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Problems s/p gallbladder surgery

My husband had gallbladder surgery in November 2005.  Started out as lap surgery, 2 hrs later he was Diaphoretic, had seizures and blood pressure bottomed out.  They increased his IV saline, and an hr later the hospital was calling as they had to take him back to surgery as he was bleeding out due to a nicked superior mesenteric artery, and they opened him up, resulting in an extra 4 hr surgery & 5 pints of blood.  Ever since, he has been dealing with intestinal cramps, diahrea, and extreme vomiting.  We have kept a diary, nothing pinpoints due to food, and we are not sure what is causing this.  I thought maybe Giardiasis, but it has been 3 yrs, and it isn't consistant, it is intermittent, being 1-4 times a week.  No great loss of weight, no sunken eyes, dehydration, etc.  Just baffled as to why this is continuing.  My husband doesn't really want to go to the doctor due to the botched surgery to begin with.  Any ideas??
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Avatar universal
thanks for the help...thought the bile went into the stomach..and then she got sick when the stomach filled, and hoped the botox would let the bile pass into her intestine and out of the way...guess i need a bit of bio101- so bile goes below stomach and sphincter into intestine directly? meaning her sphinter might have been affected in the surgury and is not clossing?
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Avatar universal
i had GB surgery one week ago and i hope i don't have any problems  like i have been reading about. thats why i had it out to stop my stomachs << had stones and was inflamed a little. good luck
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Avatar universal
Botox is an injection that relaxes the bottom of the stomach - the pyloric sphincter - so it wouldn't be indicated if she's refluxing bile into her stomach and esophagus. It may be that her sphincter is 'incompetent,' not closing, but the only way to find out is to have an endoscopy done and see what's going on.

Has she talked with her doc about this? In many cases, people with this problem might need to consult a specialist in biliary issues to try to get to the bottom of the problem. Some docs try to 'pass off' the problem. She may have to be a bit tenacious to find out what's causing it.
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Avatar universal
my sister had her gall bladder out and has been vomitting huge amounts of bile for the last five years. she has tried everything and lives on such a reduced diet and it is getting worse. above the social problems of not being able to enjoy food, i am conserned about the health risks. I have read about botox to the bottom of the stomach. any one ever try it, or experience the same problems?
thanks,
fox
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Avatar universal
My first question would be how the heck did they get close enough to the SMA to nick it????? But that's really neither here nor there.

The fact is that may people continue to have problems after GB surgery, unfortuantely, and in many cases it's due to the unregulated release of bile. So he may not be able to process fats the way he did previously. He may want to follow a low fat diet. To help to control the diarrhea, he may first want to try calcium - google 'lnape and calcium.' Find the posts that describe that method first. If that doesn't work, talk to the doc about using questran.

What is he bringing up when he's vomiting?
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