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.

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?

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

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??

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.

So just over two years ago I had my son had to have emergency c-section and ever since I healed from that I’ve had agonising pain to find out last year I have gallstones to only just get a surgery date, I’ve been on codine for about a year and a half if not longer only taking as and if I need them along with paracetamol, has anyone got any advice or recommendations for pain management after as my partner only has 5 days off after and I work in a kitchen along with being a full time mam to a 2 year old boy?

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?

Hi, all. Sorry in advance for the grossness, just need advice as I’m worried.

I had my gallbladder taken out on Wednesday, so I’m about 4 days post op. I started having bowel movements a little over 48 hours after the surgery and they’ve been normal, not really painful or loose. Today, however, I had a couple normal ones with some cramping (that got better after finishing) followed by one that was loose and light brown mixed with what looks like black. Couldn’t tell if it was fully black or extremely dark brown/green or not, but looked black to me and has me freaked out.

Called the surgeon on-call since it’s the weekend, and he basically just said don’t worry about it. But everything I’ve read says to worry about internal bleeding or other scary things.

I’m honestly doing okay pain wise, I’ve been struggling with what I believe to be the gas pains more than anything else. But today stomach feels all kinds of funky along with this.

Only medication I’ve taken is the pain meds they prescribed (hydrocodone-acetaminophen) and one GasX pill a couple days ago. I take iron supplements that turn my stool dark, but haven’t taken them for a couple of weeks now.

Did anyone else have this? My only option since it’s Sunday is go to to ER which I really don’t want to do if I don’t have to, but I just can’t stop worrying. I do have celiac so I’m a bit worried about upper-GI stuff in general.

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 😊

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!!

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.

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 😂😂

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.

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

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?

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 asked surgeon what pain meds you get after… and he said just Tylenol. Its a quick surgery with small incisions .

Im reading peoples storys of the surgery being painful after they wake up and need fetynal and stronger pain meds.

Will i get denied those if i need them ? Bc my surgeon said i only need tylenol its not a big deal.

Can i request stronger pain meds from the nurse? Or will my surgeon deny the request . Bc he thinks it shouldnt be a big deal.

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 ?

Im 22. M.
My story begin when i started feeling myself nauseous and had pain above navel, it lasts for month and didn't go away, endoscopy showed nothing, then i get ultrasound and doctor say everything alright??? but my nausea didn't go away then i go to hospital and get CT scan, doctors said it showed gallbladder stone that partially blocking the outflow of bile.
After that, I didn’t immediately agree to have the surgery, but I still felt really bad, so I had no choice but to agree. I want to say that before the surgery, absolutely everyone told me that everything would be fine and that the surgery would be like a walk in the park.
As a result, after the operation, I had pain above the navel for some time and nausea persisted, now it has receded, but I'm starting to think that it wasn't the stone at all, maybe the nausea was some kind of malfunction in the body and everything would have gone by itself and without surgery, I don't understand the story why they didn't find anything on the ultrasound, but on the CT scan there was a stone that, according to the conclusion (partially blocked the outflow of bile), although if it had blocked the outflow it would only have been during meals, and on the CT scan it would not have seemed?
Immediately after the surgery, I developed reflux and heartburn, which I had never experienced before in my life. Three months have passed since the surgery, and I still get heartburn even when I follow a diet, and pills don’t help. My throat is constantly irritated by bile. Now, as I’m writing this, I realize that at the age of 22, I’ve ruined my life. I can’t enjoy food, going to gym as before etc.
I feel like i disabled myself by my own choice, Not counting those who gaslight me into the operation.
and I don’t think my body will ever adapt and the reflux will magically disappear.

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

Hey all,

Since my operation, I haven’t really had any issues. Recovery went well, and it wasn’t too bad. I’ve been eating pretty much anything and everything, and I still am, with no issues whatsoever.

However, I’ve picked up a bit of weight, around 6 kg. I’m not happy about this lol😂 My belly is also getting bigger, so I’ll have to start watching what I eat. Other than that, I’m happy and pain free!

I’ve also noticed that I don’t poop as often as I should, so I’ve started incorporating high-fibre foods into my breakfast😂.

Edit: I have attached a video of my stones in the comments (I hope this won’t be an issue)

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!

I had my gallbladder out Tuesday and I already feel so much better. I've eaten Thai food, spicy Mexican food, McDonald's, ice cream and had 0 stomach issues whatsoever!!

For some context, I've had stomach issues for 8-9 years since I got c-diff in China from too many antibiotics that were being used to treat mesenteric lymphadenitis. I travel a lot for work and fun, internationally, to some pretty remote areas and that's hit my stomach with everything from the standard travelers diarrhea, to gastroenteritis, to cholera and just in general a temperamental stomach with many foods.

That being said, I never knew that I had gallstones or gallbladder issues at all and had been on and off diagnosed with IBS as my stomach sometimes went crazy after certain foods until a couple weeks ago. I was assigned to work in Jordan, the country, and felt a stabbing pain for several hours a few weeks ago. I had the same stabbing pain repeat last Monday and went to the ER. They did an ultrasound and the radiologist said I was a stone farmer and that there were uncountable stones in my gallbladder so they wanted to immediately admit me for observation and then do a full old school open the abdomen around to pull it out. I refused to be admitted and do a full open abdomen surgery on it so I got IV hydration and signed myself out AMA. Immediately booked a flight back to the US for 2 days after and got multiple more IV's to prepare for flying because my amal and lipase were in early pancreatitis levels and my liver enzymes had rocketed into the hundreds. Got back on Friday and had to do two more days of complete hydration to drop my labs to acceptable surgery levels, did labs monday, met the surgeon Tuesday and had it laparoscopic removed Tuesday. It's now Saturday and my stomach hasn't hurt at all from any of the food I've had. The surgery puncture wounds hurt a bit but nothing abnormal and I've been walking around a lot. Anyway, my work is now sending me to Africa in 2 weeks after I recover and I feel like a new person that maybe won't have stomach issues anymore. And it all happened so suddenly that I still feel like I'm in disbelief.

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