Gallbladder removal experiences

You do you. Everyone’s mileage will vary.

@Fokkers - That has been my wife's experience as well. Everyone is different though so it concerns me that I could be one of the X% that has issues afterwards if I decided to have it out. Again, my "attacks" were nowhere near as severe as yours or hers. Otherwise it would be a no-brainer.

Mayhem - I have not had any issues at all. I haven’t removed anything from what I ate before. I did go back to spicy food without issue.

@Fokkers - Have you had any issues eating anything since your gallblander has been removed? Some % of people wind up with issues, and at that point, you have little hope of it getting much better if it happens. Unless I eat/drink REALLY stupidly, I don't have a lot of problems now.

While you can live without a gallbladder, the gallbladder DOES perform a function of storing and concentrating bile. This helps you digest fat, and you can't do this as effectively without a gallbladder.

For example, here's something that shows that more than 50% of people have problems digesting fat after gallbladder removal. Food high in fiber, which is normally considered a good thing, can also become a problem after gallbladder surgery -

health.clevelandclinic. org/5-ways-to-avoid-discomfort-after-your-gallbladder-removal/#:~:text=After%20surgery%2C%20your%20liver%20will,removed%20have%20trouble%20digesting%20fat.

I thought stopping spicy hot foods was doing it and stopped. The attacks didn’t. It can become an issue. Sometimes proactive is the best route.

@Fokkers - Thank you for the feedback. Still very much on the fence about pulling the trigger on this surgery. I haven't really had what I'd consider a major attack. One problem is I have a low threshold for pain and a high threshold for drugs, like pain meds. The worst of the attacks I had was enough to make me lose sleep, which then had me run down the day after.

I'd consider my current health above average for my age, but a consideration is if I'm just postponing the inevitable and pushing it out just brings more risk as I get older.

In your case it was absolutely required, as was my wife's when she had hers out. Mine is less clear cut. People can live indefinitely with gallstones and, barring severe attacks, the risk seems to be more with infection and going septic, as was the case for you.

When mine acted up, I had multiple drinks and was eating prosciutto, salami and pepperoni cold cuts. Not sure that wouldn't cause problems either way (i.e. with or without my gallbladder) and something I probably shouldn't be doing either way.

Years ago I had 3 major attacks in 2 months before Izzy finally forced me to see a doctor. After a radiation study, the tech left the room and came into tell me to go across the street to a surgeon. Surgeon was like what are you doing tomorrow. I was like nothing. He said good you will be having your gall bladder removed. I was the last surgery of the day. I was released the next day (that was a Wednesday, April 1st.) Three days later I was on the sideline coaching my son’s soccer team. Not one issue. I think I waited about 10 days total before I had sex. My gall bladder was very close to septic and the surgeon was worried about how he was going to pull it out. I never had any issues and I was no where near what you would call in good physical shape at the time.

I realize this has little to nothing to do with sex and swinging but would appreciate the feedback. Since I'm looking at possibly having to have mine out, just wondering what people here may have in the way of experiences either post removal, or even living with their gallbladder and potentially reversing symptoms through any means. Also, what was recovery like? I'm told that I have to take it easy for 3-4 weeks after, and taking a month or so off from my normal workouts is something that's likely going to suck getting back to where I was before the surgery.

For now, I've had a couple of attacks that were more of an annoyance than painful. I do have gallstones. I'm considering trying Tudca (a bile salt) first and see if it helps. I am talking to a doctor about this later today as well, but being that it's a surgeon, I feel like their opinion is going to be overly biased towards removal. My PCP is also in favor of removal.

The Mrs has had hers out, but she had an extremely painful attack. I figure I can always have it removed, but once removed, there's no going back. AFAIK, they will not just go in and remove the stones as they are likely to grow back, or at least that's the impression I get. Thoughts/experiences?