You all know how much I love the polls.... Here is yet another. The Gall Bladder vs. Band thread has prompted this one.

Because of the heart bypass I had to wait 2 years for gallbladder surgery. I never really had a bad attack. I had very small stones fortunately. I can eat anything and everything I ever ate before with no problems. No problems with diarrhea or anything else. I guess I've been very lucky. I sure don't miss that yucky gallbladder. If you have gallbladder disease it isn't going to disappear. There is no way those stones are going to dissolve themselves. They are a potential danger just waiting to happen again.

I am assuming you did not have any bad blockages of the common bile duct because there is no medical reason (or surgical) to wait 2 years after heart bypass for gallbladder removal. Having worked in open heart surgery, and now orienting others there, we've sent several people back to the OR to have their gallbladders out a week after bypass surgery (even those with low ejection fractions).

Bottom line: If you have symptoms of gallbladder disease, go to the hospital, have a sonogram and a DISIDA (HIDA) scan, and if you're blocked with stones, they'll schedule surgery.

What are the symptoms if there were problems????

I had mine out about 8 years ago. I didn't have any symptoms! I went in for my anual and when they were pressing on my belly it HURT!!! And it only hurt when they pressed.

So, after the one doc finished pressing one me, she went and got EVERYBODY in the clinic to come press on me. I had to threaten them to make them stop! I told them that it hurt, and the next person to press on tme I was going to hit. If they hurt me, I was going to hurt them. The scheduled a surgical consult for me the next day. It was a Wednesday. He said it wasn't an emergency, but by Friday it would be.

6 wks ago I had mine removed. The stone was 4cm in size so I wasn't able to have it done lapy. It was 11 months after my band.

I voted on this in March when Jenna first posted it. I voted "No, never pre or post." Well I quess I now have to change my vote to "Yes, after banding" because I leave tomorrow for a Friday morning surgery to have my GB removed.

I'm having my GB removed on Jan. 23. I've had 5 different attackes, 4 of which lasted more than 5 hours and were BRUTAL, one of which was so bad I went to the ER in the middle of the night. It turns out I have a gallstone that every once in a while gets lodged in the upper part of the duct and causes the bad stomach pains, and then goes away after 4-6 hours. I am on a very low fat diet until surgery and hopefully I wont have anymore episodes until then, or after for that matter. From what I hear it's a breaze of a surgery compared to the LB...either way, not looking forward to it by any means.

It is a shame when you have to get organs removed due to your eating habits. I am so ashamed.

I had mine out after I got my band. I think my problems were caused by weight loss. That surgery was so painful for me!!! I was miserable!

nope I still have mine!

Nana~