My husband was hospitalized around Halloween for severe abdominal pain on the upper right side along with a high fever. The did a lot of tests and were going to remove his gallbaldder right away. A few hours before the surgery the surgeon decided against it because they found something "funny" on the sonogram, which he called a "bile ball".

Anyway, the doctor prescribed a low fat diet and he went for another sonogram today to see if the "bile ball" disappeared or if there is some other mass there. My husband seems to think they didn't find anything.

Doctor said what he had was a gallbladder attack and recommended that he have the gallbladder removed since eventually he will have another attack.

He has been fine since being released from the hospital 6 weeks ago.

Should he go through with the surgery, get a second opinion or just take his chances and forget about it???

He has emphesema and is not the best candidate for surgery, that is why we are a little cautious about it because I hate for him to undergo any surgery unnecessarily.

Thoughts???

I am by no means a doctor, but I personally would probably opt for the surgery. Just last night I just happen to have seen a video of a gall bladder being removed. The operation looked fairly simple and didn't seem risky, and there was virtually no bleeding ... and the gall bladder isn't the most vital of organs. If I am not mistaken, it's only functions are to store excess bile that the liver produces, and then to contract to secrete that bile when needed.

The gall bladder does not completely empty so the bile that's in there could have been in there for a long time. Because the bile is "stagnant", the salts and minerals in it can precipitate, forming stones ... gall stones. These can be nasty. The common bile duct joins with a duct from pancreas, forming a "higher" common duct that secretes into the duodenum (the first 12 inches of the small intestine). If a gall stone happens to lodge in that common duct, pancreatic fluids can back up into the pancreas. Although the pancreas has some defenses against it's own enzymes, it is possible that it could start to be digested, or other problems could arise (an organ being plugged up just isn't good).

Again, that's all coming from a non-professional ... just a biology student in college.

I had my gallbladder removed 1.5 weeks ago, they do it through 4 small incisions and to me was nothing to be scared of (after the fact).
Just wanted to let you know, if he is having pain (usually under right breast ribcage and radiating to the center that feels like a REALLY bad heart burn that antacids do nothing for) then I say go for the surgery. Look up Laparoscopic cholecystectomy on the net to check the surgery out.

Hope this helps

Your husband symptoms sound like what I had before I had my gall bladder removed. The first time I had an attack, it came on like hammer and felt litterly like someone punched me in the stomach and it lasted for a good 4 hours :eek: . I was visiting a friend at the time and was so bad that he called 911 then I was life-flighted to the nearest hospital thinking it was a heart attack. It came on like severe indigestion, I broke out into a cold sweat, lost my breath (maybe because of shock since I had good oxygen flow) and a severe pain in my back as well. Only until about 4 or 5 other attacks with one more emergency room visit (the rest I delt with since I knew it wasn't life threatening) did they find it was my gall bladder highly inflammed. At first they told me it was stones causing it after they did an ultrasound on me but when they removed it there were no stones. After the surgury I wasn't too sold on the bit that it was my gall bladder causing the problem, since the told me one thing then turned out to be another, but I haven't had an attack since then but I've been having some weird movements going on in there lately. I hope this helps.