I am having gallbladder removed next month due to Biliary Colic. Can anyone else tell me if their diet can accommodate fat?? You see I can have fish and chips, crisps, butter, cream, chocolate, cheese ect. but my body does not tolerate Palm oil when cooked to a high temperature nor cheese when melted, coffee or when I have eaten too much. This then results in my Biliary Colic. Is this normal , as I thought a gallbladder attack was brought on by eating a fatty meal. I am very confused. Can anyone explain why this happens
When foods, particularly fatty foods, reach the duodenum they trigger a hormone called cholecystokinin, often called CCK for short. This link gives you some information on CCK and you can Google, of course. http://www.yourhormones.info/hormones/cholecystokinin.aspx
I'm afraid I don't have an explanation why your colic is so specific.
Thanks Tom for your advice. Have looked at link, now will google. All the best
I have never had Bilary Colic.
I had my gallbladder removed at end of April because I had gallstones.
Still cannot eat fatty stuff. Cheese, crisps, cake chips etc.
I am still OK with spicy food luckily as I love curry.
I think it is something I am just going to have to live with.
Could be a lot worse
Take care and keep in touch
Love Sarah xxx
Hi Sarah, thanks for your kind message. My Biliary Colic is being caused by my gallbladder contracting and stones blocking my cystic duct when bile is needed to digest food; resulting in excruciating pain/discomfort. Hopefully, fingers crossed, when my gallbladder is removed the pain will disappear. However, for some reason, it's not all Fat that's my problem. I can eat cheese but when melted or cooked this would then trigger an attack. I have a problem with Palm Oil. Again any product with this in, when heated to a high temperature ie stock cubes, pastry would cause an attack. I guess it changes its monecular structure. However the weird thing is I can tolerate this when cold??**??. So perhaps my body is allergic to this type of fat. Who knows. I guess it's all about knowing your body
Not looking forward to operation. I have managed to postpone 3 operations but now feel the time is right.
Wishing you better. You never know, perhaps all those foods you are unable to eat, may be causeing you an allergic reaction?
Best wishes x
You must be right about molecular changes in cooking. If the cooked product behaves differently it must be chemically different. Every doctor I have spoken to (three at my GP's surgery, two GI Registrars and one GI Consultant) were adamant that if offered the operation one should have it. I've been a bit spooked by the bad experiences here but we keep that in proportion; people who have a simple procedure and feel fine quickly probably don't spend their time in these forums! Us lot here are those thinking about having it and those who have perhaps not had the best experience. The unfortunate minority.
Do stay in touch let us know how you get on.
Thanks Tom, unfortunately last night I had another bad attack and now feeling very tired. Think it was the Prawns! High in cholesterol! It's just so weird, as my discomfort/ pain always starts LUQ?. Easy day for me today. Take care and wishing you all the best
Left upper quadrant? They've looked at your pancreas? Pancreas produces similar chemical to bile used in digestion. There is a special MRI that looks at pancreas, liver and gallbladder.
Hi Tom, thanks again for your reply. I have had Ultra scan around that area and CT scan of my abdomen, nothing for pancreas. i was told by my surgeon that pain can radiate, even though my pain is always in the same place LUQ then centre. I do feel twinges around my right side, but always thought with gallbladder pain this should be RUQ. they thought my left side pain could be uretha problems as blood was found in my urine. Had a CT scan of kidneys, bladder and that came back ok. So with regard to pancreas, I would like to think if there is a problem then it would have beenpicked up by now. No MRI scan done. I am worried that when i have surgery next month, my problem will still be there. God willing it will all be gone
No MRI? Have they not given you an MRCP? "MRCP stands for magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography. MRCP is a type of magnetic resonance imaging (for more information see the separate leaflet called MRI Scan). MRCP produces detailed images of the liver, gallbladder, bile ducts, pancreas and pancreatic duct" That's from this website at http :// patient.info/health/mrcp-scan (remove the spaces in the url). I would have thought it pretty essential. I had one and from the patient's perspective it's much like any other MRI. I didn't have contrast or anything.
No MRCP or MRI, a little worried now. Do you think I should request one before my operation next month?
I shouldn't be too worried but if it was me I'd ask why. Maybe if you email the surgeon and say you are a bit concerned? I probably shouldn't have said 'pretty essential' - I'm not a doctor, your surgeon is.
I just wanted to weigh in here that I mostly had upper central and upper left pain, right around my breastbone and just off to the left for the last 12 months. It was only towards the very end that I had any right sided pain at all and I had emergency surgery 6 days ago for a severely inflamed and ruptured gallbladder.
I found my trigger foods could change like the direction of the wind. One day something would be fine, the next, it'd kill me. Chocolate, breaded chicken and highly processed meats would also do me in. Although I could mostly eat what I wanted as long as it was before around 4pm and I didn't push it too much.
Friends recommended that I ask for further testing to check it was definitely gallbladder pain since the symptoms were the wrong side, but then it tried to kill me and that went to pot and it was found to most definitely be my gallbladder!
i hope you manage to end this pain soon.
Thanks for your reply. It's so strange, because my pain has always been LUQ and Central. Was admitted to A&E last night with pain, having attack every other night now. Bloods came back fine, so no Pancreatitus!!! My op is next month and now looking forward to it. You take care and wishing you a speedy recovery, God bless
Yeah, I understand! I was in A&E several times, blood work/temperature/urine all normal. And then bam. Rupture! Even when it had ruptured, my temperature was still normal yet every nurse commented on how hot to the touch I was and I had a sheen of sweat across my entire body. Luckily my blood work did indicate infection though. It's strange sometimes how the body works, my body seems to take after my head and is too stubborn to admit there is something wrong. But you know in your gut if something is right.
I'm sorry you're having so many attacks, I was at that point with no real trigger. I'm sure you've already tried, but I ended up eating things like plain, poached chicken, jacket potatoes with no butter, no soda drinks, anything with high citric acid, alcohol, cigarettes, just water and the plainest, cleanest food you can imagine. I used to use vegetable broth to roast veg instead of oil and frying food without any oil at all, just the natural juices, it helped a lot. For some reason I couldn't touch pork at all, but I also found that if if I ate something and immediately begun an attack, inducing vomiting would help calm it down a little. Not exactly healthy, but by the end I was vomiting from the pain attacks anyway so tomato, tomato!
I'm glad you've got the surgery set up, The first thing I remember thinking, once I got past the confusion, was "thank god that agony has gone." So far, I have been lucky and I know that's not always the case, but hopefully any new problems can be treated by other methods, the gallbladder is never going to settle down. I hope you're feeling better soon. Good luck!
Thank you very much Sarah50457. Happy, pain free living!
Hiiii... I am suffering from intense abdominal pain at right side and I was diagnosed with cholelithiasis.. and also with jaundice.. and my surgeon planned laparoscopic cholecystectomy... But before surgery I went through mrcp.. and the mrcp result is normal with no calculus in the gallbladder... Am confused whether to go for surgery r not
I think you need to discuss this with your surgeon. I really don't feel qualified to advise you either way I'm afraid.
Take care and keep in touch
Sarah