gall bladder surgury and high liver function tests

Hi there and welcome,

  I am interested to hear the response of those who have information about this question as well. I've been on questran since 2001...I had my gall bladder removed that summer and have had the diarreha ever since. Should I get a liver function test done possibly? I hope everyone has a good day....

Hi scamper,
Welcome to HealingWell!
I've never heard of liver functions changing after gallbladder surgery... However, I'm not a doc and anything is possible. You might think about asking your doc for another med besides Questran. There are a few people on this board who take Welchol for their post gallbladder D. Maybe you could talk to your doc about switching. ???
Good luck!

I've been on Welchol 3 years, and if it's ever caused my liver function to jump up, no one's told me about it--or else, no one's bothered to check it. But I think someone probably did check it last year when I went to the doctor complaining of joint pain; I know she did blood work to check for lupus and a bunch of other things, so a liver test was probably in there.

Is it not possible that this was a falsely high reading? I hear about things that make other tests falsely high, so I don't see why you might not have taken something, eaten something or even been sick with something that would have caused that.

The main thing seems to be that your doctor doesn't seem concerned at this time, so I don't think you should be either. A lot of cholesterol meds--and that's what Welchol and Questran are--can elevate the liver readings; they're just par for the course. But what I was told was that Welchol, at least, is not absorbed into the bloodstream, so it's not supposed to interact with other meds. They use it as a cholesterol medicine of last resort for people who are on heart meds that interact with everything else. So, if my doctor told me right about that, I don't see how Welchol could raise my liver readings (or yours either). I was under the impression that Questran was in the same class as Welchol and worked the same way, but I don't know that for certain.

Anways, if you are determined to be off it, make sure to try Caltrate 600 w/ vitamin D for your diarrhea. It alone isn't enough to control mine, but it does help my Welchol so that I don't have to take as much of it.

I don't even know what a fatty liver is, but I am highly distrustful of the medical establishment labeling anything "fatty" as they have fat on the brain all the time, it seems. You know, that fat epidemic that's supposedly costing hundreds of thousands of lives each year, but which, oddly enough, doesn't seem to reflect on our average lifespan, which keeps going up. Anyways, I am with you; it does seem odd that you would naturally develop liver problems to that degree in just 5 weeks. And don't you have to gain a lot of weight to get a fatty liver? Again, I'm not sure what a fatty liver is, so I don't know how you get one, but 5 weeks seems awfully fast to develop.

Anyways, here's a question for you: does the medicine actually cause your liver to not function properly, or does the medicine just interfere with the test so that it gives you a false positive? There's a difference between giving you an abnormal test result and giving you an abnormal liver.

You might the fiber. It helps a lot of people. Me, my one dalliance with fiber left both my D and my C worse, so I stay away from supplements; if it's not naturally occuring in the foods I eat, I don't get any. I have read that for bulkier stools, you want a supplement that is mostly insoluable fiber. Soluable fiber dissolves in water and gives you lubrication (which, with D, you don't need), but the insoluable stuff is like the peels of potatoes and apples and bell peppers--it's stuff that stays pretty whole in your guts, so gives you the bulk you need to absorb the extra fluid. All forms of fiber have both types, but some supplements have more of one or the other usually.

1 year? I've been without a gall bladder 4 years. Have to take the Welchol or I get D. A great-aunt of mine had D everytime she ate for years and years. It became a habit that if they went out to eat, she checked out the bathroom before ordering food because it hit her just as soon as she ate. Most people actually never fully adjust and go back to normal. The people that don't end up with D or C from it, end up with acid reflux (like my mother).

Funny, I've never met a person who went back to being normal after a gall bladder surgery. Everyone I know has to be careful about what they eat and will still get episodes of D at random points in time, although I admit I'm a little less well-adjusted than some.

Mine wasn't pulled out for no reason. In fact, I was horribly desperate to get it out. My life has been so improved since I got it out. A lot of times doctors will take one out when you first start showing symptoms, and then when you end up with more problems afterwards than you had before, you regret letting them doing it. But let me preach, that they will get worse over time, that they are worse than the diarrhea that you suffer afterwards--a whole lot worse--and you will suffer needlessly. I've never had children, but one woman on here has and she said that her gall bladder attacks were a lot like labor contractions in intensity and pain. So imagine going into labor a couple of times a month for five years. I swear you're better off without it now. And since yours was only removed 6 weeks ago, there's still time for you to to improve some. Most doctors say at least 8 weeks.

I can't recall that I ever heard of taking a gall bladder out causing your liver to function incorrectly. Hopefully you just had a false positive on your test and the next time you get bloodwork done, it will be back to normal. Like I said, if Welchol has ever made my liver act oddly, no one's ever told me about it. Maybe just switching meds will help.

Hi,,just wanted to let you all know the welchol and caltrate D has keep away the diarrehea,,thank you for this info,,,I am so grateful. I am also happy that as today,,my liver function tests are normal,,,I paid for a test to see if they were improving and am thinking the milk thistle has helped alot..

oh yes, it is great to be back to normal,, I expect depending on my meals that problems will arise from time to time,,but I travel on the road alot with my job and this is such a blessing..learned more from you good people than my doctor, but lately this seems to be the case..if you want to get better you DO the research..thanks again,,

Sorry you are going through awful diarrhea after every meal. It is true that diarrhea can get worse after ones gallbladder is removed; but there are medications (like cholestrymine) that have been helpful to many.
I know all too well what it is like to be a slave to the bathroom. I know where every public bathroom in town is located.