Aa
Bowel Problems After Gallbladder Surgery
I had my gallbladder removed almost a year ago. I've seen comments posted about this in the forum, but no real answer or explanation as to why it happens. Luckily, I suffered no pain after the surgery; I recovered well and I am VERY HAPPY that I do not suffer through those horrible attacks anymore (the last one made me think I was going to die and I ended up in the ER with the surgery scheduled shortly after). Anyway, I have noticed that ever since the surgery I have a MAJOR problem during and after eating. I have to RUN to the bathroom. I, too, am familiar with a lot of public restrooms almost anywhere I go. Unfortunately, sometimes I choose NOT to go somewhere or NOT to eat something because I'm so afraid of what will happen later. Is there a real medical ezplanation for this? I asked my PCP and all he told me was to ask the doc who performed the surgery. I was given a lot of information before the surgery, but during my TWO follow up visits, nothing about this was mentioned. I didn't notice it until a few weeks later. I'm ashamed to talk to anyone about it. Is there anything that can be done? I hate to think that this is how I have to live for the rest of my life.
I had my gallbladder taken out 6 years ago, 5 weeks after the birth of my second baby. Nurses in the E.R. told me it is common to have gallbladder flair-ups after giving birth. Well the sergery was uneventfull. but the air-absorbtion ranked up there with labor pains. Ever since I feel like I have christened every restroom up and down the eastern seaboard!!! I have had times when my stomach was "normal" and then it starts back up again. I'm sick and tired of pooping my brains out! It's physically exausting.Not to sound gross but most stools do have a bile-like coloration. The Dr that did my sergery did say that without a gallbladder, your body had excess bile. If I get side tracked and skip a meal then I might as well forget it. Sometimes the urge is so painful and swift It's all I can do to keep from having an accident.I can hear and feel the liquid rolling thru my lower stomach.Stress (in my case a divorce) made me very ill. I know if there is stress you can find me in the John. I am recenty doing research on INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE, SHORT BOWEL SYNDROME, CHROHN'S AND COLITIS. Each have similar but different symptoms. Do your own research before going to the Dr. This is not in our heads!!Sometimes we have to tell them what to do!!!!!!
I had gall-bladder surgery about 7 years ago. Since then I have had to evacuate a little bit after eating. I have to wear something to keep from having an accident. I have accidents and don't even know it until 'after the fact'. I go through about 10 or 12 mini-pads a day. I do know that fatty foods hurt, fried foods hurt and just about everything else. I feel for all of you with this syndrome. I just don't know what to do......
Hello all. Thanks for the comments here which I hit with a search to find a solution to this problem. The frequent mentioning that you have already asked doctors about this and came up empty is not encouraging.
I had mine out 6 years ago. I asked a co-worker at the time what the effects were of losing a gall bladder, and the answer was that unless she ate a big breakfast, she would get diarrhea, so she smiled and said "so I eat a big breakfast!" :) She was a little on the heavy side and this obviously was not punishment to her.
I have always experienced the same as all of you, but a few comments threw me off, such as there is less bile than before. My basic reasoning is that the gall bladder stored bile, and without the storage it is going directly on into the stomach. The less food is eaten, the more bile accumulates, so that when anything hits the stomach, the **** hits the fan, figuratively, literally, etc.
My experience has been that this is almost calcuable based on time since last eating. There was advice on eating frequently and in small amounts, which was good but I think it's a little bit more accurate to say eat normal sized portions frequently rather than a big meal infrequently. It is ironic that the very act of delaying from eating out of fear of the results is the cause of the results. Eating frequently keeps the bile used up and results in normal bowel movements, in my experience.
I also had concluded from past experience that heavy foods, such as steak, were best at keeping the system moving normally. I now see from these posts that bile is used on fatty meats and fried foods. My advice is the opposite of some of the above. Eat normally and every few hours, and the bile will be used up as it is created. You will have as normal a digestive system as before, without the gall bladder attacks, which I agree with one writer above, I thought I was going to die before going to ER and into surgery, after years of attacks that I thought were gas related because my stomach was swelled up so hard. But of course that was a response to the severe pain underneath emanating from the gall bladder and not gas related at all.
For various reasons, I haven't had the time for the past three days to eat enough, and now have non-painful diarrhea, or a purely water based bowel movement, if you will, for the last two or three days. Partly I want to shrink my stomach, and I am willing to deal with this side effect in the process. The stomach has shrunk down quite a bit ove the last three days as I ate very minimally, but I was hoping to find a bile nullifier other than heavy foods as a permanent solution. Believe me, I was quite shocked to find that doctors are so clueless on this subject. I am just conjecturing based on experience, and the key is whether bile is generated as a result of eating foods that require it for digestion, therefore a diet avoiding the foods mentioned in previous posts would skirt around the problem somewhat, or whether bile is produced steadily and must be used up and flushed out before it accumulates. The fact that a gall bladder stored bile for use when food arrived for digestion suggests to me that it is produced ahead of time and is now sitting in the stomach instead of the gall bladder, producing the undesirable diarreah. Speaking of which, as I type this, I can attest that the stomach will continue to churn away on nothing and produce more watery output even when absolutely nothing is eaten or drunk in the last 15 hours. Sorry, gotta go! :)
Ralph (***@****)
P.S. I will send this to the e-mail addresses mentioned in the various posts that were looking for help, hoping that it is of some help to you youngsters (I am 48) who are pessimistic about living with these symptoms amidst a social life.
I had mine out 6 years ago. I asked a co-worker at the time what the effects were of losing a gall bladder, and the answer was that unless she ate a big breakfast, she would get diarrhea, so she smiled and said "so I eat a big breakfast!" :) She was a little on the heavy side and this obviously was not punishment to her.
I have always experienced the same as all of you, but a few comments threw me off, such as there is less bile than before. My basic reasoning is that the gall bladder stored bile, and without the storage it is going directly on into the stomach. The less food is eaten, the more bile accumulates, so that when anything hits the stomach, the **** hits the fan, figuratively, literally, etc.
My experience has been that this is almost calcuable based on time since last eating. There was advice on eating frequently and in small amounts, which was good but I think it's a little bit more accurate to say eat normal sized portions frequently rather than a big meal infrequently. It is ironic that the very act of delaying from eating out of fear of the results is the cause of the results. Eating frequently keeps the bile used up and results in normal bowel movements, in my experience.
I also had concluded from past experience that heavy foods, such as steak, were best at keeping the system moving normally. I now see from these posts that bile is used on fatty meats and fried foods. My advice is the opposite of some of the above. Eat normally and every few hours, and the bile will be used up as it is created. You will have as normal a digestive system as before, without the gall bladder attacks, which I agree with one writer above, I thought I was going to die before going to ER and into surgery, after years of attacks that I thought were gas related because my stomach was swelled up so hard. But of course that was a response to the severe pain underneath emanating from the gall bladder and not gas related at all.
For various reasons, I haven't had the time for the past three days to eat enough, and now have non-painful diarrhea, or a purely water based bowel movement, if you will, for the last two or three days. Partly I want to shrink my stomach, and I am willing to deal with this side effect in the process. The stomach has shrunk down quite a bit ove the last three days as I ate very minimally, but I was hoping to find a bile nullifier other than heavy foods as a permanent solution. Believe me, I was quite shocked to find that doctors are so clueless on this subject. I am just conjecturing based on experience, and the key is whether bile is generated as a result of eating foods that require it for digestion, therefore a diet avoiding the foods mentioned in previous posts would skirt around the problem somewhat, or whether bile is produced steadily and must be used up and flushed out before it accumulates. The fact that a gall bladder stored bile for use when food arrived for digestion suggests to me that it is produced ahead of time and is now sitting in the stomach instead of the gall bladder, producing the undesirable diarreah. Speaking of which, as I type this, I can attest that the stomach will continue to churn away on nothing and produce more watery output even when absolutely nothing is eaten or drunk in the last 15 hours. Sorry, gotta go! :)
Ralph (***@****)
P.S. I will send this to the e-mail addresses mentioned in the various posts that were looking for help, hoping that it is of some help to you youngsters (I am 48) who are pessimistic about living with these symptoms amidst a social life.
Ralph, have ever thought of going into research. Your power of reasoning is very impressive. I had mine out 5 months ago and am having the same problems as the rest of the folks here only not as severe. I have a pretty normal bowel movement in the morning. I have a bagle with no fat cream cheese in the morning for breakfast and am o.k. until lunch. About a half hour after lunch I am in the bathroom just like clock work with diarrhea then I am usually o.k. until the next morning. Anyway, what you say makes a whole lot of sense to me and I think I will give your idea of eating frequently thoughout the day a try. I am lucky in that I lost 20lbs. after my surgery and was under weight to begin with. The removal of my gall bladder was actually just part of the surgery that they did as a result of my having an aneurism on the blood vessel feeding my liver and gall bladder. They found another vessel feeding my liver so they just did away with the bad one that also fed my gall bladder. Thanks for sharing your clear thinking with us.
Hello All,
I had my gallbladder removed about 3 weeks ago. Prior to the
surgery I had servere attacks about once every two years.
An ultrasound detected several stones. My doctor said I should
have the surgery. I asked about the side effects and he said
some people report using the bathroom more frequently.
I had NO idea frequently would me everytime I ate. Sometimes
I do not even finish eating all of my food and I have to go
to the bathroom. I have severe diarrea.
If I had known that I would have to use the bathroom so
often I would not have had the surgery. This is ridiculous.
I do not want to go through life like this forever. I can't
eat when I am traveling.
At least I know that I am not isolated. I pray for a cure
of this.
I had my gallbladder removed about 3 weeks ago. Prior to the
surgery I had servere attacks about once every two years.
An ultrasound detected several stones. My doctor said I should
have the surgery. I asked about the side effects and he said
some people report using the bathroom more frequently.
I had NO idea frequently would me everytime I ate. Sometimes
I do not even finish eating all of my food and I have to go
to the bathroom. I have severe diarrea.
If I had known that I would have to use the bathroom so
often I would not have had the surgery. This is ridiculous.
I do not want to go through life like this forever. I can't
eat when I am traveling.
At least I know that I am not isolated. I pray for a cure
of this.
I'm so glad to have found this forum! I had my gallbladder removed 8 months ago and have become best friends with the toilet since! I don't think I've had a regular BM since I had the surgery- only constant diarrhea. I've been to 2 different doctors in the last 2 weeks and neither of them have mentioned "dumping syndrome". I've watched my diet like a hawk- monitoring everything I've eaten- thinking that I'm allergic to some type of food that is causing these sudden rushes to the bathroom. I'm 22 years old and believe me- it's a killer on your social life when you can no longer go out to dinner and then out for the evening- for fear of when 'it' strike again! So basically what all y'all are telling me is that there is nothing wrong with me- and that I'm going to be going to the bathroom 5 or 6 times a day for the rest of my life! That's reassuring. At least now I can go to the doctor and just tell him (how sad is that that they can't diagnose me) that I have this "dumping syndrome" and can I PLEASE have some sort of medication to regulate it. I've gotta do something- or I'm going to fail my classes in school because I can't even sit through a whole session!
You are reading content posted in the Digestive Disorders / Gastroenterology Forum
Learn which OTC medications can help relieve your digestive troubles.
Is a gluten-free diet right for you?
Discover common causes of and remedies for heartburn.
This common yet mysterious bowel condition plagues millions of Americans
Don't get burned again. Banish nighttime heartburn with these quick tips
Get answers to your top questions about this pervasive digestive problem
