If gallbladder is bad do I need it out no matter what?

I'm in almost the exact same boat. Most of our symptoms are very similar. In 2006 I started having pain in my upper right abdomen. Mine was a relentless stabbing pain with occasional nausea. When I sent for my HIDA my result was 6%. My GI advised me to have it taken out immediately but I didn't do it. I read where some people have terrible problems with chronic diarrhea after the surgery. My thought was that if I already have IBS I didn't want to experience that too. My primary care said as long as it wasn't inflamed or blocked with stones you can keep a dysfunctional gallbladder w/o endangering my life. So I decided to keep my gallbladder and watch very very carefully what I ate. Long story short I had another HIDA in 08 and it was 61%. Today I still get some gallbladder pains but I can eat most of what I want without causing gallbladder symptoms. Personally, I'm happy with the road I took because although I went through a great deal of pain, I know what this is. From what I heard about the gallbladder surgery I was unsure and the fact that I already had ibs only made things even that much more uncertain. I worried I might trade one problem for another.

If you decided to go down the same road as me, watch the fat content of everything you eat. You'll pay HUGE for eating high fat/greasy food and alcohol too. Beware of pain meds that doctors might give you as most contain codine (like Lortab) and that slows gallbladder fuction as a side effect, which is the root cause of you pain and will make you feel worse if you take them.

If you decide to have it removed you and you have problems a drug called Questran is known to help for diarrhea, should you develop that problem. On the other hand you could have it removed and never have trouble again. It's a gamble.

Either path you take you face an uncertain outcome. If you do what I did you might always have these problems or it might recover almost as good as normal. If you have the surgery you might trade it for a bad diarrhea problem or it might fix you. One thing I've come to believe is that people with one motility disorder (like IBS), are more likely to develop other motility disorders (such as gallbladder dyskinesia). Whatever you do I hope it works for you.

Post Edited (MisterErl1979) : 9/25/2009 3:11:27 AM (GMT-6)

Hi, Rand. I was in the opposite situation. No one believed I had gallbladder problems, until it was taken out. Two ultrasounds picked up lots of stones, but no scarring. When they took it out--it was scarred. To be careful, before I did it, I had a colonoscopy and a endoscopy performed. They uncovered no abnormalities in my GI tract, so wrote me off with IBS-D. Before this, I had started having terrible D attacks, right after I ate. Lots of yellow bile salts. Now, with my gallbladder out, I still can get the same stuff, but I got Cholestid from my GI doc and am taking 600 mg of calcium carbonate with vitamin D at every meal. Works pretty well, but I still watch my fat intake. I would say I would rather have something diseased removed. A woman I know waiting so long that her gallbladder was cancerous. And, it's important to think that some 5% to 7% experience D after gallbladder removal. Hope this helps. Good Luck! LuckyGirl49

I too had "hundreds" of gallstones. These were discovered during the 3 week pre-op phase before my cancer surgery - colon resection, temp ostomy, etc. My surgeon said I was an ER attack waiting to happen (gall bladder wise). He asked if I had experienced heartburn. I said I had but not on a daily or even weekly basis, just a few very BAD episodes, the pain I described felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. Once my hands were tingly and went semi-numb, which really freaked me out but these sensations would pass, in a matter of minutes. At the time I was doing all I could to alleviate heartburn - Pepcid, Gavisgon, eating a piece of bread followed by a full glass of water, not eating fried foods or eating after dinner. All on my own, not seeking medical help because my husband had had severe heartburn in the past but by this time he knew what to do to get rid of it (eat healthier for one). So I tried what worked for him and these tricks did work for me.

By the time I was diagnosed with rectal cancer, and the gall stones were discovered, I had no choice. They said my gall bladder had to come out.

Looking back I always wondered if there was something I could have done to cut down on these gall stones - drink less soda? Eat healthier? Hindsight is 20/20 though.

I don't experience the yellow bile diarrhea that some patients do, post-op. All my troubles are from no longer having the bottom part of my colon.

I was led to believe that if a person has many, many gall stones, then your GB has to be surgically removed. I don't think there's anything to dissolve these so you can keep your GB is there?