cheer up

It seems that no one with gallbladder trouble has exactly the same symptoms but if the wall is thickened and/or stones are present AND you have some typical symptoms, as both of you do, it's a good idea to take the GB out before things get worse. I had one big pain attack -- then nothing for many months. I babied it along though I knew via ultrasound I had stones.

After about six months I began to have more nausea, more frequent vague pains, more bizarre right-sided stomachaches, etc. Often one incident was different from the previous one but three different gastroenterologists convinced me (finally) to have it out.

The lap surgery was a breeze, and I'm 55 years old. I was back at work in 10 days and could have gone back a bit earlier if I'd wanted to.

I have not had the diarrhea that about 10-20% of people have, at least for awhile. I do occasionally still have a pain, sometimes a bad and lengthy pain, but even after a recent MRCP (kind of like an MRI of the abdomen) nothing was noted. Yes, there can be complications of surgery or after the fact. These can crop up at any time -- days, weeks, months or years later. (My surgery was May of '04.

But was it worth it. HECK YES!!!!! I find that if I eat many little small meals or snacks throughout the day and avoid most milk products, I feel really quite good. A little bit of just about any foods are fine. Eating too much is not so good, but eating as I do now doesn't seem to put the weight on anymore and all the docs say "don't gain back the weight!"

I'm sure both of you will be just fine after your surgeries. Just about everyone who has had it, even with a few problems after the fact that can be dealt with, feels they are glad they had the GB out. Trust me, if you leave it in there in some diseased state, it only gets worse for you later and you definitely don't want to have it out on an emergency basis.