Gallbladder issues?

Sherri Tierney

Sherri Tierney

New member
Does anyone here have experience with gallbladder issues or stones?

On Christmas Eve we had a dinner of finger foods. I ate some summer sausage, cheese and crackers. A few hours later I began burping the sausage. Not long after I got nauseous, my abdomen bloated and I had a pain at the top of my belly button. I was miserable all day on Christmas Day. I thought I was just suffering with a stomach flu. I finally threw up and started to feel better towards evening.

A couple of days later after feeling better for that time, I tried the summer sausage again. Once again, a few hours later all the same symptoms hit me. The pain was the same and didn't go away until after I threw up again. Both times I had food that had been sitting in my stomach for over 24 hours when it finally came out.

I had convinced myself I had a sensitivity to summer sausage or something that was in it... until last night. Last night we had jambalaya for dinner and then I had a handful of potato chips before I went to bed. The symptoms all started again. This time I was burping chips though (which surprised me as I expected the jambalaya to be harder on my system if anything was). I tried and tried to sleep but laying down made it worse. I finally got up and spent the next few hours writhing in pain. The nausea wasn't quite as severe as during the other two episodes but the pain was worse.

Having had several family members with gallbladder issues, I looked up symptoms of a gallbladder attack. My symptoms, including where the pain was located, were pretty much identical. I looked up home remedies (this being Jan. 1st and all and not wanting an expensive ER trip) and read about drinking apple cider vinegar with apple juice. I took apple cider vinegar tablets with fruit juice since I had no straight apple juice. The pain was gone within an hour, and since I hadn't slept at all I dozed off on the couch and spent the next several hours sleeping there (our couch reclines on the ends so I wasn't laying flat which I think helped).

Does any of this sound familiar to anyone? I suspect I need to go see the doctor tomorrow. If there is a way I can treat this at home, I'd much rather do that. I don't have time for extensive treatment or surgery. I can't afford to feel awful like this either though. Bah!
 
I haven't had gallbladder issues but I think just about every woman in my family has. From working in a surgical office I do know that it's not the spicy foods but the rich, fatty foods that bring on gallbladder symptoms; ie the sausage and potato chips. My mother would always have an attack around the holidays with the sauces, gravies, cheeses, etc. She finally had her gallbladder removed because it got so bad. My sister is getting hers taken out in the near future too.
 
I had mine taken out this year after years of sporadic attacks, I would sometimes go 6 months without attack, so I kept putting of surgery. Totally wish I would have gotten it out sooner, because the relief was amazing! For me it was usually fatty foods, but it was like Russian Roulette; sometimes I could eat fatty foods no problem, other times it would give me a gall bladder attack.
I finally got it taken out after a horrible attack that had me up all night in really bad pain.
 
I had a few gallbladder attacks during my second pregnancy - sooo not fun, especially when combined with labor contractions!! So, I feel your pain, Sherri. For me, it was brought on by fatty foods as well - pizza in one particular instance.

Hope you get it figured out soon won't have too much trouble with it.
 
Thanks ladies! I am not really sure whether I should go to the doctor tomorrow or just wait and see if it happens again. I know that I don't want to deal with many more of these attacks. Today's was the worst as far as pain goes. :( I can handle the pain, but I can't handle the not sleeping part and each time I've been up all night suffering. I can't do that and still make it to work so I need to make some decisions.... or eat only apple sauce for the next few months until school is out for the summer. ;)

Jacinda, that thread will be really helpful if I do have to have it removed eventually. Thanks! I sure hope it doesn't come to that but I guess we'll see.
 
I have a coworker going through this. She was told hers doesn't need to come out yet, but she did have to cut out soda and fatty foods. She's also trying a vegetarian diet to see if that helps (although I think she's just cutting out beef, so not actually vegetarian in my book). She's also taking some sort of medication prescribed by her doctor. I'm hoping it works (and realizing that my own stomach problems have come back as I've started drink pop regularly again after cutting it out completely for six months).
 
Soda may very well be a contributing factor for me. I drink entirely too much diet Pepsi. I don't want to give it up but may very well have to. I know I did feel better all around when I gave it up for 3 months and was eating clean, no sugars or processed foods at all. I was eating only lean meat and 'good' fats so maybe I should try that again. I lost 45 pounds in less than 2 months too when I was eating like that.
 
My husband's gall bladder was damaged in the car accident in 2011. He was getting really sick every other week or so. He had all sorts of tests run. He was admitted to the hospital three times with a lot of stomach pain and vomiting each time it would happen. Well they finally did whatever test they needed to do to check his gallbladder and found it was functioning zero and was on the verge of bursting. My advice is if you think it is the gallbladder to get it checked as soon as you can. If it does burst it is supposed to be very bad.
 
Oh and FYI any dark sodas as well as caffinated drinks are really bad for you according to my nephrologist (kidney dr). He said if you really want a soda to drink sprite. I have cut out all sodas except the occasional Sprite and even cut out iced tea (I know that sucks but believe it or not I do not miss it as much as I thought I would). When I do drink a tea or a pepsi now I can feel it in my kidneys. If I were to go several days where I drank them everyday Ill have a lot of pain. I may just be really sensitive to it but I know when I was drinking 2 or 3 pepsis a day and at least a couple glasses of sweet tea I felt awful and was seeing my nephrologist quite often for the pain I was experiencing from recurrent UTI's & kidney stones
 
I'm currently waiting for insurance approval to get mine removed.

At the beginning of December, after having homemade pizza pockets, I had the worst attack ever, I would have rather given birth to all 3 of my 9lb children again. It was absolutely horrible. I ended up in the ER for 8 hours.

Ever since that day I'm afraid to eat anything. Some days a simple piece of toast will make it go ape-crazy.

The DR I had that night, said you're either born going to have problems with it or not, diet doesn't cause the stones, but will most definitely cause attacks. To avoid fatty foods, and I quote "this is how you know it's fatty: it tastes really good!". Because your body needs more 'bile' to digest fatty foods, fatty foods are the most common trigger because the gallbladder has to squeeze more out then.

So, while I wait, it's a diet change, an over the counter acid reducer, and an emergency supply of Zofran (for the nausea the attacks cause) and a pain reliever (because it's so horrible). My regular DR did say that if I had another attack like the one that sent me to the hospital to get checked out soon, because they can make you really sick.
 
If it is stones, which it sounds like, your attacks don't sound like they have progressed to the worst level yet. Not to scare you, but if the pain is manageable, then it isn't as bad as it will get. I just had mine removed in November and I'm loving life without it! Have the surgery asap!! As far as living with stones...I pretty much became an expert because I had no insurance so it was a long waiting process to get it through the county hospital. My routine was to always let myself throw up, because it got the offending food out of my system. I would also drink a tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar (it needs to be the organic "with the mother" kind) straight (not mixed with anything) at the first sign of an attack. It burns like hell, but it really cuts down on the time an attack lasts. Remember to do it as soon as you feel any pain. The earlier you catch the attack, the better. However, with me though, the more attacks I had and the more I drank the vinegar, it less effective it was. Really...just have the surgery asap.
 
Yep.. it's the sausage and the cheese... my worst attack EVER came after eating cheese pizza. Sometimes water would even set mine off. It sucks. Hope you can get it taken care of Sherri!!
 
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