Gallbladder is gone so where is this pain from?
Posted , 555 users are following.
HI
Had the dreaded gallbladder removed last June after only 7 months of pain (so I'm pretty lucky).
Everything went well, home the same day - took a good 4 weeks to feel totally better after the op but eating was ok and I don't seem to be affected by bowel issues like some people.
Only problem is I have dull ache in exactly the same place I used to get the gallbladder pain. It's not intense pain but it's in the front RUQ under my ribs and moves round the side and to my back.
It doesn't seem to appear after anything in particular and most of the time it's there constantly. Suppose it's more of an annoyance than anything else because I'm always aware of this ache. I'm quite reluctant to go to my GP because after spending about 7 months constantly in the surgery last year updating painkillers and nausea pills I don't want them to think I'm addicted to medical attention.
Just wondered if anyone had anything similar or if it's just a by-product of surgery that I'll have to get on with?
Thanks
34 likes, 1357 replies
Fred_Flintstone
Posted
just read your post, but confused as to which post it is pertaining to?
This is the reason why I have asked for a quote/reply function on this forum.
happyalien
Posted
Yes I do still have the ache even after gallbladder removal - after paying a bit of attention to it (I've been trying to ignore it and take my mind off it) it seems to be slightly worse after I've eaten.
When I had my gallbladder, just before I got the intense agonising pain I used to get the same ache, like a pre-pain warning. This current pain is the same and so far the omeprazole isn't helping.
Hopefully it will do something soon though. Good luck with yours :-)
bebe33104 happyalien
Posted
I think I can help you with the back pain! I had my gallbladder removed (cholecystectomy) two years ago and still have pain after eating foods high in cholesterol and hydrogenated fats and other processed foods. I try to only eat whole foods but sometimes I mess up. When I get my "phantom gallbladder pain" I can get rid of it almost instantly by lying on my stomach on the floor and placing a tennis ball below my right breast (not ON the breast but BELOW it). It will feel like it's on a rib. I gently place some of my body weight on the ball and rib and roll my body around so that the tennis ball massages the crampy area. I came up with this on my own and I know it sounds weird but it works for me instantly! My pain refers to the back and shoulder blade but after I do this massage technique it goes away completely. I also will turn over onto my back and place the tennis ball near my shoulder blade and spine and put a lot of my body weight on it and roll around so the tennis ball loosens up all those muscles. This seems to help too, but not as much as massaging front rib area with the ball. I hope you get this comment and get some instant relief! Please copy and paste this to other people suffering. NO doctor has ever been able to help me. My surgeon was NOT helpful either after he removed my gallbladder and acted like I was imagining it. Go get yourself a tennis ball. Let me know if it works for you too.
peggy47712 bebe33104
Posted
Guest happyalien
Posted
HAVE you been tested for sphincter of odi dysfunction or biliary dysconescia (sp?)
Sometimes the whole biliary system slows down and the sphincter muscle stops opening causing bile to back up
Scarring can occur
I had my sphincter cut (the procedure cause pancrearititis -in fact every ERCP has cause it. But there is a potential for some relief- I had a diseased gallbladder for over 10 years-no stones so if. Rise I was crazy-right?! When they finally removed it -the gallbladder had adhered to my liver-the surgeon literally said it was the most diseased gallbladder he'd ever seen.
Do not accept "your fine", "it's in your head" etc. demand a diagnosis and find a doctor willing to work to a solution! My last hospitalization and ERCP resulted in he entire biliary system full of sludge and barely working and I was in so much pain I felt I was dying....it's real. Something IS wrong. Go to the BEST Drs you can!! Good luck!!
Fred_Flintstone
Posted
bebe33104 Fred_Flintstone
Posted
I think I can help you with the back pain! I had my gallbladder removed (cholecystectomy) two years ago and still have pain after eating foods high in cholesterol and hydrogenated fats and other processed foods. I try to only eat whole foods but sometimes I mess up. When I get my "phantom gallbladder pain" I can get rid of it almost instantly by lying on my stomach on the floor and placing a tennis ball below my right breast (not ON the breast but BELOW it). It will feel like it's on a rib. I gently place some of my body weight on the ball and rib and roll my body around so that the tennis ball massages the crampy area. I came up with this on my own and I know it sounds weird but it works for me instantly! My pain refers to the back and shoulder blade but after I do this massage technique it goes away completely. I also will turn over onto my back and place the tennis ball near my shoulder blade and spine and put a lot of my body weight on it and roll around so the tennis ball loosens up all those muscles. This seems to help too, but not as much as massaging front rib area with the ball. I hope you get this comment and get some instant relief! Please copy and paste this to other people suffering. NO doctor has ever been able to help me. My surgeon was NOT helpful either after he removed my gallbladder and acted like I was imagining it. Go get yourself a tennis ball. Let me know if it works for you too.
Fred_Flintstone
Posted
julie-ann63
Posted
bebe33104 julie-ann63
Posted
I think I can help you with the back pain! I had my gallbladder removed (cholecystectomy) two years ago and still have pain after eating foods high in cholesterol and hydrogenated fats and other processed foods. I try to only eat whole foods but sometimes I mess up. When I get my "phantom gallbladder pain" I can get rid of it almost instantly by lying on my stomach on the floor and placing a tennis ball below my right breast (not ON the breast but BELOW it). It will feel like it's on a rib. I gently place some of my body weight on the ball and rib and roll my body around so that the tennis ball massages the crampy area. I came up with this on my own and I know it sounds weird but it works for me instantly! My pain refers to the back and shoulder blade but after I do this massage technique it goes away completely. I also will turn over onto my back and place the tennis ball near my shoulder blade and spine and put a lot of my body weight on it and roll around so the tennis ball loosens up all those muscles. This seems to help too, but not as much as massaging front rib area with the ball. I hope you get this comment and get some instant relief! Please copy and paste this to other people suffering. NO doctor has ever been able to help me. My surgeon was NOT helpful either after he removed my gallbladder and acted like I was imagining it. Go get yourself a tennis ball. Let me know if it works for you too.
trish74375 bebe33104
Posted
THANK YOU so much, I took your suggestion re tennis ball. Now because I'm elderly it's too difficult to get down on the floor to perform this, I just took the tennis ball and used it against the area you described. Pressed in just a little and rolled it around on the front and also on my back. I also used a small hand held messager on those areas, that also worked. Can't tell you how much that helped me. Again, Thank You.
Fred_Flintstone
Posted
swifty99
Edited
One thing I do get is an amazingly fast reaction to certain foods, usually just flatulence, but amazes me how quick some foods affect me now.
I will say all this is far better than the 2 years of absolute agony I used to suffer before it was removed!
Fred_Flintstone
Posted
Thank you for your post.
It's roughly 19 months since I had my GB removed, and I experience the reaction to certain foods too which is normal, I occasionally feel a little tingle around inside where the GB used to be, but this usually goes within minutes, so I can't really complain as it doesn't happen too frequently.
Did your surgeon arrange a follow up?
swifty99
Posted
Yes certainly had the 1 month follow up and did have a year one but couldn't make it so missed that one.
As you say, get the odd twinge and certain foods seems to go through very quickly although I saw a gastro specialist recently and he said what happens in a small number of cases is that because there's nothing to regulate the bile anymore, the excess passes straight into the intestines when you eat fatty food particularly and that of course works its way through but aggrevates the intestines on the way down causing wind/cramping etc and even burning in some people at the bottom.
But hey, compared to being in agony towards the end its bliss!
My gallbladder had been ignored by the doctor for months and I ended up in A&E on morphine and being sick due to the worst pain I'd ever want to experience.....the docs in A&E wanted to send me home in the morning but I refused and told them to transfer me to a different hospital and the surgeon said it was the largest GB he'd ever taken out due to all the infection inside....thank goodness it didn't burst!
Happy days!!
ian27163 swifty99
Posted
I had the same problem with a and e but I was lucky and a doctor on passing me could see the immense pain I was in and sent me to a ward, tobe operated on the next day,but like you my gb was over infected and part of my bowel had to be removed too because of the infection,but three years on I'm getting that dull pain normally at nightand somedays worse and quite painful