I’m 22F and looking for some advice or personal experiences with gallbladder removal.
For the last 3 years or so, I’ve had occasional discomfort on the lower right side of my ribs, maybe once every 6 months. My most recent episode was much worse it came and went every few hours for about a day and a half and radiated into my right back and shoulder.
I went to the ER, where they did a CT and bloodwork. Everything was normal except for slightly elevated bilirubin. A few days later, the pain came back, so I went to a second ER. They did an ultrasound and found what they believed were very small, sludgy stones in my gallbladder. I was referred to a general surgeon, and after following up with her a few weeks later, she agreed that laparoscopic gallbladder removal would be the best option.
The thing is, I don’t have any inflammation or infection right now, and my surgery isn’t scheduled until September 1st. I’ve been doing a lot of research and reading people’s experiences, and honestly, it’s making me really nervous. I’ve seen quite a few people say they regret having the surgery, develop digestive issues afterward, or feel like they can’t live their life the same way anymore.
I’m not a huge partier, but I’m 22 and I do enjoy occasionally going out for drinks, eating what I want, and being able to do things with my friends without constantly worrying about my gallbladder.
At the same time, I don’t want to keep putting it off until it gets worse and potentially end up with an emergency situation, complications, or a more difficult surgery.
For anyone who has had gallstones/sludge and decided whether or not to have their gallbladder removed how did you make the decision? How has life actually been after surgery, especially with eating, drinking, going out, and digestion?
I’d really appreciate hearing both positive and negative experiences. I’m trying to make an informed decision rather than letting myself get scared by everything I’m reading online.

I’ve gone pretty deep down the rabbit hole researching gallbladder-preserving procedures, and now I’m trying to compare the options rather than just looking at one place.

From what I’ve found so far, there seem to be approaches in China, the US, Turkey and a few other countries, but they all seem to have their own way of doing things.

For example, I’ve seen an approach in the US that involves leaving a drainage tube for quite a while, and honestly that part makes me pretty hesitant. I’ve also looked at some options in Turkey, but the number of restrictions and conditions they seem to put around the procedure makes me question whether it would be worth travelling there.

China is currently the option I’m researching most seriously. The information I’ve seen so far about their gallbladder-preserving approach looks pretty interesting, but obviously I’m not going to blindly trust promotional material either.

And then there are other countries I’ve come across, but I’m still trying to figure out what is actually legitimate and what is just marketing.

Has anyone here actually compared these options or had a gallbladder-preserving procedure abroad? I’d be really interested in hearing which country you chose and why.

For anyone who's having gallbladder attacks and pain drink apple juice and/or apple cider vinegar. If those don't work for you magnesium water or kale smoothies, chamomile and peppermint tea can help along with hot showers with running water over the gallbladder area followed by heating pad. You can mix up these combinations and see what works for you but the number 1 remedy is the apple juice and/or apple cider vinegar which works for me followed by a hot shower and heating pad. THIS IS NOT A CURE BUT A TEMPORARY FIX UNTIL SURGERY. I DEFINITELY BELIEVE IN SAVING THE GALLBLADDER IF POSSIBLE. WE NEED DEFINITELY OUR ORGANS So I pray you all have a successful surgery and a speedy recovery 🙏 ❤️ hang in there 🙏

Hi all,

My 82 year old mum has a large stone stuck in her bile duct and they have put a stent in but said surgery at her age is not possible due to age and it would just ongoing stent changes.

They have also said the ercp procedure cannot remove the stone as its too large.

She's losing alot of weight due to gallstones and is now at 5stone 5lbs but she is rather petite.

She has high blood pressure and diabetes (type 2 only recently)

Has anyone had or know of anyone who has had gallbladder surgery at an older age. If not, has anyone had spyglass procedure.

Based in uk, at my witts end as feel like theres no where to go with it.

Hello everyone,

I have been dealing with health problems for several months and I am starting to wonder whether my gallbladder could be the main cause. I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has experienced something similar.

My symptoms started suddenly on January 27th, and since then I have been struggling with them almost every day. The main problems are:

abdominal and intestinal pain (mostly around and below the belly button),

significant bloating and a feeling of fullness,

the pain usually appears 2–6 hours after eating, sometimes even later,

after a bowel movement, the pain often gets worse and sometimes I also feel dizzy,

my stool is solid in about 95% of cases. However, when I eat something like an apple, my stool becomes very fragmented and looks like small pieces,

sometimes I experience feeling cold, weakness, or blurred vision.

I have undergone many examinations, including gastroscopy, colonoscopy with biopsies, MR enterography, blood tests, and other tests. Crohn’s disease was ruled out based on the colonoscopy and biopsy results.

An ultrasound showed that I have a bent gallbladder with a larger cluster of gallstones and thickened bile/sludge. This made me wonder whether all these symptoms could actually be related to my gallbladder.

Has anyone here had similar symptoms? Could your gallbladder cause mainly intestinal pain, bloating, and problems occurring several hours after meals? And if you had your gallbladder removed, did your symptoms improve?

I would really appreciate any experiences or advice. Thank you.

My entire life I have had this thing where anytime I eat anything too greasy or buttery or fatty or fried I get sick in the night: really bad stomach(?) ache, I get shaky, sometimes throw up, and if I have any bowel movements it doesn't ease the pain at all. The attacks last a few hours and only the nighttime, hours after I've eaten. Tums or pepto bismol or anti nausea don't work when I'm already feeling bad. I just have to wait it out. Went to doctors when I was younger, I think they just ruled it as a food allergy and moved on. I ruled it as Billary dyskinesia off my own research of it. It wasn't until years later that my dietitian cousin recommended that I try the "now" super enzyme supplement pills that have ox bile in them whenever I eat something fried, and it totally works to prevent the attacks. Unless I overdo it, like eating a lot of buttery popcorn will make me sick even if I take that pill with it. That being said, I hate having to take a pill and carry it with me everywhere. Sometimes meals sneak up on me that I don't realize were too greasy until it's too late and I'm shaking and sick hours after. So this year I started going back to the doctor to try and get this figured out. Went all the way to a HIDA scan and whatever my percentage was wasn't high enough to recommend gallbladder removal. But also one of the nurses mentioned that maybe I should retake the HIDA during an attack? They tested me for stones and everything, i've had bloodwork and CT scan and ultrasound on all the organs and omeprizol and nothing. Hoping to meet with the surgeon just to get his opinion on it, but I understand that removing the gallbladder is a big risk that could make matters worse. Has anybody ever had an issue similar to this?

I have been having a ton of stomach issues for the past month a half or so. After multiple blood and stool tests, X-rays, and most recent, a CT scan, I got results back saying I have gallbladder stones and a posterior splenic cyst. After doing some research, it looks like the most likely course of treatment is getting surgery to have my gallbladder removed. I AM TERRIFIED. I have not had surgery since I’ve developed POTS 4 years ago and have no idea what to expect. I have tried to avoid invasive types of treatments due my body’s high sensitivity. The first time I took MiraLAX after having pots, my heart rate jumped from 70 bpm to 130bpm and I had a hard time breathing. My body is so sensitive since developing pots that i have strong negative reactions to anything ingested in my body. Has anyone had to have surgery or gallbladder surgery specifically, while having pots. If so, can you please share your experience. How did the surgery and recovery go? I also deal with insomnia so I know this will affect that as well.

I have a symptomatic hyperkinetic gallbladder. It's kind of rare (it's the opposite of most gallbladder issues which stem from HYPOkinetic gallbladders) and docs don't really know much about it. UW Gastro Montlake is booked for the rest of the year. Anyone by chance know of a good gastroenterologist in Seattle, Washington, with some experience with this? I need someone who can help me rule out other things before landing on gallbladder removal (though I am OK with that, too). I know it's a long shot but even my own GPs aren't sure who to send me to.

I have a solitary, nearly 3cm stone. Gallbladder otherwise looks healthy, no sludge, no irritation. Anyone else experienced this? I have occasional (maybe once a month) gallbladder attacks, have had them for about a decade (since my last pregnancy) - they last about a half hour, and feel very much like labor pains. I think it's when the gallstone rolls and blocks the duct. But when I have imaging done, the gallbladder looks pretty good, and my blood work looks good (other then high cholesterol, but regular triglycerides). After I had two attacks this past week, I was referred for surgery. but I'm not sure it's the right thing to do, considering my gallbladder is healthy. Especially since I already have a lot of gastro issues that I'm pretty sure have nothing to do with my gallbladder (I've had the issues since early childhood - food intolerances and related IBS). So I'm terrified of making things worse. Honestly I would rather deal with the occasional attacks than constant diarrhea and cramps.

Anyone have lithotripsy to have a large gallstone successfully removed? Or used drugs to dissolve it? I'm having a really hard time finding any doctors in my area who will do anything other than remove the entire gallbladder.

Hi! im a 23yo F and i was recently diagnosed with gallstones last week mostly likely due to rapid weight loss. I have always been in good health and i eat well. I have been dealing with a lot at work and I just started eating less and less and lost a lot of weight fast.
Anyways i have multiple gallstones now. Biggest size is 0.6cm. I am symptomatic with back pain and ive had like 2 attacks but I realllllly want to avoid surgery if possible. I keep seeing people talking about cleansing, apple juice, chanca piedra etc etc. but i want to know what would actually work to either break them down or just get rid of them.

Has anyone tried anything to where they have seen a decrease in their stone count?

I just wanna do everything i can before i take out an organ and just have diarrhea forever..:/

I would like everyone’s opinion on coffee. Does it cause attacks or pain for anyone?

Thank you - I have stones and inflammation in my GB.

Hi i have a gallstone and i want to consult dr seung kim in dallas.Does anyone has percutaneous gallstone removal procedure or consultation wiith him? Pls share the details .I want gallbladder preserving surgery options

I have a gallstone of 8 mm which is symptomatic and when i reached dr S in medstar washinton dc they review all the tests my hida scan and ultrasound and mrcp which has only one stone of 8 mm and i has good gallbladder functioning and no gallbladder wall thickness no inflammation of gallbladder .But dr S refused to do the surgery saying that i would not be beneficial with the procedure .Since medstar and dr is in network for me i dont know what to do and nurse said you can remove your gallbladder if there are symptoms causing you pain . I dont want to remove my functioning gallbladder because of a small stone.I am very confused and worried about this and dont know what to do next .Pls give your suggestions regarding this and is there anyone faced the same problem.

Finally my MRCP report came… I’m packed with stones, but nothing is enflamed…. Was anyone else packed with stones and was able to do the organ sparing procedure?

I foolishly thought that 30 years ago getting my gallbladder would be the end of the pain from the stones. But No! Apparently, and no one told me about this, you can still get gallstones AFTER removal. 2 years ago I thought I was having a heart attack… nope-gallstones. I had to have a procedure called ERCP and the got the gallstones and removed them. Cool… what the heck.. but ok. Today I just got out of the hospital after 5 days, an emergency ERCP, they removed 6 large very infected stones. I had turned yellow my bilirubin was so high, had a fever over 102- I really thought this was it I was almost overnight so sick. This time they put a stent in-which I’ll keep for a month.. and then you guessed it they have to go back in and remove it. I am losing my mind, I didn’t know I was signing up for this. I’m still on heavy duty antibiotics for 5 more days but my brain can’t comprehend how there is nothing else they can do about this. I also have gastroparesis so my diet is very limited I’m 5’11” thin build … I have to think there’s a way to fix this? Anyone have any info or experience? Thanks!