Should I have my gallbladder removed?

[jennamae]

I am 26, a smoker and about 20 lbs overweight. For the past 5 years I have been experiencing extreme bouts of nausea where I dry heave but nothing happens. I also have had terrible heartburn that doesn't go away with antacids, prilosec or even protonix. About a month ago my nausea and heartburn got so severe that I went to the hospital because I thought I was having a heart attack. The pain was spreading into my chest, upper back and down both arms. The ER doctor suggested that I might have gallbladder problems. Since then I've had several blood tests that have all come back totally normal. I went to a gastroenterologist who suggested a HIDA scan and an endoscopy. The HIDA scan came back with my gallbladder functioning at 23% (normal is from 35%-75%) and the endoscopy showed nothing unusual. I tested negative for H Palori or wheat allergies. My gastroenterologist doesn't seem too concerned with my low functioning gallbladder since it didn't show any stones. I don't know what to do. I have another appointment scheduled with him, but in the past 2 weeks I've been getting terrible bloating and nausea that lasts for hours and I'm actually starting to lose weight from not eating. Could my gallbladder be the cause of all of this? I would rather just have it taken out and be done with it! I'm sick of feeling sick almost ALL of the time!

[slick158]

I know nothing about this subject what-so-ever, except for the fact that my mother 60yrs. old, had the exact same problem for a year, doctors misdiagnosed it for a year.
She finally decided to get a second opinion and at this time the doctor diagnosed it correctly. "Gull Bladder Cancer". Unfortunately, in the course of a year, it had spread to the liver and she was given three month's to live and died 6wks later. Needless to say, this was extremely hard to swallow. If I were you, I would share this story of malpractice with your Dr. and believe me, they will do everything they can to avoid a suit.

[GhostOf1901]

Could your gallbladder be the cause of all this? Maybe. When your GB doesn't work right it causes a lot of weird thing. However...

Your gallbladder MAY be the cause of many of your issues, and removing it may help. However, a flag here is the nausea. In cases of biliary dyskinesia (what your EF of 23% marks you as having), removal of the gallbladder helps in about 90% of cases. An indication that it might NOT help, however, is when nausea and vomiting are pressent. In those cases you might be dealing with a more global motility disorde, for example SOD (which might explain the pain) or gastriparesi (which might explain the nausea, bloating, and dry heaves.)

Ask your doctor about getting a gastric emptying exam done. The nausea, vomiting, weight loss and bloating make me think you have some sort of delayed gastric emptying. Now, this might be caused by the low functioning gallbladder, but it might also be caused by something else.

(A little on my own history: I was diagnosed with billiary dyskinesia. Feeling much like you, with nausea and everyting. Eventually I had a gastric exam done. My HIDA/CCK score was 19%, and my Gastric Emptying time was 50% at 80 minutes (70 minues was the expected. The doc still thinks removing the gallbladder will help, but had advised me to have another gastric emptying exam done in about a year to see whether it's getting better, the same or worse. Unofficially, he said I pretty much have gastroparesis, but officially he said it was borderline and listed me only as having dyspepsia. Currently I'm only on Nexium, as my symptoms also included heartburn.)

[ayri]

hi, even if you remove your gallbladder, it doesnt mean your pain will go away, over half of people who have removed it still complain of pain sometime severe months and even years after surgery, personally i would not remove it, i believe your problem lies elsewhere.