Acute Pancreatitis Postpartum (Retained Gallstone post-op)
This sub has been incredibly helpful this past week so I thought I’d share my experience in case it’s helpful. I’m 10 weeks postpartum and had my first gallbladder attacks a little over a month ago; I had my gallbladder removed at the beginning of May. I’d never known that I had gallstones and had never had any medical issues at all prior to this—my pregnancy was uneventful except for bad nausea and heartburn.
After the gallbladder attacks, I was very careful to stick to a low-fat diet. My gallbladder surgery went well and after one night in the hospital I returned home with no apparent problems, though out of an abundance of caution I stuck to the low-fat diet, figuring I’d eventually start incorporating more foods.
Then one week after the surgery I got hit with another “gallbladder attack.” I called my doctor’s office and the surgeon on call said it was likely gas pain irritating my diaphragm, so I just waited for the excruciating pain to subside over the course of a couple of hours. The next day it happened again but the pain lingered for much longer. When I had the third attack in three days, this time it was accompanied by nausea and extremely painful vomiting; I couldn’t keep anything down, not even water. I went to the ER and after seven hours of pain and vomiting I was finally seen. My lipase was over 6000 and liver enzymes were also very elevated, so they said I had acute pancreatitis from a suspected gallstone left over from the surgery and was admitted overnight. CT later that night confirmed pancreatitis.
I had an MRCP done the next day which didn’t show a gallstone or dilated bile duct so the doctors’ best guess was that I’d had a gallstone left over from surgery but that it had passed, though it triggered pancreatitis in the process. Over the course of the next four days my lipase and liver enzyme levels kept dropping; I had two days of water/ice chips only, followed by a day of clear liquids, then a day of full liquids, and finally very soft solids. I still had a lot of pain and felt bloated/gassy, especially under my left ribcage, but I tried to stretch out the pain meds as long as possible since I’m breastfeeding and wanted to minimize my newborn’s exposure to the opioids, even though the lactation consultant at the hospital had reviewed the meds and said they were safe. (So did I suffer needlessly? Maybe! But I felt better about it.) After five days and consistent improvement with bloodwork I was discharged home with only ibuprofen and Tylenol for pain. Now that I’m a full week out from hospitalization, I’m starting to feel more normal again, though I’ll stick to the low-fat diet for the time being.
Has anyone else had pancreatitis from a retained gallstone and never had any other attacks? Now I’m paranoid about everything I eat, but the limited diet has made breastfeeding so much more difficult. Would love to hear from anyone with a similar story.