Hello, I just found this site and thought
I might get some advice. I have been
getting really bad stomach aches and
haven't been able to sleep much when it
hurts at night which is more frequent now.
Therefore I am cranky and have no energy,
which I need to deal with my 2 kids 3 and
5, anyways I went to the doctor and then
he did a ultrasound and they found no
stones but sludge in my gallbladder. So
I have looked up somethings on the
internet, and found that what I thought
was hives for over a month was probably a
gallbladder symptom (itchy skin) and what
I thought was horrible heartburn (i'd only
had it while pregnant with my frist kid)
was really my gallbladder. I am suppose
to get an appointment with a surgeon to
see if I need surgery. I am mostly
scared about money because we have no
insurace currently. He quit his job and
we moved to a different town so he could
go to college. I was working and then we
moved again because he working now but is
considered self employed (construction)
and doing his school on the side, day care
would take my paycheck form my basicly
minimum wage job, so we decided to have me
stay home with the kids until they go to
school. Anyways because of this
transition period we have no insurance.
I am 26, by the way. Does anybody know
how much this might cost. We are in
nebraska. Any tips on what to eat I am so
hungry but am afraid to eat if I can keep
the pain from starting. Does anyone else
know anything about sludge, I can only
find things on gallstones.
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croxie
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 08 Oct 2006 Posts: 13
Posted: 12-11-06 07:45am
Sara...The sludge that you have in your
gallbladder is pretty much what can become
gallstones in the future. It's that
simple.
To avoid pain you should try to stay away
from onion, apple, too much fatty foods in
general. It's very confusing in the
beginning since we all have different
tolerance for fatty foods and what will
cause pain.
As for removing the gallbladder....Well,
if you can avoid it, do so. Talk to your
doctor and ask if you can reduce the
amount of sludge with a change in your
diet instead. It might be possible.
Unfortunately they are way too keen on
solving this problem by removing the
bladder, and at the same time refer to it
as a "simple and standard procedure".
However, it's not all that simple and
mistakes can easily be made, which will
make things worse afterwards than what
they are today.
When I had my gallstone I ate a lot of
veggies, exchanged red meat and pork for
chicken and fish. I have some recipes in
my food blog in my swedish
kitchen if you want some tips on what
to eat. There's a category there called
"low fat" that have some recipes that are
good for you. The change can be
frustrating to start with, but it's better
to do something about it before it gone
too far.
Also, skip all fastfood if you tend to eat
that. Otherwise you will end up at some
point with a big mac in your tummy and
pains that are beyond your wildest
imagination.
I hope this helps a bit
take care,
christa
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Pink_Freud
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2 Location: Sacramento, CA
Posted: 12-28-06 08:01am
*waves*
hi sara,
i had my gall bladder out about 7 years
ago but by then it had multiple stones in
it and I was in constant pain. Don't be
like me and not hear good advice until
after the fact. Limit your fat intake
(butterfat seems to be the worst) as it
adds significantly to how hard your gall
bladder works to get the bile out to break
it down. Same with red meat and pork.
If you don't take care now, you will form
stones and your gall bladder will seize up
on them when trying to function to break
down fats. Ouch.
The post above me is very good advice.
Follow it, talk to doctors until you find
one who isn't going for the quick fix by
removing it, and trust you are doing the
right thing by asking questions now
instead of just "letting them take it".
Once you have your gall bladder removed,
you then have other dietary problems
which, in my opinion, can be far worse.
Silly me, I thought I had heart burn and
milk made it feel better for a little
while so I made it far worse than it
needed to be until finally I couldn't eat
and couldn't sit up most of the time from
pain. I ignored it far too long. Get
help now and maybe you won't need any
surgery later.
As for money, if it does come down to an
emergancy situation, there should be a
program in place where you live to get
temporary aid if you need it.
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superhat
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 15 Feb 2007 Posts: 1
Posted: 02-15-07 05:11am
Hi sara,
if you're asymptomatic - that is, you
aren't having acute or chronic gall pain -
then you're fine. Once you start having
either chronic gall pain or acute attacks,
you'll want to figure out how to have the
surgery done as soon as possible.
The medical facts are that even a single
acute attack can be life-threatening.
You could have a stone travel out of the
gall bladder and lodge itself in a duct.
When this happens, the surgery is
necessary immediately and more
complicated. Chronic inflammation can
lead to infection. Either way, the best
treatment option if you're healthy enough
to survive surgery is to have the organ
removed. Once it acts up, it won't get
better on its own. Life will be
extremely unpleasant and there will be no
end in sight.
If you have acute attacks, they will
increase in frequency. If you have
chronic pain, then your search to find a
diet that doesn't trigger it will
eventually reduce you to eating the
blandest diet (vegetables, yogurt, fruit,
repeat thrice daily) imaginable - and it
may eventually still not matter.
There's a lot of "controversy" stirred up
among people who proffer natural
solutions, but very little controversy in
the realm of medical science. The "gall
bladder" flushes have been demonstrated to
be nonsense. The vast majority of people
who have a cholecystectomy have no
digestive trouble following the surgery.
Regarding the woman who said it isn't a
simple procedure - you can actually find
an outline of the procedure on the
internet and it's about 20 steps from
initial cut to final suturing! It's also
the first operation that surgical students
learn to perform, owing to its relative
ease of execution. After my diagnosis, I
talked to several doctors from different
fields and different parts of the world,
including a man who'd built a long and
distinguished career on the diseases of
the upper gi tract, and the concensus view
was, "the risks to health and happiness of
keeping a diseased gall bladder far
outweigh the risks of having it removed."
(anecdotally, no one I know of directly or
indirectly had any digestive trouble
following their removal - that's five or
six people, not including me, who were
improved with no ill effects.)
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sallyann2007
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 01 Mar 2007 Posts: 13
Posted: 03-03-07 20:23pm
I was significantly improved after having
my gallbladder removed also. I had such
bad pain it woke me up in the middle of
the night, before I got it removed. The
only way I could be painfree was to eat a
totally no fat diet which was pretty darn
boring. I got absurdly thin also. There
canbe such a thing as "too thin".
http://r
doctor.com/symptoms_disease/content/view/1
22/2/
