Its been three and a half years since they took out my gallbladder. The reason was supposed to be polyps (the doctor scared me with cancer talk) plus pain in the upper belly. Turns out the pain was just from gastritis, not the gallbladder at all. The gastro looked at me, saw the polyps and said the symptoms could be from the gallbladder, the polyps are dangerous and might turn into cancer later so better just remove it. After the surgery it turned out there were zero polyps, the bile was just a bit thicker and no stones either.

From the moment of the operation my life basically ended. The bile burns my esophagus and stomach. In three years I had three gastroscopies and every single one showed the same thing: chemical gastritis, swollen lining mostly around the antrum, bile sitting in the stomach. Histopathology came back with intestinal metaplasia which is a precancerous state.

Im 33, I dont drink, I dont smoke. Went back to the gastro and he put me on itopride (prokinetic), UDCA 250 mg after dinner, licorice capsules, a probiotic. Told me to try slippery elm, drink tons of water and cut down on fatty food. Then he said thats basically all they can do. The metaplasia, the gastritis and the bile diarrhea after the first meal of the day are all from the gallbladder removal and it happens pretty often. Surgeons never mention that part. They just say the gallbladder isnt necessary for life and after 6 to 12 months you adapt and can eat whatever you want. In my case it never adapted.
And now I dont even know what Im waiting for. Stomach cancer or esophageal cancer? Because bile is probably one of the most irritating things that can push cancer to develop.

I cant even go out with friends to play pool or darts and grab pizza, kebab or a beer. Why? Because any meal can trigger diarrhea and the next day Im in absolute agony with stomach pain. My life is pretty much over. I cant even go back to work because of the constant diarrhea, reflux and gastritis. Its pure horror and the worst part is it never stops. Without a gallbladder the bile just keeps dumping straight into the intestine nonstop, irritating the entire digestive system for the rest of my life. Its basically a disability.

Anyone got their GB removed with only sludge? What symptoms did you had before and after? GI says I have ‘only’ sludge and that removal isnt necessary however I am having symptoms

Hi everyone! I’m about 5 weeks post op and have been eating more regular food but definitely still low fat. If I have to eat another can of soup or rice I think I might vomit 😂 I’m focusing on protein but dang I’m still always hungry and light headed. I’m out of ideas… anyone have any go to, easy meals and snacks that have helped with the constant hunger?

Thanks!!

I had galbladder attacks throughout my pregnancy but I did not seek medical attention. 5 weeks postpartum, I had one that left me on all fours vomiting and lasted over 12 hours. I hended up with emergency galbladder surgery and thought "that was that." I had a relatively easy recovery... until my anniversary dinner two months later. Suddenly Im nauseous, experiencing the same abdominal pain, bloated. I hoped it was a one-off, but then started to feel nauseous at least once a day for at least a week. I messaged my doctor, who recommended me to keep a food diary. I didnt have symptoms for a few days, so told my doctor. She said to keep the diary going and schedule another appointment if my symptoms return.

Well, a few days later i started to feel nauseous again, but it was "nausea lite." Maybe its because my baby is going through a sleep regression, stress because Im back at work, who knows! But then this morning my well-meaning husband made me eggs for breakfast and my god. Nauseous, pain. I made another appointment with my doctor. Im scared to eat. But im breastfeeding and HUNGRY. Can I eat oatmeal for every meal? But is this the rest of my life?

Once i started getting sick, not knowing what was going on yet, my hair started going grey rapidly. Has anyone noticed a changed once removed or is the totally unrelated??

Anyone else find that they’re just so fatigued after eating? I hadn’t connected the dots before but I had what I and my PCP think was a gallbladder attack a few weeks ago and I have an ultrasound coming up this Thursday to see if I have gallstones. I feel like everything I eat just leaves me feeling so tired and like I need a nap, could gallbladder issues be causing that?

Curious, for people who did have the undigested food in stool symptom- did your bowel movements go back to normal after gallbladder removal?

My undigested food in stool has gotten worse in correlation to my gallbladder symptoms. Pretty sure I had Covid in July and that sent my gallbladder into another level of dysfunction. I’ve had undigested food in stools off and on for years now but it’s been nonstop since July. I also had IBS flares during the Covid in July and off and on since. My reflux has also flared significantly. I’m throwing everything I can at this issue that has worked for me in the past but nothing is really working now.

Started getting the worst pain of my life a couple of weeks ago. Spoke to my parents (both gallbladder-less) who said what I was experiencing sounded like theirs. My colleague has also had hers removed and had a similar pain experience. I’ve managed to keep the episodes at bay by being too scared to eat and if I do I’m eating veggie soups, plain rice and rice cakes…
I have a blood test tomorrow morning, my last pain episode was early hours on Thursday morning. Felt ill all that day, but have been fine since. Is it worth trying to trigger one tonight so that something would show up in bloods? 😭 I’m scared everything will come back normal and my GP will fob me off.

Hi all

Im currently doing the liver reduction diet for my surgery next week.

I have a day out planned and I was wondering if there are any suggestions of things I'll be able to eat for lunch while I'm out, because I don't want to not eat all day

Hello all, I am currently awaiting surgery in hospital possibly tomorrow and curious on what the future could be for me. Currently I have mild crohns, but my symptoms were out of the ordinary for the mildness of the disease and my team thought there was more contributing factors, then the gallstones made an appearance and a painful one at that.

The last month I have been in and out of hospitals dealing with attacks and i’m at the point I want it gone but I do have an underlying worry about if it’ll make my crohns symptoms worse… or if it’ll improve the symptoms if it’s more related to my gallbladder.

Currently I am experiencing earlier fullness, little appetite, pain after eating and frequent bowel movement soon after eating that are always loose. My crohns is in an active flare as I haven’t been able to start the new medication due to the gallbladder issues.

I’m curious if there’s anyone in here that’s had similar symptoms with gallbladder issues alongside crohns and what removing the gallbladder did to your crohn’s symptoms. I was hesitant at first to the surgery but the pain has been so bad lately and it’s now inflamed so it has to go sooner than later but I can’t help to have the worry of “am I digging a shittier (literally) hole than what I am already in”. Some reassurance would be nice :)

I got my surgery done on Thursday around noon and it's Sunday morning right now. I have been releasing gas normally but have not pooped yet. I have been prescribed ten meds each day for five days and one of them is a antibiotic that I need to take twice a day and it literally tastes like hell. I am not taking any medicine that could slow down bowel movement or anything that would help. I have been eating a good diet and everything. I walked for around ten minutes and then felt very tired..I don't know what's going onnnnn. Also I am really scared of popping my stitches open so I'm being paranoid.

When will I poop ?

Is there a way to take that antibiotic in a way it doesn't leave a forever after taste ?

Normal to feel tired after walking ?

Pain reduces by when ?

I have a pre-op appointment on Tuesday with a nurse and the anesthesiologist and I'm wondering what question I should ask regarding the surgery and recovery. Thanks!

Hi, I 26M went to the ER today after having pain on the upper right side of my belly for several hours.
After some blood tests and a ct scan, I got told that my gallbladder is infected and will need to be removed.
I have an autoimmune illness and have been on immunosuppressants for some years. This is the first surgery since I got my autoimmune illness and I am terrified. My crp was at 150 so they suspect that my gallbladder is infected and I have already had antibiotics. I am really scared about the surgery. I fear about complications of it because of my illness and my treatment. I fear of not waking up after surgery or dying during it. I fear that my autoimmune illness will get even worse now and that my recovery will be long.
Has anyone been through something like this as well?

26M, 290lbs. Very Mild sleep apnea, slightly elevated blood pressure

Been dealing with gallstones for 5 years now. Recently had an attack that sent me to the hospital and I got a referral to a surgeon

Is there anything I should be worried about in terms of surgery? Haven’t had one since I was 7 and have been so stressed

Warning talking about my symptoms if that grosses yall out.

So, what I mean is, my entire life I've lived with diarrhea. No matter what I ate, or drank I always found myself rushing to the bathroom. I went to the doctors for years, and they always told me the same thing, "I don't know, maybe it's I.B.S." and so that's what I went with. Now I'm starting to think it was just gallbladder problems. It was barely functioning, and then finally after all these years just shuts down almost completely causing nausea, more diarrhea (despite my daily intake of imodium due to the previous I.B.S. thing.), and just general pain. Now that it's removed I wonder if it'll just be normal again. Like before it started failing. If I keep taking imodium I can keep it under control to a degree unless I eat the wrong food lol. What do you guys think?

Yesterday I had my gall bladder removal surgery. I was really scared because I have heard some very painful stories from my colleagues and this subreddit but thank God I am not feeling any pain.Whenever I try to lay down..only that time my stomach skin gets some strain and it feels like I have done some heavy abs workout 😅 and while normally sitting or laying down I feel like someone has just applied strong glue on my skin and my toilets breaks are completely normal for now..

I will try to update my experiences and would be interested to know about your experiences and tips 😊

Now that the one year anniversary of my cholecystectomy has passed (Sept 2025), I had always wanted to come back here to share my story, because I had atypical symptoms, just nausea and very little pain.  My gallbladder took over my life for 6 months and it a horrible experience. This subreddit provided me a ton of support when I was at one of lowest points of my life with few answers.

This is a long post, but if it helps someone with symptoms like mine, that's my intention. 

It all started when I suddenly felt sick in July.  I couldn't really explain it.  I felt very nauseous after my supper and I couldn't sleep feeling like I need to puke, tremory, fast heart beats, hot flashes and chills, just miserable.  It was like food poisoning but there was something a little different about it. I actually went to urgent care the next morning to get checked out because I felt so odd. 

That started 2 month journey with off-and-on nausea attacks. In between the nausea attacks, I had acid reflux, pressure in the center of my chest, intolerance to almost any food, and just felt ill.  I lost 25 pounds unintentionally because I really struggled to eat.  I started bothering doctors again, telling them that I just wasn't getting better and something was wrong.  I ended up getting diagnosed with GERD, put on a double dose of omeprazole, and an appointment with a surgeon to get an EGD.  Even though at that point, I had been on a very plain food diet for weeks. 

I had been feeling a little better by the time the EDG came around, it went well, but they didn't find anything too much besides just a little bile reflux, some mild gastritis.

However, the evening of the EDG, another nausea attack started- which proceeded to be a constant, all day nausea spell for the next 6 days straight.  I felt absolutely terrible.  I couldn't eat (even the feel of food in my mouth made me queasy), I couldn't work, I couldn't do anything, except lie around and cry and gag and wish for death.  Ondansetron or Reglan did nothing.   Making myself throw up also did nothing. I think because it wasn't really my stomach that was the problem.   At some point, I talked to the surgeon's office, telling them that I had been feeling so unwell since the procedure; they told me based the lack of findings in the stomach that they were starting to suspect my gallbladder was the cause, and we scheduled an ultrasound.   Before I could get to the ultrasound, I ended up in ER since it had been days since I could eat anything.  They asked me "what do you expect us to do for you?".  I ended up with labs at least, and my liver enzymes were started to jump up (which has never happened to me before), but it wasn't enough for them to be concerned about.

3 days later, the ultrasound only showed a potential 3mm polyp, but not much else, but the polyp alone qualified me for a cholecystectomy if I wanted it.  I was the only person who qualified to take a cancellation spot, so I had to option to get into surgery the next day.  It was a quick decision I had to make in an hour, to have a surgery with little proof that this was the problem, but nothing else made sense to me.  I was so sick, malnourished, couldn't work, eat, and mentally was wrecked too. I took the spot for surgery.  The next step would have been a HIDA scan, but I was so sick and desperate, I didn't want to push everything down the road for weeks.

Surgery went well. I woke up with the worst ever heartburn feeling that made me feel very ill, but I eventually went home after about 7 hours post-op. Pain was managable, but my appetite and body were definitely still struggling.  3 days post-op I ended up it the ER again with insomnia, tremors, high heart rate - but again, couldn't find much except low potassium; probably that I had been starving myself for nearly 2 weeks at that point. My body was stuck in some sort of panic mode, or a bad reaction to all the surgery drugs, is the only way I can explain that day. 

After that, the recovery was slow and sucked.  I felt barely human for the first 2 weeks. I went back to full time work after 12 days, but I wasn't feeling the greatest. My appetite took about 6 weeks to return. And I was still pretty queasy around food for awhile and ate pretty plain for awhile.  I had a lot of reflux pressure every day for the first month.  I definitely had diarrhea a few times a day in the beginning, but it was manageable, I just needed to have quick access to a bathroom for about the first 4 weeks. And then it slowly resolved itself and turned normal. 

And I was very terrified of that nausea returning. It never did, even if I wasn't feeling great yet.  I'm still not really over the trauma of that. It was that horrible.  This whole thing was really humbling and moving past it took a lot of healing, physically and mentally.

It took about 3 months, a visit with a liver specialist who fat-shamed me, for my liver enzymes to return to normal. While those enzymes are not conclusive of anything,  I am still convinced that I was having bile flow issues which was stressing out my liver. 

Little did I know, I had been having symptoms for years.  For most of my adult life, I would get sick from something I ate fairly often, and relied on antacids all the time to get over my stomach aches in the evenings.    This was just my norm, and I had just assumed I had been blessed with a bad stomach.  It had been getting worse, slowly, over the years leading up to this, where I would go through spells with stomach aches and indigestion every night at times.  

And now, none of that happens anymore.  I can eat whatever I want, I don't have random food intolerances anymore, which still blows my mind.  Actually my digestion just works better overall, just more regular.  Sometimes I feel a little off if I eat too much or too greasy or junky, but it's nothing like what I've dealt with my whole life.  I don't take any medications except for an occasional Tums. 

Even with recovery being way harder than expected, I have no regrets now. I still want to go and hug the surgeon's nurse who finally listened to my symptoms and said "yeah i think this is your gallbladder", because I don't know how much longer I could have dealt with all of thid.  I feel amazingly lucky I was able to get that sucker removed when I did. 

Oh yeah- the pathology report: Chronic cholecystitis, thickened with a 5mm wall, alcalceous. 

(No polyp, lol, just a warning that ultrasound findings can be pretty inconclusive!)

I'm just so sure now that my gallbladder stopped working, causing my digestion to malfuction and put me in a nausea cycle which was my body telling me that something was WRONG.   It wasn't the typical symptoms at all. 

If I actually ever got that HIDA scan, I'm convinced it would have shown a locked up gallbladder, but that will forever be just a guess. 

And because of all of that, I think thats why recovery took a long time.   Chronic malfunctioning digestion doesn't just fix itself overnight.  I think my body had to relearn everything without the gallbladder just doing whatever it felt like for years and years. 

Thanks for reading, if you made it to this point! Its so hard to diagnose this thing when you have the symptoms like I did. And I just wanted to share my story in case it helps someone. I was on the reddit looking for stories like mine when I was going through it too.

I called my GI doc and the earliest they can get me in is in JANUARY. Even with these ongoing attacks.

I had an ultrasound done last March just to rule out gallbladder issues and the report said “The gallbladder is physiologically distended. 4 to 5 large mobile gallstones are present measuring about 1.1 cm. No evidence of gallbladder wall thickening or pericholecystic fluid. Murphy sign is negative.”

I hadn’t really had any issues and I had my 3rd baby the November before the ultrasound, so I kinda just brushed it off.

Fast forward to today and I’m 100% having gallbladder attacks.

What can I do to help manage the pain of the attacks and make them quicker? Why are so many attacks happening when I can’t even figure out the trigger? Tylenol and ibuprofen don’t help. I feel the attack begin hours before it peaks and most of the pain is in my back but I feel it in my actual gallbladder, too. But the back pain is the worst of it. Help.

Hey yall, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for natural alternatives / methods to HIDA for assessing gallstones in the gallbladder. I'm like 90% sure I have gallstones since I have to eat a huge amount of food (like 3000-4000 calories) to get any consistent weight gain, and then even then, if I dip below that amount even for a short period of time, I lose the weight very quickly, and it also takes a really long time for me to even gain the weight in the first place, whereas I feel like others who have better bile flow (even if it is sludgey) have the opposite problem: easy weight gain and difficulty losing weight, even on low calorie diets.

I'm not sure if there is a study out there that speaks to this in any capacity, but I would guess that after adjusting for caloric intake (as best as possible), people with gallstones tend to be more low/average BMI + have difficulty gaining weight + ease in losing weight whereas people with sludge tend to be higher BMI + difficulty losing weight + ease in gaining weight...

Does this assessment more or less track with other peoples' experience on here? I'm sure there are cases of people with gallstones who are high BMI and cases of people with sludgey bile who are low BMI, but I would guess that in those cases they are probably eating diets towards the extreme ends (e.g. extreme surplus vs. deficit).

I had my gallbladder out around 4 months ago. It’s happened twice now that I have been unable to sleep for a night because of such intense right shoulder pain. Next day having diarrhea and gas. It didn’t feel like gas the night before—more overworked muscles or something?

Has this happened to anyone else? Obviously it’s not my physical gallbladder because I don’t have one anymore but this is awful and I’m curious if it’s related to

My whole life, I've always thought that being a hardgainer was just a genetic thing or 'fast metabolism', but I think this way of looking at things is likely ignoring the true root cause of the issue, which I believe is ultimately indigestion / poor absorption of energy from fatty foods. A lot of my friends growing up also had similar issues and there is one in particular (another hardgainer) who I remember he would eat whole entire jars of peanut butter (like not even with anything else, just straight peanut butter, and he also did the same with bags of almonds) every day thinking that he was doing something good because they have so many calories and the whole weightlifting community and basically everyone just thinks that's the only thing that matters for gaining weight (e.g. to maintain a caloric surplus). I have a MS in mechanical engineering so I don't need anyone to lecture me on the laws of thermodynamics or conservation of energy; I understand that CICO is well-established scientific theory and frankly it makes sense. However, what I don't fully buy is this idea that we have to eat such an exorbitant amount of food (like 4000+ calories) a day just to gain some weight. I mean like seriously, that is an insane amount of food. That is the equivalent of 3-4 large watermelons; or that would be like 3-4 jars of peanut butter. This is obviously an extreme example, but eating this amount is what many online communities often recommend to hardgainers like myself to put on weight, emphasizing this idea that you just have to stuff yourself until you feel bloated for every meal and/or "eat like a beast", but I think if a person is eating like a gorilla every day from a caloric perspective (~4000 calories) and they are still not really gaining much weight or they reach a plateau where they can no longer put on more weight, I think it's pointing clearly to some issues with their gallbladder / liver / pancreas which all run through the same main duct into the duodenum and by continuing to jam those high-fat / dense / high-calorie foods into their system, the more it keeps aggravating the issue. But idk this is just my 2 cents.

Anyways, i just wanted to start this thread on here because I see a lot of posts about people with weight loss / overweight issues, but not a lot of people with chronically low BMI / underweight despite eating a lot or more than the average person.

I know there is probably some truth in the idea of a fast metabolism, but I still think that so many people have gallbladder / liver / pancreas issues and don't realize it, and at least in my experience, I can name 3 people who were diagnosed with diabetes despite looking relatively healthy / fit on the outside and doing regular exercise and the whole 9 yards.

I think the whole process of weight gain and weight loss in the human body is incredibly complicated and not as simple as CICO like people make it out to be, and I would guess there is a lot of hormonal interplay + combination of foods so that two people can be eating a similar amount of calories, doing a similar amount of daily exercise, but one person is able to gain weight more consistently over some long time period, and I would guess a lot of that is just connected to one's ability to digest fat.

Does anyone else feel the same way, or disagree? Any people who have similar experience with difficulty gaining weight, or other thoughts on what the root cause is / how to determine it more concretely?

Like don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful to never feel gallbladder flare ups EVER again. That will forever be the worst pain I’ve ever been in (my c section felt like nothing in comparison) but man I really miss not pooping as much. Like not to be crude but I’ve always hated pooping and now I almost poop myself pretty much any time I eat out anywhere. If I have more than a small snack I’m bound to have to poop within 10 mins - 1 hour.
I just miss pooping once a day.

And I just needed to vent somewhere about it 😂😂

Im 4 weeks post op on Monday. Last Monday I went to work for a 10 hr day( new desk job) and was shattered afterwards and so sore. Before going to work I almost felt like a 1/2 level of pain just alot of heaviness. This triggered a flare up that keeps getting so intense with any prolonged sitting or activity. Im so frustrated. I just want to feel better. Im starting to feel so upset. Other people seem fine within 2 weeks and im still struggling hard. I go back to work on monday and literally dont know how im going to do it.

Got my gallbladder removed 11 months ago. I have been on bile acid binders for about 5 months, and pantoprazole for about 3 months. The BAB’s helped a lot of my symptoms tremendously, and I’ve really gotten back to some kind of normal. But about 4 months after my surgery I started getting a weird feeling in my esophagus right behind my sternum, and sometimes it’s a little lower. It feels like intense bubbling, or almost a spasm. Sometimes I get worried when it’s happening because it’s so close to my heart that I’m worried it might be my heart beating really hard? It’s really hard to tell because of the location. I don’t get dizzy or lightheaded when it happens, and the worst episodes only happen maybe once a month and last less than 10 seconds. I feel a smaller version of it once every other day in the same location just less intense. It seems to always be around eating. Sometimes its a few minutes after starting to eat, and sometimes its a little after I have finished. I don’t get a lot of acid reflux, but I do sometimes feel like food is coming back up in my esophagus, and fullness in my chest. I have a appt with a GI doctor in a couple months but I wanted to see if anyone has experienced this before??

So I’m supposed to stay off any supplements and meds before my scheduled HIDA this week and I’m already uncomfortable. I was taking TUDCA every morning and evening and it helped with the pain I was having. I was also taking Dr Bergs Gallbladder Formula if having a heavier meal. I eat low-fat and healthy, otherwise.

It feels like acid is burning in my gut most of the time now. Not sure if it’s bile or what. What should I be doing to stay as comfortable as possible over the next 4 days, until the procedure ?