Gallbladder and Gallstones

[Carrigon]

I had a painful gallbladder attack this week. I think I have gallstones on top of my millions of other health problems. I do blame it on this disease, though, because I can't exercise which I think would have helped to keep everything in my system moving. I have to lay down too much.

Anyone else get these attacks?

I used the usual alternative remedies for it. Blackberry leaves tea and Bilberry. Grapefruit and olive oil. Seemed to work. This time anyway.

 

[Victoria]

I had many of these attacks years ago & found diet helped considerably.

After I was scanned & discovered to have 6 small gallstones, I treated myself for about 9 years using diet. When I would have bad pain, I used to drink a hot lemon drink (50% pure freshly squeezed lemon juice & 50% boiling water - no sugar or any other sweetener). It worked well. I also used to massage the gallbladder reflexology point under my foot with the point of my finger. This also worked well for easing pain. Apart from checking the position on a reflexology chart, you can tell you've got exactly the right reflexology point because pressing the correct spot under your the arch of your foot means you feel a faint sensation under your ribcage where your gallbladder & pain is.

After 9 years, the stones grew to the point where I couldn't eat or drink & the pain was excruciating and I had to have my gallbladder removed. My gallbladder was about to burst & I could have died if this happened. I still have the 13 marble sized gallstones to this day.

Usually, it's the gallstones that are the size of sand grains that give the most pain as they can move around & block a duct causing obstruction to the flow of bile (& pain). Many people have gallstones & don't realise they have them as they don't cause symptoms.

Despite different diets & lifestyles, our whole family has/had gallstones, so there must have been a genetic predisposition to them.

If you suspect you have gallstones, you really should go to a doctor who can order a scan & diagnose you acurately. And of course, there are other reasons for pain in this area hence the need for an accurate diagnosis before treating yourself. I certainly didn't treat myself until I had been scanned & diagnosed.

I urge you to go to a doctor if you suspect gallstones are causing your pain.

 

[jeffrez]

You might consider looking into liver/gallbladder flushes, which basically consist of drinking horrible quantities of epsom salts and then olive oil to open the bile ducts and stimulate the stones to be expelled, respectively. Those can really be effective in removing a long standing buildup of stones.

You can also take herbs like lysimachia (aka "gold coin grass") or chianca piedra, which break up and crush the stones so they can be exreted more easily. You can take those either as a preparation to liver/gall flushing, or as a long-term therapy without doing liver flushes.

There are a lot of other liver/gall herbs out there that are also effective for keeping the bile flowing, like capillaris combination, dandelion, etc. Those can help reduce the tendency to form the stones in the first place.

Surgery as a last resort, if at all, imho. Check the curezone forums for more liver flush and gallstone info. The flushes themselves and some of the herbs if you can tolerate any of that are usually sufficient to keep things relatively healthy.

 

[caledonia]

Gallstones run in my family so I've looked into this a little bit. I thought there was supposed to be a treatment where you sat in a tank of water and they blasted you with sound waves, which broke up the gallstones so you could pass them out.

My mom had hers removed and she couldn't digest fats after that. Although if this happens, you can take lipase enzyme with each meal to help with that.

 

[Carrigon]

I have heard of gold coin grass. Never tried it, though.

 

[Victoria]

Yes, Caledonia, I have heard of that laser type of treatment too.

I lasted for 9 years with gallstones - treating them myself, until they grew so big & caused so much pain that they became a serious health problem.

My younger brother tried the olive oil (plus ??) to do the liver/gall bladder flushing treatment, but I had read that in breaking the stones up & 'flushing' them out, one might get stuck in a duct & cause an emergency situation whereby you need urgent surgery. I was never game to do the "flushing" treatment thing.

I had a low fat diet for many years before having my gallbladder removed, so I rarely eat high fat meals anyway. My younger brother seems to eat junk food & some fried food since his gall bladder removal without any problems.

 

[kat0465]

Hi Carrigon,
i have been suffering with a full blown what i am pretty sure is a gallbladder attack! although i've been having pain in the sternum, between the shoulder blades for a few years now.
this pain however is so much worse, i can tell you it feels like labor pains in my chest and back,and my right side is sore and tender.

Getting a cat scan tomorrow, which im sure will show a bum gallbladder..... i sure don't wan't another surgery. but don't think theres much else to do. i just pray its not necrotic!

funny my cholesterol has alwasy been ok, but i do think the sedentary stuff and not eating right( dont have the energy to even cook) has did the poor bugger in. today was the first day with NO major attack, thank god. but still gonna get that cat scan.

it's quite possibly the worst pain i've been in since labor! and thats saying a lot! also don't wait to get it checked if you think it's your gallbladder, they can rupture and then they have to pretty much gut you like a fish instead of the keyhole surgery.

Take care,
Kat

 

[Carrigon]

For the time being, mine seems to be better. Whatever stones I had, maybe some of it passed. But now I have the gout again and spent last night with a sore gout toe and burning foot. I swear, we just can't win.

 

[soxfan]

I had a gall bladder attack back in April 2009 and went to the ER. They immediately did a ultra sound and sure enough I had stones. I was told the extreme pain I had was one passing through the duct..
I went to a surgeon and he said I needed to have it out. I had it taken out 2 months later and was only in the hospital a few hours. I had no complications or any problems at all.

I have no problems with eating anything although I eat very little fat...I never wanted to go through another attack..The report said it was turgid and stained green with bile so the surgeon told me it was good that it was removed.

 

[kat0465]

sox, your speedy recovery makes me fell a little better about Possible having it out.i have an appt at 3 today with the DR.

if you don't mind me asking, how long did you hurt?? this has been going on since last wednesday, had a few days with almost no pain then woke up this morning in pain and nauseated.


CArrigon, your right we cant win, fix one thing 2 more breaks.... sigh ;(


Kat

 

[soxfan]

Kat- I had that one bad attack which they tell me was from being on Rocephin IV for Lyme. I stopped the IV immediately and only had one or two minor attacks.
I didn't have it out until almost 2 months later because I delayed going to see the surgeon. Once I saw him I had surgery 5 days later. I had some pain at the incision sites for a couple days but that was it. No crashes or anything like that. I was actually surprised at how quickly I healed. I was picking strawberries a week later!

Good luck with your appt.

Kim

 

[kat0465]

thanks for the post Kim, still waiting to hear from the surgeon.guess this is gonna take a while. but hey if i can be picking anything after a week, that ain't so bad
thanks again

Kat

 

[LaurelW]

You can have a bad gallbladder without stones. Mine ended up with scar tissue and inflammation, and it was a nightmare to diagnose because they couldn't see any stones. Had to go through a battery of tests. Meanwhile they had me on opiates because I was in constant pain. Ended up with a chemical dependency, which was a nightmare to get off of. I'm convinced that the CFS disease process, incl. XMRV+ caused the gallbladder to go bad.

 

[kat0465]

laurel,
i have read some on that, sometimes it just shuts down dr told me if i dont have stones they will do a hida scan to see if it's even functioning.or it can have what they call sludge, which is old thick bile that dosent move too fast
i can understand the pain being bad enough to do that! it's excruciating. i have a sneaking suspicion cfs has struck again!

 

[soxfan]

kat- hopefully you will get this figured out...yes the pain of an attack is brutal. Mine happen at night and my husband was in the bahamas and I didn't know what was wrong with me. It was very scary...good luck with all this..as if we don't have enough to deal with already.

 

[LaurelW]

I had a scan called an ejection fraction, they give you a drug to simulate eating a fatty meal and then do a scan to see if it puts out bile. That was the definitive test for me since nothing showed on any other test. In fact, before that I had a surgeon tell me, "I'm not taking out your gall bladder because that's not the problem!" I went through all this in December, when so many people were on vacation that it took forever to get anything done. Hopefully things are quicker for you.

 

[Carrigon]

I'm still getting the pain on and off. Praying I don't need any kind of surgery for it.

What I have found over the years with our illness is that it seems to attack different organs, then it moves on to another one.