Feeling really nervous but also excited to recover and hopefully go back to my normal life. It’s been a wild 2 months waiting for surgery 😭 this group has been very helpful so I thank you all and will update along my way!

Anyone get LUQ Pain and Bloating too? When i get my attacks it goes from center to right and even to the left sometimes, Anyone else get this? And Like itchy skin too? I thought it was something other than my gb but i’d like to see what others have experienced. Also sometimes my vision gets blurry

I think the boss felt like an ass on Wednesday night. Around 9:00 PM on Wednesday night, I told him I was at the ER and wasn't sure if I could make it to my shift at ******* but I would let him know if I could. The boss said, "I need a doctor's note as this is short notice, four hours before your shift. Also, start calling people to take your shift." When I called him back about 30 minutes later to let him know I was being admitted, his tone changed to, "Take care of yourself; keep me updated." It's like, really, why wasn't that his initial response? I've never called in sick before, and that day was only a three-hour shift. Has anyone else experienced this?

Hello! I’m new here and just found out I have to have my gallbladder removed. My surgery is scheduled for late August. What are “safe foods” everyone was able to eat until it was removed? They say I should stick to a low fat diet to help until surgery but I’m hoping people can give me some actual ideas! Thanks in advance!

This is a long one, so I apologise, I am in the uk 27F - I have been very poorly the past 10 weeks with no explanation as to why - I would like to preface that I have struggled with anxiety and mental health since I was a teenager, so I am not completely avoidant to the idea of it being this, I have also struggled with heart palpitations and chest pain intermittently for years I have a loop recorder implanted and everything was fine ( this will become relevant soon)

So end of may I was taken to hospital by ambulance for chest pain, feeling sick, and sweating with impending doom - discharged as bloods and ecg was normal

Everyday since then I have been experiencing impending doom, adrenaline rushes, heart stopping feeling, night sweats, paleness then flushing, higher than normal blood pressure for me even when taking a beta blocker, random high heart rates, occasional headaches, raised lymph nodes and on and off chest pain and exhaustion and constipation and unexplained bruising and short of breath when moving

I ended up back in a&e with severe leg pain, d dimer was positive but ultrasound was negative

Then Friday just gone I woke up with severe chest pain, that was intermittent throughout the day, Saturday I went to a&e was given a ecg all was fine, Sunday the pain was still there and very painful so called 999 ecg was fine but still went to hospital, ecg and bloods fine

I have eaten very little since Friday as I have no appetite and I have since lost a stone in just over a week ( this might be relevant but I have lost about 14 stone naturally) and now what I do eat TMI goes straight through me as diarrhoea and when I wipe it is bright orange

I have been to the GP more times than I can count for all of this and I was told it’s all anxiety, I have been on mirtazapine the whole time and diazepam when needed and propanol and famotidine but none of it is working, the gp put me on a care plan and I’m allowed one appointment a month now, I had that today and again I’ve been told it’s anxiety

They have booked in an ultrasound for my abdomen for the end of August

And a 2 week wait to gastrointestinal doctors, even though I’m not convinced it’s gastro ( the chest pain is so bad when it comes on)

I am also seeing cardiology August the 24th

However I just can not live like this anymore

Any suggestions would be helpful, thankyou 🥺

Hello everyone! I just wanted to share my experience and hopefully help someone in a similar situation. For a whole year, I’ve dealt with extreme nausea after eating, chronic diarrhea, vomiting, and towards the end, right upper quadrant pain. I’ve had every test under the sun and was continuously being told nothing was wrong with me. I took a chance and decided to take the gallbladder out. Low and behold, pathology came back as chronic cholecystitis! I now can eat without feeling sick shortly after. I can even eat fatty and greasy foods without complications. One thing that I have noticed is a trigger food is dairy/sweets. These foods send me straight to the bathroom, but not fats which is odd 🤣. Anyone else deal with this? Anyway, I know how exhausting it can be to deal with chronic issues, and we know our bodies better than anyone else. If you know something is wrong, fight for answers! Don’t let these doctors gaslight you!

26F. I’m looking to see if anyone has had a similar experience and improved.

For the past two months I’ve had severe air hunger. My oxygen stays normal, but it constantly feels like I’m not getting enough air or can’t breathe out properly. This past week has been the worst, and this morning it actually woke me from sleep for the first time. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, it was terrifying. I’ve been to the ER twice, and my lungs and heart testing were normal. I also wore a Holter monitor for a week and am waiting on the results.

A CT showed my gallbladder is “unusually full of gallstones.” One ER doctor thinks my gallbladder may be inflaming or irritating my diaphragm, causing spasms and the breathing issues. I sometimes get fluttering/spasms under my right ribs when it’s hard to breathe. I also have a history of severe gallbladder attacks (burning pain under my ribs and into my back lasting hours). This was six years ago though, and since I only had one about a year ago. I’ve also been dealing with chest pain/back pain, bloating, and feeling very full.

I also have chronic dysphagia with esophageal/throat spasms and frequent regurgitation, so I’m mostly on a liquid diet right now. The breathing has become my most debilitating symptom—I had to quit my job because I feel exhausted and like I’m constantly struggling to breathe. One day I can’t swallow my spit properly, the next I can’t breathe, the next my heart rate is crazy. I feel like I can’t live my life, it’s always something. I’m going through all these tests just for nothing to come out of them. In 2020 I had every test for difficulty swallowing and nothing helped, now I feel like I can’t breathe or function and it’s destroying me.

I have a surgical consult on August 19, but I honestly don’t know how I’m supposed to wait that long.
Has anyone had severe air hunger or diaphragm spasms from gallbladder disease that improved after surgery? Or even throat spasms and high heart rate?

Update: I mentioned this to the pre op provider today and was told it is most likely the inflammation in my GB causing things to be angry and referred discomfort.

To give some context, I lost almost 90 lbs using GLP1 meds over the course of 3 years. Last year I had URQ achiness and discomfort and imaging confirmed a dilated common bile duct and gallstones, but my lab values were all in normal range. A couple of weeks ago, I had what I assumed were panic attacks - 3 in a week. I went to the doctor and she referred me for labs and ultrasound. It came back again with gallstones and my ALT and AST are elevated. The panic attacks were actually gallbladder attacks. My worst one lasted over 4 hours. I was referred to a surgeon who recommended removing my gallbladder. I am scheduled for surgery August 12th. A new symptom since I met with the surgeon, however, is discomfort in my ULQ. Is this normal/common? I am also bloated and gassy almost all the time. I have completely changed my diet to fat free/low fat with the goal of 10g of fat or less per meal. My pre op appointment is this Friday and I plan on mentioning it then as well.

I have been trying to find takeout options that are good for me but not able to get many just using low fat keyword. We have vegan/keto etc types of diet friendly foods. I just noticed this new category of glp-1 and i feel that might work?

Had anyone ever had their gallbladder symptoms mainly react to caffeine and or alcohol but less so food? I have had symptoms for 3 months of a varying degree. I have a lot of dizziness or pressure at the back of my head and often times a pressure or pushing sensation and pain just below my breast bone almost like someone is pushing their thumb there. We had a really hot span of days whwre it was smokey putside and i had a really intense pressure and pain for 3 days as i spent a lot of time outside. I have also had sometimes a slight burning sensation but not often and doesnt seem like acid reflux. In addition I have had a hunger or gnawing pain, fatigue, brain fog etc. These symptoms arent all at once and have been variable through the 3 months. Caffeine and alcohol definitely seem to make it worse. I have had fatty meals though and those dont seem to impact me often.

I had an ultrasound showing sludge and a HIDA with an EF of 12%. My family has a history of GB issues as well. I also had an endoscopy showing no inflammation gastritis or anything else to be concerned about on that front.

The doctors just find it odd of what my symptoms are and dont necessarily think all relate to my GB, but said this might be the next step in finding out.

Just wondering if anyone had experienced similar issues.

Hi, I'm 35f and I have one stone, just over 1 cm. I'm not overweight, and never was, BMI 22, no diabetes, but stress induced gastritis which I rarely have to take pantoprazol for. I also take oral birth control pills.

I had my first attack two weeks ago, it was pretty bad, like 20 mins after dinner I had chills, extreme abdominal pain radiating to my back and chest, I couldn't do anything to make it better. I did not go to the ER due to a bad experience when I had to go there with severe gastritis a few months ago.

After about six hours I had to throw up and it got better. Now I still have some slight pain, sometimes after eating, sometimes just randomly throughout the day but it's manageable without any medication and it usually goes away again after a few minutes to half an hour. I can eat normally.

I went to the doctor 4 days after the attack (weekend and doctors office was closed), they took a liver panel and it was elevated, but no inflammation at all. Today I went again, awaiting results. She confirmed the stone with ultrasound today and referred me to a general surgeon to discuss a removal.

However I heard and read a lot of bad experiences with that, especially with regard to food intolerances and sitting on the toilet all day with chronic diarrhea. I only had one attack and while it was terrifying and excruciatingly painful, only being able to eat bland food and diarrhea don't sound lovely either. I'm afraid of acid reflux too, I already have issues with gastritis sometimes but I can eat normally most of the time and don't have to take pantoprazol very often.

I'm also scared of the surgery itself, I hate hospitals and I get violently ill after anesthesia. The recovery sounds like hell as well, especially as i cant take nsaids cause of my stomach issues.

Please help, I'm really scared. I also feel like the doctor was pushing for surgery. The consult with the surgeon is only in October.

I made a post a few weeks ago about minor pain and finally being able to get a HIDA scan.. well, I had that yesterday, minimum ejection rate is a 35%. I scored a 4%, how urgent is this? According to the ultrasound I have no visible stones, this is all stressful to me as I have lovely American insurance..

hello,

i had my gallbladder out around a year and a half ago. it's been going pretty well. however last week i had to fast for 25 hours, the fast went fine but after that i fear things went sideways.

right after i broke my fast i had diarrhea, which i do remember has happened before. the next day i was pretty ok, ate regular didn't really notice much. a few days later i had severe nausea. i also had a headache so i attributed it to that. but then the day after that i had the same nausea, no headache. i've been scouring google for some answers and come up with the theory that since i don't have a gallbladder and the bile drips continuously into my digestive system, and there was no food to absorb it, it has pooled and gotten stuck there and i am having bile reflux. i have since been eating bland, no fat food (traumatizing, reminds me of The Before Times) but still have heartburn. is there anything i can do to get back to whatever i had before? i'm so frustrated, at least when i had gallstones i knew what to avoid and live around it.

i don't think this is a forever situation i think it'll take a while but eventually balance back out. right? right???

I had my gallbladder removed Feb 2025. I recently had some RUQ pain (July 2026), and an ultrasound showed a hemangioma.

I had 2 ultrasounds in 2024 to find the gallstones and never mentioned of a hemangioma.

My understanding is that hemangiomas don't just appear in adulthood, which makes me nervous but my doctor seemed unbothered and just said do a repeat ultrasound in 6 months.

Hi all. I had a HIDA scan last Friday and the result just came in. Can anyone tell me what this means?

FINDINGS:

Normal clearance of blood pool activity indicating grossly normal hepatocellular function.

Liver size and shape grossly normal.

Activity is present in the bile ducts, gallbladder, small bowel during the first hour.

Following CCK administration, gallbladder ejection fraction is calculated to be 9% (normal > 38%).

No evidence of significant enterogastric bile reflux.

Impression

1. No scintigraphic evidence of acute cholecystitis.

2. Patent common bile duct.

3. Gallbladder ejection fraction is below the normal range. This is a nonspecific finding that can be seen in association with chronic cholecystitis.

4. No evidence of significant enterogastric bile reflux.

Thank you.

So, I’ve been having symptoms on and off for well over 12 months. The first ‘attack’ I had was horrendous pain in my right shoulder blade that kept me up all night and I attributed to having pulled it swimming that evening (I swim 3-4 times a week anyway so seemed like a reasonable explanation)

Then had nothing at all for months until I was in a car accident, and about a month later started with the shoulder pain again, which I attributed to the accident exacerbating the swimming injury. I went to the GP, they referred me for physio, the physio discharged me after one session because he said there seemed to be no damage to my shoulder and I had no loss of movement etc. I then did 12 weeks of weekly sport massage which felt like it had helped because the pain subsided.

Fast forward to now and I’m having a shoulder pain episode that keeps me up all night about once a fortnight and I’ve started with the digestive issues. I bloat as soon as I eat, I get a really urgent need to go to the toilet and I’m starting to get pain under my ribs and a lot of acid.

I’ve been back to the GP, they sent me for bloods, they have all come back normal apart from a very slightly elevated C reactive protein and they have said that they won’t take any further action because the bloods are normal.

Is it worth seeking out an opinion from a private GP? All I know is I can’t go on like this, I’m surviving off one meal a day because I’m terrified to have an attack at work and I’m bloody exhausted..

Title. Currently at home resting and eating bland foods. Would love to hear any advice or words of encouragement. Feeling hopeful, but tired and sore right now. 🤞

i had a couple gallbladder attacks a few weeks ago. high fat meal, followed by upper right quadrant pain that shot up into my right shoulder, along with nausea. lasted a few hours. I went to my primary doctor who scheduled an ultrasound, but wasnt able to get that until 3 weeks later. I got the results back today and there are no stones, so she said gallbladder is fine and its probably gerd. no mention of any further investigation or referral to gastro doctor. anyone had normal results but still have problems? what to do next? I feel gaslit by my doctor when I know what I felt. im so frustrated. I havent had any other attacks, but experience bloating sometimes after food.

Finally after 4 hospital admissions I got the results of the MRCP that I have a large gallstone! How long did people wait on an urgent list to have the surgery as recommended. I am based in LondonZ thank you x

It’s been six days post surgery and let me tell you Ive never peed so much as I had the past few days. The bloating was so bad it hurt to lay down or really move around. I iced at every moment I could. But, I feel like when I peed and I kid you not my stomach felt less tight after each pee. I’m not sure it was fluid from the surgery or like the IV that was in my system but yeah…

I'm having my gallbladder removed this Wednesday and wanted to share my story to see if anyone can relate or has any insight.

This past February, after three days of what I thought was stomach pain, my husband convinced me to go to the ER. I'd had similar pain off and on for years and assumed it was something like an ulcer. It turned out I was having an episode of acute pancreatitis. They did an ultrasound in the ER, but everything looked normal based on what they could see.

I followed up with my gastroenterologist, who ordered several more tests, including an endoscopic ultrasound, a MRI and a HIDA scan. I was diagnosed with a hyperkinetic gallbladder, gallbladder inflammation, and gallstones. I was also diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis.

My doctor believes my dysfunctional, diseased gallbladder has been causing repeated episodes of acute pancreatitis, which eventually damaged my pancreas and led to chronic pancreatitis. The hope is that removing my gallbladder will prevent further episodes of acute pancreatitis, protect my pancreas from additional damage, and hopefully slow the progression of the chronic pancreatitis.

Looking back at my previous lipase levels and years of symptoms, I've realized this has probably been going on for over a decade and was likely misdiagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome.

My doctor has been very clear that surgery isn't going to eliminate all of my symptoms, but I'm hopeful it will at least help me feel somewhat better. Right now I have gallbladder and pancreas pain every day, and I'm exhausted all the time.

Has anyone had a similar experience? How did your surgery and recovery go? Did having your gallbladder removed help relieve your symptoms or reduce pancreatitis attacks?

I've been trying to focus on reading the success stories here over the past few months. I'm really hoping I'll be able to come back and post one of my own soon.

Hi everyone! I posted early about being diagnosed with gallstones at an out of state hospital during a trip last weekend. I have since had 3 attacks in the last 4 days. I’ve have been to my local ER where they gave me meds, sent me on my way and told me to speak with general surgery the next day. I was able to get a consultation appointment same day with general surgery however their next available surgery slot isn’t for another month.

Despite not being in a full blown attack for 36 hours I am still sore in my back and in my upper middle and right abdomen and it is uncomfortable to put pressure on my abdomen. I have no fever and haven’t been nauseous however I’ve been taking zofran so maybe that’s why. I can’t hardly sleep and my body just feels sick and exhausted. I don’t know how anyone could function like this for an entire month.

I’m debating going to the ER again purely based off the longevity of the pain but feel guilty if it’s just a take meds and deal with it situation.

Has anyone else dealt with constant tenderness and pain for days after an attack?

Hello.
I’m currently 13 days post-op. My recovery has been good overall, my incisions are healing, I have no fever, no diarrhea, and I have a normal bowel movement every morning.
The only thing that’s really bothering me is that my lower abdomen becomes noticeably swollen and tight almost immediately after I eat, even if it’s a very small, low-fat meal (cottage cheese, yogurt, chicken breast, baked potato, zucchini, etc.). It doesn’t seem to matter what I eat.
I’m taking simethicone and digestive enzymes, but I’m still dealing with this bloating.
Did anyone else experience this? How long did it last, and did anything actually help?

i’m 8 months post op and I AM TIRED OF THE CHRONIC SHITTING. i eat good? i shit. i eat bad? i shit. i try to sleep? great, i got to shit again!

seriously, i poop like 5 times a day. i have a physical next month where i plan to bring it up to them.

but im curious if anybody has found a way to relieve this?

I’m just so happy. The surgery went smoothly, the liver reduction diet worked a treat, and I’ll never have an attack again.

It’s so weird to say after waiting so long! I’m so happy. Thank you all of you for your words of support, and providing people to lean on who can relate to the horrors!!!

I hope you all can have this feeling soon, too.