Life after gallbladder removal

My gallbladder was removed June of 2011.  My first bowel movement, two days after surgery, was horrible, I almost fainted even though I was taking Colace.  For a couple of days I felt an intense pain as if I was having a gallbladder attack.  Ever since surgery I have urgent watery bowel movements.  At times I see the fat floating and undigested food.  It is only getting worse.  My stool has a very bad smell, as if I had some sort of infection.  What also concerns me is the fact that I get anxious at times before a bowel movement.  Most of the time I get weak and lightheaded before a bowel movement.  I followed up with the surgeon twice and he did blood work and an ultrasound and everything was normal.  I also get a lot of acid reflux now and nausea.  What can be causing this?

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

There could be fatty food intolerance post surgery. This could cause the altered bowel movements. The other causes for foul smelling stools could be Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), malabsorbtion, inflammatory bowel diseases and various infections of the colon.  Blood tests will help detect infections, besides stool examination which will reveal fat malabsorbtion.  Colonoscopy and flexible sigmoidoscopy are procedures which are used to study the whole colon for infections and inflammations. Bacterial overgrowth is tested with a breath test. Please discuss these issues with your primary care physician when you happen to meet him.  

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.

[Cinains]

I finally brought myself to a GI today.  He ran bloodwork and scheduled an abdomen and pelvis ct scan for me.  He also wants to perform an endoscopy and colonoscopy

[ChitChatNine]

Am glad you got tested.  Please let us know how you are doing ...

[ChitChatNine]

If as stated above by Dr. Anitha, "There could be fatty food intolerance post surgery" ... isn't there a medicine you can take that helps with the BM's so they become more regular ?? May want to ask your doctor when you get the results ... I just thought of that.

[Cinains]

I'm hoping to have the results tomorrow

[Natalie1234567]

Did you ever get your results? I had my gall bladder out about 3-4 years ago, and I still have FOUL smelling ALWAYS loose stools. It's seriously damaging my social life. Thanks