the emergency room with crushing middle of the chest pain. When I eat anything and I mean anything that’s not toast or rice a have awful stomach pain and diarrhea . I do have surgery scheduled for 2 weeks from now but I’m so hungry and irritable. I have chronic headaches from not eating. I know calorie deficiency is causing this but I’m so afraid to eat. Just really needed to vent since I’ve broke down in a manic cry I couldn’t control yesterday and today

I had my gallbladder taken out in an emergency surgery almost 3 months ago (mid-June). I was also 10 weeks postpartum at the time. I am experiencing loose stools mostly everyday and urgent need to pass stool like every 3rd day. Is this normal? I'm returning to work from my maternity leave soon and I'm feeling a bit anxious about having to use the restroom urgently as I have a lot of 1:1 meetings and it would be really embarrassing to have to run to the bathroom. I have reached out to my doctor but wanted to hear from this community.

I can't really associate it with heavy fatty foods, sometimes I only have a bit of fat (10 g) and urgency hits. I have noticed that caffeine from coffee affects it so I have cut that out. Which is unfortunate because I learned coffee was good for the liver. I also have a fatty liver.

For context, I never had any gallbladder attacks until the one that led to my surgery.

Hey guys I have pretty bad anticipatory anxiety and I’m really starting to freak out for my wife. She’s have a planned gallbladder removal and I’ve been on this sub for a few days and heading overwhelming good stories but I can’t help but shake she’s the exception. I know that’s really kinda selfish but I just love her so much. We have two little girls and I know she’s really worried too about anesthesia and not waking up or having an uncaught heart issue. Idk why I’m posting this I just don’t know what else to do. I’m so powerless to help her. Sorry for the dramatics.

UPDATE
Her surgery went well. Was about an hour (from the first text alert that the procedure starts to a text saying it ended), but been up here for about 5 hours total now. She’s in a lot of pain (says like at the base of her sternum, like gas pain?) and they gave her meds but she’s managing as best she can. Thank you all for the support and kind words. It helped to read it during the wait and stuff

Hello! Wanted to ask everyone about their weird symptoms and if this could be sibo (Awaiting results) I unfortunately a year ago caught c diff and have been treated and have tested negative over 4 x throughout the year. However, since the c diff I have daily symptoms:

upright rib pain on Both sides right under the ribs like someone is squeezing and then randomly sharp rib pains, center rib pains and lower abdominal pains

Diarrhea sometimes but mainly formed stools but sometimes food in stools, OR SLIMY STOOLS.

Dizziness and major brain fog. (Forget what I’m saying mid sentence)

Shortness of breath

Itchy red skin. Like histamine responses now.

Visual symptoms. More floaters. Blue field phenomena and difficulty focusing my eyes. Even driving things feel off.

I have been to rheumatology, kidney doctors, brain and spine MRIs and endocrinology. All normal!
I did have a clear MRI and CT scan earlier this year of the abdomen/pelvic area.

Thank you for your time. It’s just been a year of misery

1 day post op , is this the worst day ? I am in pain , even tho I opted out to not get pain medication (that was a mistake I called my surgeons office and got some stuff prescribed) what do you guys suggest to eat? I am tired of eating jello, and broth but if that’s what I gotta do that’s what I gotta do lmao.

I’m 59F, obese, pre-diabetic. The rest of my gallbladder and surrounding organs are healthy. No stones, no sludge, ducts are open and fine. Radiology report said no routine sonographic surveillance required. WTH?

I find this odd-at my age, why wouldn’t a follow up ultrasound in 6 months to make sure this hasn’t grown be recommended? Has anyone else my age had a single polyp that didn’t require follow up imaging?

I messaged my GP and I’m curious what she’ll recommend. I may push to have this scan repeated in 6 months, because now I’m paranoid of developing gall bladder cancer!

Currently nearly 24 hours post-op. Surgery started around 7:15am 8/31/26.

After surgery my surgeon estimated that my gallbladder was functioning at 0%, he said he attenpted to pull fluid from it and all he could get was some clear micousy liquid. He said it has probably been non-functional for years. Unfortunately he wasnt able to get a picture for me. I was really curious about seeing it.

The first, I'd say, 12 hours were really rough. But I slept pretty well last night. The pain meds definitely help. Getting up and down from bed or to use the restroom was super rough. Any slight chuckle, or even deep breaths, or when I tense my muscles can set off a spasm at the center bottom of my ribs (the exit spot) and also the spot where I estimate my gallbladder came from has a sort of spasm sometimes. I got lucky and my parents have this motorized chair that lifts you up to almost standing so I went to their house and that helped last night but getting up and down to use the bathroom or lay down in bed is still difficult though it had improved some by 10 pm last night. It still remains a bit painful but it doesn't take me near as long now. Ice packs seem to help some. I don't have any of the shoulder gas pain others have talked about.

Background: I had my first attack (that I can remember) on July 4th and didn't know that is what it was. I pushed through it at home. Then July 15 I ended up in the ER with an attack and was diagnosed with gallstones via ultrasound. Then the waiting and appointments until surgery could finally be scheduled. I stayed on a low fat diet and managed to avoid another attack thankfully.

The evil bile bag has its eviction date...surgery is this Thursday! Good god almighty.....I"m so happy!

i had my first offfical gallbladder attack last week, ending with me in the ER. confirmed gallstones and elevated liver enzymes. I wasn’t admitted to emergency surgery. now I know the pain, I can recall having a few other attacks over the last few months, most likely caused by weight loss from GLPs.

Now I’m scared of the pain of another attack. I already eat a pretty low fat diet.

I have a vacation planner to Italy in 3 days. dr. said it’s risky, but my choice. do I go and hope for the best? am I making horrible decision? what do I do if I get an attack in Italy? Whats the pain threshold that I should go back to the ER?

This community has helped me so much in the last couple of months and I wanted to make a post about some things that were helpful for me, specifically for people who are dealing with removal and having to take care of their children on top of it. Gallbladder issues seem to be so common postpartum and it is extremely overwhelming to deal with on top of recovering from pregnancy/childbirth and taking care of an infant, so I hope this post can help someone!

If you're breastfeeding, make sure you communicate that to everyone involved with your surgery. Tell your surgeon so they can prescribe you breastfeeding safe medications and let the anesthesiologist know. General anesthesia is safe for the baby and I did not have to pump and dump at all, I think they just skipped out on give me anything to help me relax before the procedure. I was able to pump right before surgery and right after, although it was very difficult because my husband wasn't allowed to come back with me to pre-op (I though this was super weird and I doubt this is the case everywhere). I somehow managed to use "wearable" pumps with no bra on and navigating around an IV by myself! The things I brought for pumping were the pump itself, a charger for it just in case, pump cleaning wipes (I'll link below), and a breast milk cooler that my lactation consultant actually ordered for me through my insurance for free. I definitely needed some help post-op getting the pumps in place but my husband was allowed back for that.

If you, like me, have a baby that won't take a bottle, feeding with a syringe worked in a pinch. Definitely practice bottles as much as possible before your surgery if you have time because this was not ideal! I almost brought the baby to the hospital with us but I'm really glad I didn't.

Pump cleaning wipes I used: https://www.amazon.com/Frida-Mom-Multi-Surface-Ingredients-Breastfeeding/dp/B0FL9F44XC/ref=sr_1_1_pp?crid=12ND5XRDM567M&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.SKx04bCklVSvoqBk7dpYxcAfzKxSdO5LtJBk96meGLnGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.1qjNKHGHSN1-f6A4rc2lp8NNdbGErknUolD6y566L3M&dib_tag=se&keywords=frida%2Bmom%2Bpump%2Bwipes&qid=1788296158&sprefix=frida%2Bmom%2Bpump%2Bwipes%2Caps%2C174&sr=8-1&th=1

This ice pack was a lifesaver and I cannot recommend it highly enough! This would be good for anyone but it is especially great if you are breastfeeding because it's a bit padded so it helps if you accidentally catch a knee or an elbow to your incisions (mine were all in a row at my belly button line, four in total): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXSKMWFD?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

Same with this pillow, great for anyone but adds some extra padding to protect you while feeding. It's also great for getting up and down which hurts a lot the first few days or if you have to cough or sneeze: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FPFKGFP2?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

This was a MUST. I don't think I would have been able to sleep without a wedge pillow for the first week. This is also how I fed the baby the first few days, I'd be in bed with the wedge pillow and have the baby propped up on a couple of pillows beside me and just had to turn slightly for him to be able to reach: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y5HBTLP?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

The other purchase I'm glad I made was getting a little desk for my bed because I was only able to take off work the day of my surgery. Sitting upright was pretty uncomfortable the first few days and this helped a ton. Probably just specific to me but mentioning it just in case anyone is in a similar situation. I definitely recommend taking a week or two off if you are able!

If you have older kids at home, maybe buy a special toy or two to bring out when you are really having a tough time. My toddler is super into sticker books right now and that helped me to distract him when I needed it. Also, do unlimited TV and snacks if you need to and do not feel guilty about it! It will not be like this forever!

I had a lot less help than I would have liked because my husband just used all of his PTO for paternity leave. I am one week post-op at the time of writing this and I think today is the first day that I feel like I can actually manage on my own without too much pain. I have a 15-pound 4-mont-old and a 2-year-old for reference. As long as I am careful picking up the baby it doesn't really feel like a problem anymore but it still hurt to do so a couple of days ago. Definitely not picking up the toddler for a while! I'd recommend having as much help as possible the first week minimum, but two weeks would probably be more ideal.

My general tips are to take the drugs if they are given to you! I tried to tough it out and was in a ton of pain from my incisions that first night. I think I am on of the unlucky few that metabolizes narcotics really slowly because it took about two hours for oxycodone to help me even a little bit once I caved in and took it and I was so miserable. I'd say take it before you think you need it for sure. I do think I was lucky as far as gas pain though, I hardly had any! Make sure you have ibuprofen, Tylenol, MiraLax, and Gas-X on hand.

That's all I can think of right now but I'm happy to answer any specific questions if anyone has any!

I had an attack earlier this year in May. I waited a long time to be seen so it was an emergency by the time I was treated and I had pancreatitis along with crazy nerve issues from the temp liver disease. They didn’t take my gallbladder at the time due to the pancreatitis. Just had an ERCP and temp stent placed. This was the first time I ever had any issues with stones. I feel like taking the gallbladder is a hasty decision. I declined the surgery and I’m scheduled for an ERCP in 3 weeks to remove the stent. I’m trying to keep this bugger! If I have continued issues, I can see removal. Anyone out there with a success story of keeping theirs and managing symptoms with diet change?

As the title reads, I’m in another group and have seen quite a few posts describing pain like attacks days even weeks or months after removal. Now I’m having awful anxiety that will happen to me. I am 6 days post surgery and have been somewhat adventurous. I’ve had butter and cheese and beef and even went to Golden Corral… I am having major food anxiety because of the attacks I had suffered prior to removal. Any encouragement is appreciated and if you did have attacks, did you get to the bottom of it or find a reason for them?

Just wanted to share my story.. I put it in another post because somebody asked caused they were nervous ... I wanna laugh so hard looking back but I cant .... I just had surgery today and mannnnnn I was nervous as they were wheeling me on the bed to the operation room I started crying going thru each door going left,right, then left i even asked the guy pushing me if he could stop pushing me for a momemt .....LOL but he kept pushing and the anesthesiologist asked those nervous tears i said yes and he said its okay we understand you dont get surgery everyday, but we do the surgerys everyday so your in good care, then he said its okay tbh they find it weird for people to not show any emotion or anything but unless theyve gone thru surgery alot or something but....to the operating table I was crying I was scared but the people were nice they introduced themselves and said I would be okay still crying and squeezing my hand tight the lady told me it will be okay then I dont remeber anything LOL looking back now I wanna Laugh so hard right now but I can't 🤣🤣 but I was very scared, nervous, of not knowing what would happen and the fact to mynose was congested bc of allergies then to mention when I seen the robot tool things i was like ughhhhhhhh, I turned away quickly but the nurses, doctors, etc comforted me alot then I was asleep next thing I knew I woke up LOL amd my surgery was about 45mins I was told and now.just have the gas shoulder pain but ive been walking and can see that has helped me I was very hungry too I stopped eating at like 930pm yesterday and my surgery was at like 1:15pm and I was out of the hospital by 400pm, but I will say you will do great whoever has surgery coming up and its okay to show emotion do it if thats what will help you 😊❤️

I’m 2 weeks post op and for the last 2 days I’ve been having this weird pulling and stabbing burning sensation in one of my incisions (where they took the gallbladder from) anytime I move. Has anyone had this happen? I have an appointment this week but wasn’t sure if this was normal muscle healing?

I posted a while ago about hoping to go without getting my gallbladder removed and taking urso to break up the stones. Along with diet adjustment I actually was able to reverse my non alcoholic fatty liver disease likely leftover from pregnancy. I also reduced the wall thickening in my gallbladder to zero and shrank the stones in my gallbladder. Unfortunately this did not prevent me from the havoc the stones still are capable of causing. The doctors think that at some point one of my stones got lodged in my pancreas. On Thursday night I started getting pain that felt like a gallbladder attack. But it never stopped, it didn’t go away and it didn’t get better. By Saturday I was starting to feel nauseous and generally crappy like I had the flu. I decided to skip dinner that day as my appetite had completely left me. We were out with friends at a local hotdog place, I kept getting so nauseous. Then right after we walked outside, I vomited. This was scary because I hadn’t vomited in 5 years so it meant something was very wrong. The pain along with the vomiting told me I needed an ER so my husband took me. It was one of those things where they took my blood took my temp did an ultrasound and they said, yeah you’re being admitted.
My lipase levels were off the charts over 3,000. I was in the hospital all day Sunday being treated with antibiotics and fluids and my pain reduced significantly. I had surgery yesterday afternoon and came home in the evening. I’m similarly sore but not in such a painful excruciating way. They closed my incisions with glue and I haven’t seen anyone talk about that here but I’d like to take a shower and my instructions say wait one day. I’m curious if anyone has any bad experiences with showering this early on? Also would love some diet recommendations! I can’t take stool softeners (can’t take pills) so if anyone has recommendations for those I would love to hear them.

Hi all! I’m (28f) getting my gallbladder removed laparoscopically at the end of the month due to gallstones. It’s been a really painful road! I have a bunch of chronic conditions that make me extra anxious thinking about recovering from surgery (POTS, hEDS, fibro, chronic migraines, CFS/ME, neuropathy, to name a few). I’ve had three notable surgeries in the past - I’ve had surgery on both hips and a skull base surgery to remove a tumor, and my recoveries were all nightmares…. far worse than my surgeons prepared me for. I also am allergic to all narcotics and NSAIDs so pain medicine isn’t an option. I’m putting my concerns out hoping somebody can provide advice, guidance, or support. I’m going to be extremely anticipatory between now and then and want to prepare accordingly. You’d think having chronic pain conditions I would be desensitized, but my pain tolerance is very low! I am far more nervous about the recovery period than surgery itself. Any thoughts are welcome. TIA <3

Disclosure: I have anxiety

I have some questions. This is my first surgery and my heart rate has been crazy. Usually my resting is 60-70. Every time I go to shift my body: BPM over 100 and it’s kinda freaking me out. Prolly going to be discharged today bc I haven’t had any issues in over 24 hours, but like I would like to know: what is too much. What is too high. Should I be back to normal by when? Idk like I said it’s just been freaking me out.

Edit: appreciate y’all commenting your experiences. In case you see like that one A-hole below, obviously I raised my concerns with staff apparently I had some internal bleeding which may have contributed to the heart rate spikes, but they have it monitored and found the source of the bleeding. Hoping it shows more clotting over night. If I’m lucky I’m home tomorrow at noon.

Anything I should know? Any tips for quicker recovery? What was your timeline?
Thank you!!

An interesting video showing an alternative procedure to remove gallstones in place of surgical removal of the entire gallbladder:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hrkjrh8DWDE