A week ago I had what turned out to be a nasty attack from gallstones. Some blood tests, ultrasounds and 2 GPs opinions later, I probably need to have my gallbladder removed in the near future (i.e. probably within a month). I am seeing a surgeon in a week's time.
Apparently it's fairly common for post partum women to develop gallbladder problems, so I am just wondering if this has happened to anyone else and what you did. My little one is only 4 weeks old, so I'm not keen on having surgery!
When I was in having my second bub, there was another woman on the ward who had just had hers out and she had an 8 or a 10wk old and was over on our side so she could have help with looking after him etc. The cousin of one of my friends had hers out when her little one was 12wks old. It certainly is doable, but the BF can be tricky because you have to fast and are nil by mouth and you know how thirsty you get when BFing!
Hi
i had my gall bladder removed when my oldest son was 5 months old..
i wasnt allowed to have him at the hospital with me as her was too old but i was only in hospital over night and with pain relief i was able to look after my little man 2 days later when my DH went back to work
Im not sure exactly what you want to know but if you have any questions just let me know and i should be able to answer them for you!!
Ruth I had my gallbladder out earlier this year - 16 months after my DD was born but in hindsight I was having mild gallbladder attacks all along (I thought it was reflux) but they got really bad towards the end. The actual surgery was pretty minor, they kept me in over night, basically to check that your pain management is ok and that you're eating before they discharge you. I was flat and tired for probably a week or so afterwards, but recovered pretty quickly, and the relief from the gallstone attacks was immediate.
In the meantime, if you strip out as much fat as you can from your diet it will help prevent attacks. I went thru the public hospital system so had to wait for a few months for surgery, so I had quite a lot of nasty attacks in that time. I took pain killers and maxolon (to stop the vomiting) when I was first having attacks - but at the end they gave me buscopan in the ER one time and it worked really well -so check with your GP what you can take if the attacks are bad for you.
If you can have surgery sooner rather than later I would do it, just because those attacks can be really nasty and in my case they were quite frequent and debilitating. If you're breastfeeding it's a good idea to start expressing now so you have a supply of EBM for the short time you can't feed - and discuss how to manage the breastfeeding when you see the surgeon. Good luck!
New Mum - Gallbladder removal?
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