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Hey all,

i've been experiencing severe pain.. and i went to the dr. and he said nothing was wrong.. so when it happened again i ignored it. then the third time i couldnt take it anymore so i called my dr. and he referred me to another dr. when i finally saw him.. he made me go to the hospital where i find out i have gallstones in my gallbladder and have to have it removed.. well i dont see why my dr. didn't know this before.. and had it removed at the same time.. so now i have to suffer with this pain until my insurance approves it and i can get it removed.. im so scared its going to burst inside me and kill me or something.. :tongue::confused: has anyone else experienced something like this?? please write me a message..

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You will be fine, but it probably does need to come out. Your insurance will approve it I'm sure. Its a common occurance after a large weight loss. Thinking back to my former surgical nurse days, I doubt your doc would have even considered taking out your GB at the same time as a LB. He would most likely do it either before or after.....it's just too big of a surgery (even tho most are done laproscopically now) to do it in conjuction with a LB.

You'll be fine..............just take a deep breath and relax. I've had the surgery myself, and went thru it just fine. Recovery time (if done laproscopically) is about a week. (same as the LB)

Rarely does a stone block a duct, or do something "funky". Most of the time the stones just cause indigestion, pain, etc........

So, hang on, get that surgical consultation, insurance approval and "get er done". You'll feel much better afterwards.

Good luck!

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I feel your pain dontmissout: In May of 1996, I had an emergency hysterectomy, which came out of the blue. A couple of months later in July 1996, I had severe pain in my stomach area, which turned out to be Gallbladder and stones.

I begged the doctor not to operate and to allow me to finish school. He agreed. He monitored my situation closely, provided me pain killers as needed. I was so focused on completing classes, because I really wanted to graduate that I would ignore the pain and not follow up with the doctor.

However, in October of 1996, the pain got so bad that I went and saw my doctor at the hospital (the one who had been monitoring me). I thought he was going to give me some magic drugs and send me home, but he did not.

I was so silly back then, I did not really get how serious it was. When I was laying on the gurney, I asked the doctor if it was okay to go home and he looked at me like I was off my rocker. He said we are taking you into the operating room right now to remove your gallbladder. And they did just that.

Anyway, I recovered and I graduated. Two surgeries in one year for me.

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justmel1957, that's not true anymore..I had my gallbladder removed at the same time my band went in..I wanted to avoid another surgery later on as I have had problems with my gallbladder in the past with weight loss..Doctor said it's best to do this at the time of band placement, if needed! Didn't take much longer and I don't think I had much pain if any from having it removed..I'm glad too, because he said it should also help with my Constipation, well has just now, helped. I have IBS! And diverticulosis..I have noticed, I don't have belly aches as much too..Good luck to you dontmissout86!!

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Gallbladder problems frequently occur with marked weight loss. I had mine taken out after developing severe cholecystitis after a 40lbs weight loss that I had with dieting alone, long before my band. I think whether or not to routinely remove the gallbladder with WLS is a numbers game.... it does pose increased risks. If only half of people will subsequently develop problems, then you're subjecting them to increased risk for no gain. On the other hand, if you don't always remove it, a sizable minority of patients will end up needing a second surgery at some point. There is no consensus on this.

My doc doesn't routinely remove the GB when he does bands or bypass, but he does put patients on Actigall to try and lower the incidence of problems.

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They found gallstones on all my preop test for the lapband. I was hoping to have them both done at same time but my doctor wouldnt due to risks. I wanted to do it safely too. So, he took my gallbladder out and could have done my lapband within 2-4 weeks but couldnt due to my work schedule. About a week or so recovery. I am now 1 week and 2 days post op from lapband. The gallbladder was easier recovery though!!

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I feel your pain dontmissout: In May of 1996, I had an emergency hysterectomy, which came out of the blue. A couple of months later in July 1996, I had severe pain in my stomach area, which turned out to be Gallbladder and stones.

I begged the doctor not to operate and to allow me to finish school. He agreed. He monitored my situation closely, provided me pain killers as needed. I was so focused on completing classes, because I really wanted to graduate that I would ignore the pain and not follow up with the doctor.

However, in October of 1996, the pain got so bad that I went and saw my doctor at the hospital (the one who had been monitoring me). I thought he was going to give me some magic drugs and send me home, but he did not.

I was so silly back then, I did not really get how serious it was. When I was laying on the gurney, I asked the doctor if it was okay to go home and he looked at me like I was off my rocker. He said we are taking you into the operating room right now to remove your gallbladder. And they did just that.

Anyway, I recovered and I graduated. Two surgeries in one year for me.

Been there and done that with the two surguries in one year ... heck, six months! I had an emergency appendectomy August 29 while awaiting approval for my lap band. I was denied shortly after that and was getting ready to appeal when my employer changed insurance companies frm Wells Fargo to Mountain State Blue Cross/Blue Shield. My surgeon resubmitted and I was approved within 72 hours, so I got my band last Monday. The lap band was the easier surgery for sure!

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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    • KimBaxleyWilson

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