gallbladder problems....

Hey girls

I have been told that I have gallstones and there is nothing they can do till I have Jasmine. The problem is I am now on a very low fat diet and watch everything I eat closely and yet in the last 2 days I've had 2 attacks. Last nights attack was so bad, the pain so intense that I vomited everywhere! Today straight after lunch(which was a plain sandwich) I had another attack. Thats 3 attacks this week! What am I doing wrong? Is there anything wlse I can be doing to stop them happening? The docs have said to bear with it as there is nothing I can take etc so I have like 8 weeks left of this. I really don't think I can take much more of it as it leaves me physicaly and mentally exhausted and frightened of another attack.

Has anyone else had gallbladder probelms while pregnant??:confused:

awww kirst this must be horrible for you. Im sorry I dont know what else you can do. I hope someone can help you :hugs:

Kirsty - hugs.
I had gallbladder problems when I was pregnant with the first set of twins. It was awful and painful.
I also just had to put up with it until I could have the darn thing removed the following February. There was nothing really that I found eased the attacks, sorry.
I sympathise. I assume you are doing all the low fat stuff already.
Unfortunately, your pregnancy hormones also set things off.

Hope you get some relief.

love the new photo of ivy and noah :)

AWWW thanks, Danni

Kirsty - I had it 4 weeks after birth (apparently I'd probably had mild attacks during pregnancy too but thought it was just bubby belting the living hell out of my ribs and winding me) and the pain I had that night I fully sympathise with you having to wait another 8 weeks. For the week I waited until mine was removed I did a no fat diet not even low fat as I was sure I could not handle another attack of the intensity of the main one I had - I managed to go the week on rice noodles, plain veges, fruit etc, pita bread style (I think), no milk - basically anything that had almost 0 fat was in anything else was out as I lived in fear but I knew I only had to last a week and wasn't carrying a baby (although was trying to breastfeed). I don't know how good it would be for you or the baby to go as extreme as I did though. Hope it eases up for you and you can find a balance.

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I had it 4 weeks after birth (apparently I'd probably had mild attacks during pregnancy too but thought it was just bubby belting the living hell out of my ribs and winding me)

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This was me !!
I too got it 4 weeks after having Madeleine... I thought at first it was to do with my new nursing bra... I thought perhaps it was too tight.
Anyway... Kirsty... I so sympathise with you honey. Basically, the only thing to do is eat very very minimal amounts of fat. Buy and Fat and Calorie counter book... This was my bible as I had to wait 6 months before I could get my gallbladder removed!!! I could eat less than 10 grams of fat per day, but nothing more.
It is amazing when actually having to count fat for something like that. I found it disgusting that Mcdonalds orange juice had fat in it !!! I didn't expect juice to contain fat !!!
Wishing you all the best Kirsty... I will pray that you have no more attacks !
Lisa

Kirsty, sorry I just noticed this thread. How are you going?? I totally sympathise with you

I suffered from gall stones when I was pg with Nicholas, I had one really bad attack late in pregnancy, but didn't know it was b/c of gall stones, then suffered from them again a few weeks after his birth.

I then suffered from them again when I was pg with ~Matthew~ and as you may/may not know, I ended up having to have my gall bladder taken out while I was pg with him, as it became severly inflamed.

As for preventing them, as the other girls have suggested low fat foods are the best and try and avoid all saturated fat all together.

Kirsty, I have been there where you are now hun,
With DS2, I kept having massive pain attacks, that led t vommitting violently for hours on end, and crying in pain, untill i was hospitalised and rehydrated. The last few weeks of his pregnancy were hell, with this happening a few times, as the doctors didnt know what was wrong.
After i had him, i continued to have these attacks, until i was going into the emergency 2-3 times a week having to get injections of Buscopan, and pethadine. Finally a doctor realised what it was, and when My DS was 4 months old, they removed it, and i was told it was full of stones, and that the pregnancy can cause them.
I am so sorry that there is not much that can be done for you atm, except a low fat diet as the girls have mentioned, and to try to keep well hydrated. Relief is not far away hun, and the op (if you need it) is only a quick day surgery laparoscopy, no more pain ever.
Just think, each day, is one day less you might have to suffer.

It shocking isnt it,

I had the same thing during my pregnancy, I still have it in 6months later, Im a huge wussbag (everyones told me the op hurt, with tonnes of recovery time) I still have really bad attacks and have stopped BFing because whenever I feel them coming on I take a few panadine Forte which hold it off a little!!! But just a bit.

I live in dread everyday that I might have another attack!!!

Hope this helps!!

Lindie, if you can, please don't put off having the stones or gall bladder removed. Now days they can do keyhole surgery and apparently that isn't painful to get over at all and you only have a tiny scar. I left mine and it became extrememely inflamed and I ended up having to have a major operation and now have a large scar across my stomach and I will admit it was quite a long and painful recovery.

Good luck.

Kirsty, I am so sorry you have to put up with this dreadful problem!!

A few weeks after ben was born i woke up with extreme pains and felt as if i couldnt breathe. I was rushed to the emergency, the pains went away but i had to stay overnight so they could run some tests. They didnt find anything. Since then i had been getting pains after dinner very often, but i hadnt really noticed a pattern until my mum mentioned i might have gallstones. One Saturday night i was in so much pain for hours, we had to call the emergency doctor at 4am to come over, she also said she thought it might be gallstones, and gave me a shot of Buscopan, which worked wonders! I was then diagnosed with having gallstones, and everything made sense!

They told me I needed to have the stones removed and that i wouldnt have the whole thing taken out because there was no sign of infection. I was still breastfeeding Ben, so i wanted to wait as long as i could until i went into hospital. But the pains became so often, so intense, and i became more and more sensitve to foods. The doctor prescribed Buscopan for me, but my body stopped reacting to it. So i stopped breastfeeding Ben at 4 months, and booked into have it done.

The surgery was honestly ok. I think the worst thing for me was waking up after the surgery. They ended up taking out the whole gallbladder because they found it was VERY infected. And apparantly my stones were huge (no wonder i was having such a horrible time). i was put on strong antibiotics. my advice - whatever you do DONT PUT OFF SURGERY! the pains and inconvenience just arent worth it, not one tiny bit!! i was lucky the infection didnt spread to my other organs. They do it with the keyhole method. I now only have 2 little scars, one in my belly button, and one on the left side of my stomach (about 3cms). I had it done just a couple of months ago, so im sure they will fade even more. I was in hospital for 5 days. recovery was much MUCH easier than i thought it would be.

Lindie, whoever told you that must have their information from experiences from 20 years ago. Recovery time was so very very short for me. After 3 days i felt really well, still tired and a little weak. It took me only 1 week before i felt "normal" again!

Good luck with everything, I am so sorry you ladies that have to put up with it. I really feel for you!!!:hug:

Lindie,
Honestly hun, the pain after the surgery, is so minor, I didnt even have to have panadol!!, and after having so many attacks, i think that it would be in both yours, and your bubba's interests, to get mummy well dont you tyhink?, because the longer you suffer, the harder it is to take care of your precious baby.
I had keyhole surgery, and had only 3 small incisions. One in my belly button, one up under my breastbone, and another on the right hand side under my ribs.
Such a simple op, but The pain of the attacks was worse than labour!!
Please dont put it off, you never know, one of the stones could travel and become caught in the tubes, and then it is a major op, with a huge incision to fix.

Oh i hear you lil aussie! The pain is so bad in some attacks. Mine happened mostly at night, which meant i couldnt sleep, i would just be sitting on the couch from 11pm to 4am in a ball, crying and clutching my stomach hoping the pains would go away. I serioulsy would have prefered to have been in labour during some attacks.

My attacks are severe, but what makes them worse is that I can't take anything! My sister had gallbladder problems after having her second child, she had keyhole surgery, and recovered so well. She said recovery was so much easier then c/s recovery!LOL! I'm going to have the surgery just after I've had bub.

Thank you all so much for your responses, its great to know I'm not alone on this!!

Hang in there Kristy, not long till your bubba makes its appearance,,,,and the op wont affect breastfeeding that much at all either,,,as my last son was only 4 month sold when I had it, even though i was expressing all his feeds, I just expressed a feed for him while i was out to it.

Hi Kirsty,

Sorry to hear you have to go through so much agony until you have had bubs, i hope you have been able to control such pain until the birth.

Reading you ladies that say th epain is worse than labour, that is exactly how i describe it. I too had mild gallbladder attacks last year while preg with twins.

2 weeks after i had the premature birth i had a huge attack where i couldnt breathe and the pain was so bad it was worse than labour.

I went to gastrologist and he said that i didnt have gall stones (although scan showed i did!!!) and put me on ulcer tablets, they worked but had huge attack on my honeymoon/birthday (same day) and when i had op he said that there was a stone stuck in the neck of my gallbladder and that was what was causing the pain.

He wanted to put my operation on hold, while on my honeymoon and spent all night in pain, the next morn i rang and demanded the operation.

Best decision i made. I had keyhole, if it werent for anaesetic i would have been walking straight after operation and needed no pain killers and havent felt fitter since.

I have now a pregnancy that is pain free that much i dont feel preg.

I still get my liver checked only cause my last liver test was little high. But otherwise i am great.

I wouldnt put off having op with gall bladder if you have problems with it it could get alot worse in the end.

Hi ladies
I too have a gallstones and have bad attacks during my last pregnacy ended up in hospital twice and they didn't know at first and took a guess it was gallstones and did a scan after i had my daughter and did a MRI as well. Then i decided to go ahead with the op and get my gallbladder taken out because of the pain was that bad i felt like i couldn't breathe and the doctor said if you just have the stones removed they can come back . I have now been on the waithing list for 6mths and i am still waitng till this day but now i am 22 weeks pregnant again(unplanned) and will have to wait longer for my operation until i have bub.