Chronic Diarrhea after Gall bladder Removed

Harry

ktintrouble,

Having your type of surgery is not simple and I would be surprised if the quality of your life has not changed. I think you are a very fortunate person as you well know.

Removing part of your liver along with your gallbldder in combination is not an easy recovery procedure. Your liver has been assaulted big time and has to regenerate to resume it's normal functioning. And, digestion w/o a GB is sometimes not a simple operation by itself.

About 5% of people that have their gallbladder removed -- just put out too much bile that is now not contolled by a GB -- especially when eating certain greasy foods. Normally the last part of your small intestines re-absorbs your bile for reuse but if there is too much bile and it reaches your colon -- you will have explosive diarrhea.
The normal treatment is to take Questran to absorb the bile. For normal people ---taking Questran with a gallbladder ---the side-effect is constipation but for you your bile salts output from a partially functioning liver -- may take some time to become normal.

Your condition w/o liver surgery is called Bile Salt Diarrhea and for some people it by itself is difficult to deal with.

My only suggestion is that taking a water soluble fiber supplement like Metamucil slows down your intestines but it also adds water to your stool and bulks the stool up--that just may help to make your BMs more regular.

Insoluble fiber is the fiber that is contained in all fruits, all veggies except the root veggies, bran from grains, nuts and seeds-- although not a complete list insoluble fiber will cause the stool in your intestines to move faster.
You need a combinatin of both types of fiber to ever have normal BMs -- 25 to 35 grams daily along with 6 to 8 glasses of water.

The diarrhea just after eating is usually cause by some form of trigger foods or drink-- that may have come about and occurred w/o a gallbladder. A half a cup of coffee after a meal does it to my wife after many years of marriage.

I certainly hope you figure all this out and don't have mal-absoption problems with loose stools.
Also, some form of stress control would help-- because this entire procedure has come with alot of that -- I am sure!!

God Bless---Harry

AlanPi

Normal liver can produce 2~5 cups of bile (.5 ~ 1 liter!) per day, so without gb absorbing all that water in the bile, diarrhea can result.

Without a gb controlling the flow of bile, it just drips into your intestines, so you will need frequent meals and especially not skip any.

Have you tried not drinking too much fluid during and 2 hours after a meal? It may help with the digestion and absorption.

Harry

Alan,

Sorry but I don't agree with your desciption of GB diarrhea.

This how I understand it works.
The gallbladder does not absorb water but releases the bile that is made by the liver to digest fats. The bile is reabsorbed in the illium part of the small intestines for reuse. So, the GB controls the bile and puts it out when fatty foods are eaten.
After a GB is removed, there is no control of bile from the liver to digest fatty foods. And 5% of people that have their GB removed just put out too much bile since it is uncontrolled --- if the bile is not absorbed in the small intestines and some of it reaches the colon --the colon secrats fluids resuting in diarrhea. The amount of diarrhea is determined by the amount of Bile Salts that reaches the colon.

I suggest you look up Bile Salts diarrhea.

Harry

AlanPi

Hi Harry,

Thank you for the info and I appreciate it. Please do correct me if I am wrong, I do want to get the facts straight also. I myself am about to have my own gallbladder removed, without the evidence of gallstones (ultrasound, CT).

From the researchs I have done and the info I received from my doctors:
*Liver produces 500 ~ 1000 ml of bile daily, with 3~5g of bile acid circulating the body 6~10 times daily, with about 0.5g lost in faeces
*Gallbladder's volume is about 50ml. It absorbs the fluid in the bile 5~6 fold, and controls the release of this concentrated bile.
*After gallbladder removal, ones body may adjust by having the common bile duct taking over the function of the gallbladder. But it cannot concentrate the bile, so bile leaks into stomach or intestines.

It is interesting to know colon secrats fluids and turns into diarrhea, I didn't realize that before!

I am planning to take some bile salt supplements (Bile Acid Factors), could this result in diarrhea as well?

Lizardwoman85

Hello,

I'm am sorry to say that I had my gallbladder removed four years ago and still experience these bouts of extreme diarrhea a couple times a week. It is usually so bad it ruins my plans for the day. I must say I am starting to do better now that I am taking fiber and Acidophilus daily. My mom experienced the same thing after gallbladder removal and still has GI problems (over a decade later).

It makes sense to have diarrhea after gallbladder removal. The gallbladder helps to digest difficult dairy and fatty foods. Without it, it makes it harder for the body to digest those things, thus resulting in your body pushing it out quickly.

I would seriously recommend taking some Acidophilus (or eating a couple yogurts a day) and try taking lots of extra fiber to bulk up your stools and make them more solid. Those are the only things that have helped me at all. I hope maybe they will help you too.

Good luck, if you have any more questions....I can try my best to answer them for you

NHow

Hi, Just read your posts. I'm curious to know why you would consider taking bile salt supplements if you already have excess bile salts that cause diarrhea? I also had my GB out a few years ago and have had chronic diarrhea since. I take questran and imodium to control it. It makes me a bit constipated but if I cut back I get a bout of miserable, crampy diarrhea. I'd love to find something that works better but haven't yet. Tried calcium and fibre supplements but they didn't help. What results did you have with the bile salt supplements?

debsav63

Coming into this topic a few years late, but after having my gall bladder removed, I too had the same problem. The only thing that helped me was Caltrate. The Caltrate pills nearly choked me, so I started taking the chewables, one tablet twice a day. After awhile, they worked so well that I had to back off to just one tablet per day. Haven't had any real problems since then.