gall bladder removed/ daily diarrhea & pregnancy

Has anyone ever been through a pregnancy w/ bile salt diarrhea after having their gall bladder removed? If yes, did you take Questran, Welchol, or Calcium Carbonate, or nothing at all? How did the pregnancy go, was your baby okay?

We would love to have more children but I am afraid the pregnancy would not be a healthy one with medications or daily diarrhea. Probably a dream I should give up on and be thankful for what I already have.

I already know the drug categories for pregnancy and these prescription meds but wish to hear a personal story if their is one out there... thank you.

Hi NRWiscMom,

I am so, so grateful you replied, you have given me some hope about the possibility of another future pregnancy. I cannot say thank you enough for taking the time to tell your story. I so appreciate it! I will see my OB/gyn in January of 2011 and plan to discuss the subject with her further. I also plan to contact my old perinatologist and see what he thinks about this situation.

I have a 5 year old son and a 17 month girl, both healthy. I was considered a high risk pregnancy with both of them since I have two blood clotting disorders. I have also had two miscarriages likely related to my blood clotting disorders. I conceived both of them naturally but did take Clomid for a brief time in between the birth of my children since my daughter took two years to conceive naturally. I had my first child vaginally but that led to many problems, so my daughter was born by c-section. I started having gall bladder attacks from almost any foods and had my gall bladder out 6 weeks after my c-section. I had no idea at the time that long term D was a potential side effect. I know now!

I tried dietary changes to try to reduce my D, but only had limited success with that. My OB / gyn said no to Questran, so I've never tried it. I've tried Welchol and the side effects for me were worse than the D. I am taking Calcium Carbonate with a snack before bed to try to lessen the diarrhea by the morning but the diarrhea continues anyway. I am currently trying a probiotic called "Align" which has bifidobacterium infantis 35624 and it's too early to tell if it's helping for sure or not. I also have been eating Actvia yogurt which has probiotics in it. I am always looking for natural ways to manage things if possible.

I am curious to know which specific natural remedies you have found to be helpful? Are you also from Wisconsin?

Also, did you formula feed and/ or breastfeed after your second child was born?

Thank you in advance for a hopeful response!

Hi NRWiscMom,

It would be awesome to be able to connect with someone that has been through the same thing! Unfortunately I live on the other side of Wisconsin...in Leroy. Perhaps we could still connect somehow, through e-mail, phone, maybe even meet up in the middle someday travel wise since it's a hike between us. I hope that's not too forward of me, but I think this commonality is hard to come by! Kind of amazing we even live in the same state! Let me know if you have a suggestion, if you want to connect any other way than this forum. If you'd rather just do the forum thing, that's a-okay too. I'm okay with whatever honestly.

This is my first experience with any type of forum, I was feeling desperate to find someone that has taken the chance of going through a pregnancy with D after gall bladder removal. Honestly, I was very much losing hope of anyone responding, so again thank you so much for taking the time to tell me your story. Sounds like you really do have miracle kiddos! Maybe there is someone else out there like us that has already gone through a D pregnancy or is contemplating going through a pregnancy with D post gall bladder removal. Be neat to connect with them as well.

Yes, I was in the same state of mind as you regarding getting my gall bladder out when baby and pain are on your mind and research is last. I did ask my surgeon about any long term effects or consequences and he told me the only one potential long term consequence is a higher chance of colon cancer down the line but he thought that was more related to people not changing the way they eat even after the gall bladder is taken out and not to do with the surgery itself. No mention of D for the rest of my life! Ugh.

So what type of Pearl probiotic? I've read that L. Reteuri Pearls are a good probiotic to lessen diarrhea as it had been studied in reducing D in infants with RSV, also another study reduced crying spells with infants with colic. I haven't tried it as of yet though. I figure w/ daily D, good bacteria has got to be wiped out pretty fast.

So if you don't mind me asking, how old are your kiddos now?

Did you go through a number of tests back with your Gastroenterologist when your D first started? I have had D for about a year and a half, I was a big girl too but could eat pretty much anything and the weight stayed on. I didn't get any help at that time because I figured it meant meds and I didn't want to do the meds with breastfeeding. Then something changed around 6 months ago, I started having pain and nausea in addition to the D. I started making dietary changes, first did the low fat thing, the symptoms reduced but were still there. I cut out down on dairy, etc. I started dropping weight and couldn't manage the pain and nausea completely, I decided it was finally time to go to see a Gastroenterologist. I went to two of them, my first second opinion I ever had in my life. Both said I had acid reflux and Post Cholecystectomy Syndrome. I agree with the PCS causing my D. The heartburn I don't buy. I have now lost 60 pounds over the last 6 months, the weight loss is the only good thing since I was heavy to begin with. Now I am overweight but no longer obese. I have tried Welchol, too many side effects, tried Prilosec, got daily headaches. I had an EGD, just a small hiatal hernia, not the cause of my symptoms. I have been trying probiotics and Calcium Carbonate w/ vitamin D to try to lessen my symptoms. Still I am fatigued as you mention, the daily D continues, the kiddos still want to play and it's hard to function some days. My next step is to put myself in purposeful pain and get my liver / pancreas labs done. If those come back elevated, they will do a MRCP which is basically a MRI of my bile duct area to see if that's causing the pain. Problem is, I think the probiotics are helping somewhat because some of my old trigger foods now cause mild pain (instead of the old moderate pain) that lasts for 1-2 days which makes my day suck, yet not enough pain to cause me to run to the lab. Okay I'm getting too wordy with all of this, sorry! Again, it's just awesome to be able to connect with someone who has D issues! (=

Yes, the crazy things in life some of us Moms suffer just to have kiddos (=. I agree!