what to know about gallbladder surgery and if anyone had it before and any helpfull info thank you
Answer:
When you have your gallbladder removed your body is going to change the way it digests food. Here is some information for you that I wish I had been given to me. Luckily for you I have done it for you and here is my story:I had my gallbladder removed and all my food went right through me. The reason this happens is that your liver produces bile (a green liquid substance that helps your body to digest fats). Once the liver produces the bile, it stores it in the gallbladder. When you eat a meal with fat in it, the gallbladder squirts out as much bile as your body needs to digest the fat from that meal. Your liver still produces bile regardless that you have had your gallbladder removed, however now it has no where to store the bile that it is producing. So what happens is, once the liver produces the bile it goes straight to your lower intestine and sits there in a pool. Once you eat a meal, it hits the pool of bile (which is more bile than is necessary to digest that meal) and you have diarhea.Being the research queen that I am, and doctors being as useless as they are (because no doctor was willing to acknowlege this problem or offer me advice, even though EVERYBODY I have ever talked to that has had their gallbladder out has had this problem), I have found the antidote.You must take Calcium suppliments every day. I find that the calcium carbonate works better than calcium citrate (although I have heard the exact opposite, you have to find what works for you). Calcium once digested becomes like a powdery chalk which absorbs the excess bile sitting in your lower intestine. If you do this, you will never go through this again. I take two 600 mg tablets every morning and this works for me. You have to play with the dosage for yourself to see what works. If you take too much calcium you will become constipated, so once you find your dosage stick with it. I was very happy to come upon this question and that I was able to help you. I promise you that this works. Good luck!P.S. They sell a very large bottle of calcium carbonate at Walmart and it lasts me a long time :)
LIke any other surgery cholecystectomy has its risk especially if you've been quite ill because the duct is blocked; so really it all depends. The surgery can also be done with a laparoscope... which is less traumatic to you, requires less down time, and is overall much more affordable than an open-the-gut procedure. However, depending on size of gall stones (if you have them) this may not be an option.
It also helps to reduce the amount of fat in your diet.
Okay... I want to be very careful here.I was diagnosed with gall stones and scheduled for surgery.
While I waited, I read about the gall bladder, it's functions, and gall stones on the Internet.
Gall stones are not stones at all. They are a rubbery and made of bile salts and cholesterol. They can block the flow of bile in the duct. It can be very painful Bile is used to digest fats so eating fatty or oily foods can be a terrible experience. While I read about gall stones, I discovered a natural "Gall Bladder and Liver" flush procedure on the Internet. A regular search will locate it still.
Since I was having surgery anyhow, I decided to try it. My thoughts were that I had nothing to lose but a few dollars.There are several procedures to choose from on the Internet.
I chose the most radical and longest. I fasted for 24 hours and went through the procedure at home alone. It involves olive oil and fresh lemon juice after taking a solution of Epsom salt to dilate the bile duct. There are also certain foods you can eat to help soften the gall stones before the procedure. Natural organic apple juice or cider is one because of the malic acid. I won't explain the procedure here. You'll need to read about it yourself. My procedure lasted several hours followed by a night of sleep. You'll need to stay home the next day.In the end, the results were as promised. I was a little soar for a few days but a week later, all the symptoms I experienced disappeared completely. I felt great, had more energy than I had for many years and even lost weight quickly. I never had the surgery so I still have my gall bladder. About every 2 years I repeat the procedure when I begin to experience symptoms. It continues to work. You can do a search for "gall bladder liver flush" to find it..
It's become a more simple procedure than ever to perform these days. I had my gallbladder removed three years ago and have only four small scars on my abdomen and left the hospital the next day. There are two test they perform, possibly three. First they may try ultra-sound to look for gallstones in the area. The next test will be to light up the area with a radioactive isotope they put in your bloodstream. This takes a while but what happens is that they try to see a complete image from your liver, to your gallbladder, to your small intestines. If everything doesn't light up you then you have blockage and they address the surgery from that perspective.In my case I was ok until the final hormone test. This is a test where there force the gallbladder to contract with a hormone and get the output of of your response in terms of pain level and the output production of bile from the organ. The glabladder is used mostly to produce bile to digest meat. It's not a critical organ to have. I even have a normal diet today but I have to remember that digestion of meats takes longer so I need to just pay attention to that aspect of it. In my case my bile output was at 7%. I had never had surgery in my life so while I was nervous but pretty sedated with drugs I really had no choice but to have the organ removed with laproscopic surgery. It's very simple and takes about and hour to perform. You have to be under for the process because they inflate the abdomen with CO2 and there are a couple of instruments they go in with to do the extraction - a camera, a light, a cutting tool, and the extraction tool. The gallbladder is taken out of an incision from inside your belly button. Then they put a titanium clip between your liver and small intestines to connnet them together and the organ is gone.You start to feel gallbladder pain at 35% or lower bile production or from gallstones. My became severe at 7% in the middle of the night so I didn't have many options. I woke up the family and I ended up in the emrgency room. You have to be under for the procedure only because they inflate your abdomen to get the tools in there which is a great deal of discomfort from what I heard. Otherwise it could be a local process if the inflation process wasn't so discomfortable. If for any reason you think you're experiencing the pain in that upper right abdomen area below your ribs go get it checked out. There's no reason to live with it. I was in severe pain and my gallbladder went into failure. If you're getting close organ failure or your have blockage from gallstones just take care of it. It's become a really common surgery these days and you'll be back on your feet the next day. It use to be far more complicated but the wonders on laproscopic surgery have been a tribute to moder medicine. Take it from someone that's honestly been there and done that ;-)Brian'Temet Nosce'
Gall stones (cholelithiasis) are common. Broadly speaking they are split into two broad types: pigment stones or cholesterol stones. Each has subtle differences in their causation but the consequences are generally the same.Your gall bladder is simply a diverticulum, or extra store house if you like, appended to the biliary tree. The biliary tree itself is a duct system which drains bile (a breakdown product of red blood cells and sterol metabolism), produced in the liver, to the duodenum (first part of the small bowel). Bile helps you digest fatty foods and secretion is stimulated by ingestion of fat by several mechanisms, particularly secretion of cholecystokinin (a hormone stimulating gall bladder contraction). The biliary system is fundamental to survival but the gall bladder itself is completely dispensible.Most gall stones form in the gall bladder, where bile is stored and concentrated. Simply being there, there cause no problems per se. The problems occur when the stones either block bile drainage or when the gall bladder contracts against the stones (like holding a fistful of rocks and not being able to relax your grip). Problems which result therefore are: pain (biliary colic), infection (secondary to stagnation of bile drainage, aka cholcystitis; or in severe cases ascending the biliary tree leading to cholangiitis, which can be fatal), jaundice (if a stone block bile drainage, it collects in the blood stream causing yellow discolouration of the skin and biochemical problems which resul from hyperbilirubinaemia), pancreatitis (if a stone blocks drainage of the pancreas, which shares a common duct with the gall bladder) and rarely, gall stone ileus (when recurrent cholecystitis causes erosion of the gall bladder through the wall of the duodenum, allowing large stones into the small bowel where they block the ileocaecal valve and result in small bowel obstruction).Hence, most people with gall stones are advised to have their gall bladder removed since medical treatments have generally failed to cause stones to "dissolve" and lithotripsy (ultrasound shock waves used to shatter renal stones) just fragments stones increasing risks of pancreatitis, infection and jaundice as small stones are more likely to escape from the gall bladder and cause these problems.Most cases are done by key hole surgery (laparoscopic cholecystectomy), which is largely done these days as a day case procedure, or with simply an overnight stay in hospital. This is not always possible, either for anatomical reasons or depending on the exact nature of the gall stones complications as described above. In these cases, conversion to the open operation is necessary (making a large cut about 3 to 4 inches long beneath the right lower ribs on the front of the belly).The procedure is generally safe with no long term consequences but, as with all surgery, there are some risks involved. There is always a risk of wound infections and bleeding with any intra-abdominal surgery. Chest infections also can occur, as a result of anaesthesia or as a consequence of pain post-operatively (which can occur if any air remains in the abdomen after the key hole procedure is completed). There is a risk, again inherent with all abdominal surgery, of vein clots (DVTs) causing leg pain and swelling, and of pulmonary emboli (clots in the lung, which although rare, can occassionally prove fatal). Most surgeons will thus give you a blood thinning injection until you are mobile after the operation (a heparin) plus some surgical stockings to wear.Other risks:
Injury of the biliary tree. Much more serious, necessitating some much more major surgery to repair and often causing long term problems but fortunately exceedingly rare when compared with the risks gall stones present if left untreated.
Failure to improve your pain (IF the pain you have has a cause other than gall stones).
Recurrence of gall stones (again rare, but microlithiasis has been occassional reported despite cholecystectomy).
Post-operative collections from bile leaks which may or may not become infected and require surgical drainage (if a clip on the ligated blood duct comes off).
As mentioned already, there is a risk of needing conversion to the open procedure intraoperatively, which may keep you in hospital longer (5 or more days longer than key hole techniques).
Finally, scars can hypertrophy (looking raised and red or unsightly) although thankfully this cosmetic complication is not common and not much of a problem.I hope this is helpful, it is of course only an overview and the details need much discussion with your surgeon. Don't forget, all these risks are rare and must be balanced with the risk of complications from possibly NOT treating the gall stones.
Goodness, I had my cholecystectomy back in 1991, so I'm sure they've made marvelous advances in the way they do this procedure. Probably by some kind of laser. I have a foot long diagonal scar across my belly as a remembrance. Lots of Luck to you!
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