Anyone have gall bladder issues while pg?

Okay so to give you some background... I had a gall bladder attack back in Feb... before I was pg. It cleared up on it's own after 3 or 4 hours... then the following week I had some general discomfort in the same area for days on end... not severe pain, but very distracting discomfort. Anyway like a very naughty person I did not go get this checked out. Instead I did some research, found out that olive oil is really good for helping to clean things out and keep those ducts clear...so I pumped up my olive oil and started feeling much better.... Fast forward seven weeks... things are going along fine, but the olive oil thing is starting to make me feel a little queasy with my normal pg nausea... Yesterday I seemed to get hit with some kind of intestinal bug... and my lower intestines pretty much cleaned themselves out for 3 or 4 hours, got chills, and achy. Today all day I've felt discomfort around my rib cage, reminiscent of what I felt back in February... not an actual severe attack...but achiness...tenderness...just discomfort. Like I feel like rocks are going through my intestines from the top down. That's the only way I know how to describe it. Anyway has anyone else here dealt with gall bladder issues while pg?... or even while not pg... I'm just thinking..even if my g.b. is causing issues they probably wouldn't do anything about it if I wasn't having -on-the-floor-dying- kind of pain... right? I'm just fed up with feeling crappy all the time. I can deal with the normal pg nausea...at least I know that's normal. But I just don't feel like my system is processing my food right. And I'm so tired of worrying over every little bite of fat. I'm not overweight... In fact I lost a lot of weight back in February..and had to start pumping up my carbs to keep from losing any more. In the last week or so I did start throwing in a little more of the fats...simply b/c I felt gross about eating just my typical healthier choices... But I haven't gone overboard...just induldged in a few feel-goods.... Am I destined to an entire pg where I can't have ice cream?? or cheese??? One of the things I've always loved about being pg is that my metabolism goes on overdrive... I've always been able to eat as much as I want, while pg, and I still gain a reasonable amount of weight... Man if I have to stick to all these healthy calories I feel like I'm just going to waste away.... you gotta understand, I chase 3 kids around all day...and go up and down my steps a gazillion times... normally this just burns those calories off really fast... and I already feel like my metabolism is in overdrive at 7 weeks...And my "naughty" calories really are usually found in ice-cream and cheese...and occasionally things like cookies or muffins... but I can' t even put butter on my toast....wah...Okay thanks for the vent... and if anyone has any experience or stories about this during their pg let me know!!

 

You need to go to the doctors! I had my first attack after having Kaitlyn, I was in and out of the ER and they kept misdiagnosing me. FInally they did the proper testing, instead of doing a CT scan again they finally did an ultrasound and found that my gallbladder was FULL of stones and 2 or 3 stones were on their way out of the gallbladder, which can cause severe damage, this I know first hand as well. I happen to be one of those select few, wierd people that can still produce stones without a gallbladder...yeah lucky me :unknw:, anyways I had the same pain again after having the twins, bad enough that dh called an ambulance. First we worried it was pp preeclmapsia, but it wasnt. THey didnt see anything on CT or ultrasound, so they sent me home, I was back in the ER a few days later, again they sent me home. The 3rd time they ran blood work and I had pancreatitis. I was admitted on the spot, more CTs and ultrasounds, still they saw nothing. It had gotten to the point where I hadnt eaten in days and was even throwing up my bp meds. I was getting morphine as often as possible. My pancreas got worse, my liver was inflamed, and I was very jaundiced as well. THe next day they did an ERCP, basically they just knock you out and put a tube down your throat to look for stones...sure enough 3 stones were hidden in my common bile duct. Had this gone on a few more days they said I would have ended up in ICU and could have had to take out my pancreas. THis is the same thing that happens if a stone gets loose from your gallbladder, this is why you need to get checked out.
I know several women who had their gallbladders taken out in pregnancy...they do it laporscopically so its pretty easy. THey would likely keep you a day or so to moniter since you are prego.
Just call your doc, ask them to do an ultrasound of your gallbladder, if its full, it needs to be gone now and not later so you dont end up as sick as I did. LIke i said it can be done in pregnancy. Unfortunatly if they dont take it you will continue to have attacks any time eat something too fatty and that is NOT fun

 

I am going to talk to my doctor at my appt next week... I have had only two attacks in my life...one after my first child was born, almost four years ago....the other this february. Both kind of climaxed with a hunched over, in a lot of pain, but not quite ready to call an ambulance... and then that was it.... the only on-going thing was for that one week in february and now today, where I just feel this discomfort... I'm not even sure if it falls on the pain scale...it's just an irritating, achy feeling. I did have an u/s last year...for non-related issues..and they didn't see any stones in my gall bladder. So I'm thinking if you had a stone that wouldn't dissolve on it's own wouldn't you keep having bad attacks? or like you said the vomitting etc.. I did have another friend who had hers out..and like you she was vomitting for long time before they figured out what was wrong...like a month...she probably made half a dozen trips to the ER and the stupid docs never did an u/s of her g.b. b/c she didn't fit the "profile"....young and not overweight... I don't think I'm taking an exceptional risk waiting a week or so... I think if it got to the point of pancreatitis I would think that I would have another more severe g.b. attack first...and I would certainly not wait it out if this happens again... after you had your intial attack did the pain just go away and you were able to function normally but with occasional discomfort?? or did you continue having severe attacks...thus the trips to the E.R?? thanks for your reassurance on the g.b. surgery while pg.

 

I thought I was having gb problems but it turned out to just be everything pushing up in my ribcage and bad constipation . My peri just checked for gallstones during one of my u/s. I had gall bladder attacks before I got pregnant and everyone in my family has had theirs removed. I find that staying away from greasy food of any kind helps a lot. As far as the pain, usually severe gallbladder pain will be felt either under your rib cage and all the way through to your back, or you will feel it in your shoulder. If it is isolated to right under your right ribcage it could be something else. I always found that eating a couple Granny Smith apples every day helped keep me very regular which eased everything up too. Sorry I don't have a more definite answer for you. It is kind of common to have gb problems during pregnancy, but according to my peri they won't do anything about it until after you give birth.

 

After the attacks I would go back to normal and all was fine until I ate something fatty again, if it wasnt too fatty I would just have some discomfort. It made me nuts because they kept saying it was heartburn and it certainly wasnt. Even to this day I will not eat KFC because Ive had 2 attacks after eating that stuff, once while having a gb and the second after it was gone right before i had pancreatitis. Defiantly talk to your doctor about it

 

See I had really bad heartburn with my twins too...and a lot of pain/discomfort up there... it wasn't until my attack in February that I realized the pain I had with the twins might have been more than just heartburn. It would be so neat if the tech on thursday could just zip up there with her u/s thingy and quick check things out..but somehow I think they'll wind up making me schedule an appt with another general tech somewhere..

 

I am one of those pregnant ladies who had her gallbladder out during pregnancy -- I was home for Thanksgiving, just about 12 weeks, starting to feel good and started eating much more than I had been - fatty foods, and all. Well, for my two weeks of leave at home, I basically just felt miserable - then toward the end started with extreme pain in the right and vomiting. Made it back home and ended up getting my gb out around 16 wks pg. They were happy I was in my 2nd trimester - the anesthesia isn't good to do in the 1st if you can help it; and before I got too big. My surgery went fine and once the anesthesia wore off, I knew it was the right decision -- I felt immediately better.

Even though you are only 7 wks along, I definately would get evaluated - they talked about medicine too that might help.

Good luck!

(P.S. - spaghetti sauce and pasta have very little fat in them - just measure the portions; that was my mainstay of food between the acute attack and my surgery)

( I had no stones in my gb- they called it gallbladder dysfunction)

Erica.

 

I can TOTALLY relate!! I had a major gall bladder attack while I was preggo with Grant (I was abt 4 1/2 months along at the time). You DEFINATELY need to go see your Dr...but keep in mind, they cannot do surgery until your second trimester. It is too early now and the anesthesia and pain meds could cause birth defects this early on. This is what happened to me:

I was having what I thought was gas pains on a Sunday night. I called the OB on call and asked if Gas-X was safe to take durging pregnancy (which it's not BTW). The Dr said he thought it sounded like a gall bladder and that I should go to the ER...so I did. They did an u/s on me and saw that I had a gall stone that would move back and forth in front of the duct...which was causing me LOTS of pain!! The ER Dr did nothing but give me some Prilosec (or something liek that) and sent me home.

2 days later (Tuesday) I was BACK in the ER...in even more pain. The ER Dr taht night gave me some pain meds and sent me to see my OB the next day. My OB said that this was the "ideal" time in pregnancy for surgery (not too early as to cause birth defects and not to late as to cause pre-term labor), so he sent me to a surgeon.

I went to the surgeon on Friday and had the surgery first thing Monday morning. They, of course, monitered Grant the whole time and he was jsut fine! I was out of it for a couple days not able to walk or move much and back to normal...well as normal as you can be when you are 4 1/2 months preggo ...in abt a week.


Good luck with your pregnancy and hope youa re able to feel better soon. I know how scary it is to go under for surgery while preggo, but it is better to get that gall bladder out so it stops causing troubles.

If you have any more questions abt it, feel free to PT or email me (Christa's email).

 

QUOTE(TwinsInOkinawa @ Apr 14 2007, 01:13 AM) [snapback]219165[/snapback]
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(P.S. - spaghetti sauce and pasta have very little fat in them - just measure the portions; that was my mainstay of food between the acute attack and my surgery)

( I had no stones in my gb- they called it gallbladder dysfunction)

Erica.


I feel like I've been living on pasta for the past month! I found it was one of the easiest ways to up my olive oil intake... but you know how in early pg you just kind of get grossed out by certain foods??... well this is starting to happen with pasta... but then again sometimes in my first trimester I have a hard time really craving anything... it's such a catch 22.. you have to eat b/c you feel gross...but you feel gross thinking about eating anything....

anyway ladies thanks for all the great advice. I know that the 2nd trimester is the best time to deal with this.

I was very naughty last night... I tried an experiment... I had a piece of pizza...actually a slice and a half... and then a few hours later I had some ice cream... I figured that the best time to be naughty is on the weekends..that way if something happens dh is home... :fool: anyway I have felt fine... It's so weird b/c sometimes I think I must've just imagined the discomfort I was in before... but regardless I'm still going to ask this week at my appt. I'm going to try to be careful about what I eat. I'm not sure if I should have experienced a backlash from that food last night at some point today or tomorrow?? or if it all depends on how my body happens to process it. Anyway I'm going to continue to not eat too many fats and to try to eat some olive oil each day and to keep up my fiber (although that one can make me gassy too which I think can fool me into thinking I'm having issues...) Someone also told me that grape juice is very good for the gall bladder/pancreas...so I'm trying to drink that, especially if I'm going to be naughty like last night..

 

The only food that seemed to really really set it off for bad me was KFC...I wouldnt suggest you try that though, those were the times I ended up in the ER

 

QUOTE(Cassie05 @ Apr 14 2007, 02:48 PM) [snapback]219622[/snapback]
The only food that seemed to really really set it off for bad me was KFC...I wouldnt suggest you try that though, those were the times I ended up in the ER


I'll keep that in mind! Don't think I'll be doing any fast food in a long time! I don't usually eat that stuff anyway. I think I'm just hoping that this whole thing will either go away or not come back until the 2nd trimester or after I have the baby. Then again I would almost rather deal with it before the baby gets here... I can't imagine gall bladder surgery being all that fun to deal with in the first six months post-partum either... I just found out ds needs surgery for hernia/hydrocele in May... I had surgery to remove a breast lump last August... I just feel like we've had an unusual amount of medical activity going on in our household in the last year.... :wacko:

 

I had mine removed before pregnancy but it took them 1-1/2 years to finally diagnose the problem. I found that orange juice really helped alot (to the point that I would keep a can of frozen oj in the freezer and just eat like a tablespoon and would feel alot better) avoid fatty/fried foods and I also had to avoid leafy veggies and chocolate). I would definately talk to your dr.