Anyone with gall bladder issues during pg?

Hey everybody. I feel like I finally really hit the wall. Not only do I feel like crap (hips are killing me), I have carpal tunnel and now gall bladder problems. My dad had gall bladder issues, but it didn't really prove to be an issue until later in life. Is it possible this will all just go away when I am not pregnant anymore? I don't have an attack unless I eat in a restaurant (fatty food) or at a party (fatty food again). Usually at home I stick to things like lowfat milk and pbs on whole grain bread. I haven't craved rich stuff this pregnancy (though my weight would suggest otherwise). Also, I blew up by 6 lbs in 2 weeks. UGH. I'm blaming the newly added iron pills...you guys know what they do.

 

Hey everybody. I feel like I finally really hit the wall. Not only do I feel like crap (hips are killing me), I have carpal tunnel and now gall bladder problems. My dad had gall bladder issues, but it didn't really prove to be an issue until later in life. Is it possible this will all just go away when I am not pregnant anymore? I don't have an attack unless I eat in a restaurant (fatty food) or at a party (fatty food again). Usually at home I stick to things like lowfat milk and pbs on whole grain bread. I haven't craved rich stuff this pregnancy (though my weight would suggest otherwise). Also, I blew up by 6 lbs in 2 weeks. UGH. I'm blaming the newly added iron pills...you guys know what they do.

 

Mary - I had to have my gallbladder out almost 3 weeks ago now, but I'm a lot earlier in my pregnancy than you. I had had small attacks for the past few years that resolved in an hour or so, but once I hit my second trimester and the nausea went away and I was eating fatty foods, I had an attack that lasted a week. The surgeon and OB decided it would be better for me to have it out then (16 wks) because if we left it and it resolved (as it probably would have), but then happened again as I got farther along, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it (no room with all the babies). Usually the extra estrogen during pregnancy makes the GB worse, so hopefully it'll go away afterwards -- but you have to be careful after too for awhile, if you drop weight too quickly, that can cause it to flare up too. The joys of pregnancy.

You can message me or reply on this thread if you have other questions.

Erica.

 

Erica, why did they not just want to leave it in and modify your diet or maybe do meds? Were the meds too dangerous? Was a lowfat diet less effective if the hormones were in play like they are during pg? My father actually had his gall bladder rupture inside him. It is fatal 99 percent of the time, but he lived through that (he was like a cat with his9 lives). I am hoping it doesn't get that serious. I don't think it will since my father abused his body with fatty foods and tobacco dip for years and I don't do anywhere near that kind of damage to myself. I don't want to have gall bladder issues for life but I really don't want to have surgery to remove it. I am very fearful of the anasthesia where you go under....bad childhood experience.

Thanks so much for your post. I'm glad to have yet another thing to blame on my crazy hormones!

Mary

 

I had my gall bladder removed five weeks after the twins were born. The doctor told me it was very common in pregnant women or women who just gave birth. I was in so much pain I drove myself to the emergency room. They did some blood work and told me I had gall stones. The doctor told me that once you have gall stones its best to just remove the gall bladder because you will probably get gall stones again. The procedure was very simple and I had a pretty quick recovery. HTH.

 

I had mine out before i ever got pregnant but my surgeon told me that once you start having problems you are most likely to continue having them until your gallbladder is removed. Estrogen and weight gain/weight loss are huge contributers. From personal experience mine got worse over time and it got to the point where it didn't matter what I ate. the only things that helped the pain were orange juice (I have no idea why this helped but it did) and a heating pad. with the OJ I got to the point that I would keep a can of frozen concentrate in the freezer and just eat a spoonful or two and it would relieve the pain...the heating pad only worked while I actually had the heat on, as soon as i took it off it would flare up again.

 

I think I've had issues with my gallbladder for years, but since the attacks come and go, I haven't done anything about it. I have noticed that I have the attacks more often now that I'm pg. My dr even referred me to another doctor for an u/s to check my gallbladder, but I haven't done that either. I figure since we'll definitely be meeting our insurance out-of-pocket this year, I'll have my gallbladder checked once the twins arrive. I've also read the attacks are more frequent when you are pg.

 

I had attacks (which the dr. wrote off as acid reflux) about 1.5 years before I got pregnant. They always culminated after Mexican restaurants Shortly after those attacks, I went on Weight Watchers and never had an attack again (since I wasn't eating fatty stuff). I got pregnant and went off of WW, but didn't have an attack until I was 33 weeks pregnant. Obviously, there was nothing they could do at the time. It landed me admitted into high risk b/c they were testing me for HELLP Syndrome. Thankfully, a gall bladder scan showed stones. I was put on a low fat diet in the hospital (food seriously can't get any worse than that...lol) and monitored the babies along with nubaine for all the pain I was in. I had my girls at 34 weeks and didn't really have any more problems. I saw a general surgeon 1 month post-partum and he said I could control it through diet for as long as I wanted, but since there were stones, I would eventually have another attack adn it would probably be a bad one. So, I was proactive and just had it removed at 2 mo. post-partum (might as well, deductible was already used up so it was esentially a "free" surgery). Ha! It's a super-easy procedure and recovery time was very quick. I waited at least 6 weeks after my c-section though just so I wasn't recovering from 2 surgeries and I did just fine.

Please, please just stay away from any fatty foods. I was totally miserable having to be hospitalized for pain management. Had I known about the stones before the pregnancy, I would've been more careful.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to PM me!

 

I also noticed that really leafy vegies and brocoli would trigger mine.

 

Mary - My attack had lasted over a week, with 2-3 bad flare ups and then it getting better with just a low level of pain; I was starting to lose weight on the low fat diet, plus not really getting much better(really, not many calories when I was eating no more than 2 grams of fat at a sitting); my gallbladder actually didn't have stones -- it was just what they call "cholecystitis" or low level inflammation, so medications aren't really the best option for cholecystitis; and being that I was only 16 weeks along, it would need to come out at some point in time. I got the feeling that if I was as far as you, I would not have had the option to get it taken out, I would have just had to stay on the low fat diet and hope the pain went away. So, for me, it was better to have it out. They had to mess a little with the anesthesia and not give me some of the medications they normally give (Versed, Nitrous Oxide) due to the babies, but I had no problems whatsoever with the anesthesia and actually got out of the hospital the same day (the surgeon was going to keep me, but he said I looked too good to keep and the OB said the babies were fine).

Rupture was very far from the surgeon's mind, he was more worried would it flare up again later in the pregnancy. Glad your Dad did ok with that -- that's a scary thing.

Hope you feel better soon and your pain will go wonderfully away with low fat foods!

Erica.