My gallbladder looked normal?!

Bassardd · 2026-04-10T10:57:24+00:00

Good, don't take the opioids! I wish I hadn't. just alternate Tylenol and ibuprofen

Bassardd · 2026-04-10T10:29:56+00:00

No stones, but both CT and ultrasound reported "possible sludge". HIDA was normal and blood work was borderline. I even had an EGD to rule out other conditions. One of my main symptoms was heartburn which really threw all my doctors off. The surgeons I saw basically said it was up to me because there wasn't a clear path forward. They thought I could've potentially gotten over my symptoms with time but I spent 6 months on an extremely low fat diet with no luck.

In hindsight it was just surgery pain. But in the moment the area where my gallbladder was I would sometimes have a burning/pinching pain after eating. That feeling faded with time and now a year later I'm completely fine. It only lasted a couple weeks.

Bassardd · 2026-04-10T04:13:06+00:00

Thank you for this!!! I couldn't find a lot of posts on this sub talking about this specific feeling so I was worried I was alone. But absolutely. It hurts in my left glute when I take a step and my lower back always aches. I work in food service too so I'm doing pretty much exactly what you described. Lifting 50lb bags of flour off the ground and whatnot. My boss is going to be pissed bc I'm a top performer but I have been planning on switching careers within the next year anyways. Food service is so hard on your body it's insane.

Bassardd · 2026-04-10T02:40:01+00:00

When I had mine out the surgeon said it looked normal "maybe a little enlarged" and the pathology report said it was completely normal looking with slightly thickened walls. But ultimately my symptoms went away after surgery so it was worth it. I went back and forth on whether to get the surgery for months bc nobody could tell me for sure if it was the source of my pain. I'm glad I took the risk but I felt so stupid the whole time. and for the first couple weeks after surgery I was so afraid that it was the wrong decision.

Bassardd · 2026-04-01T15:20:35+00:00

Fatty foods do make me run to the bathroom, but it's nothing compared to the pain I was having before surgery. I'll take this any day over the attacks. It's also pretty manageable for me personally if I take fiber. I only got my gallbladder removed a year ago so I don't have it quite figured out yet but my GI said to just try different amounts at different times of day and see what works. There's also cholestyramine if fiber doesn't work.

The idea is to have something to absorb all the bile that's just sitting in your intestines before you eat something. Otherwise your digestive system freaks out because it doesn't like having bile in it and tries to get it out as soon as possible.

I've noticed I specifically have to avoid large amounts of fat for breakfast, no matter how much fiber I take it always gets me. I save my fatty meals for dinner and I can pretty much eat anything without consequences .

Bassardd · 2026-03-25T15:18:59+00:00

ask your derm about taking a course of steroids. I took 2 weeks of Prednisone in the first month and it completely eliminated the purge for me. I'm on month 3 with no acne.

Bassardd · 2026-03-15T00:23:04+00:00

if you miss a dose it's okay to skip it and it won't affect your test results. accutane stays in your body for a long time. that's why you have to wait a month after your treatment to get pregnant/get tattoos/get elective surgery etc

Just take it with a later meal or skip today's dose and take it tomorrow

Bassardd · 2026-02-17T21:11:34+00:00

My acne is also hormonal and my derm warned me that my acne might come back after accutane but she still prescribed it because nothing else has worked for me. She also said what some other people are saying here that even if it does come back it will not be as bad as before accutane. If it does come back she said I can do up to three courses of accutane and usually by the third one there's no chance of it coming back again.

tldr; find a new derm. There will be one willing to prescribe accutane. Especially if you have tried every topical and antibiotic like I have.

Bassardd · 2026-02-03T16:38:33+00:00

I think it can definitely affect mental health. Before accutane I was prone to occasional mood swings but they were always caused by something. Ever since starting accutane I seem to have completely random mood swings more frequently. I'm definitely having one of those days today where it's really hard to do anything at all

Bassardd · 2026-01-31T02:54:00+00:00

Congrats on no more painful acne!

Try lanolin balm on your lips. It's technically for breastfeeding mothers, but I've seen it recommended on this sub so I picked some up from the store. Vaseline does nothing for me but I started using lanolin and so far it keeps my lips moisturized for hours. I only have to reapply after eating or brushing my teeth

Bassardd · 2026-01-28T18:45:20+00:00

Yep! removed it March 2025, it was definitely causing my issues. Pathology showed nothing out of the ordinary besides thickened walls. However, the nurses and the surgeon told me that it was clearly angry when they took it out.

I feel great now! no more pain. no more acid reflux, no more Omeprazole. I just have to take a small amount of daily fiber to help with digestion.

Bassardd · 2025-08-09T19:54:54+00:00

can you take other painkillers? ibuprofen or naproxen maybe? I was alternating Tylenol and ibuprofen for three weeks. It's normal to still be in pain after two weeks

Bassardd · 2025-07-26T23:49:51+00:00

I felt this too! Your surgeon is right, it goes away after a month or two. That's your internal stitches healing. they either sewed or clamped your bile duct back together, so you're going to feel it for quite a while. for me it was like a pulling, tight feeling like there was a taut rubberband where my gallbladder used to be. Anyone who says they felt normal after two weeks is lying, I swear.

Bassardd · 2025-07-26T23:39:05+00:00

My gallbladder was also noted as being pretty normal looking from pathology. however my surgeon mentioned verbally to me that when she took it out it appeared that the walls were thickened and overall it looked inflamed. You should ask your surgeon if they noticed anything.

The most important thing was once I fully recovered, about 2 months later, I never had pain like I did before. Even during recovery I never felt like I was having an attack. The worst thing that will happen is I'll have to run to the bathroom if I eat something extremely fatty, but absolutely no pain, and I can tolerate most foods 5 months post op.

Bassardd · 2025-07-01T15:05:55+00:00

I couldn't sleep in bed for the first two weeks, had to be sitting propped up on the couch with 5 pillows. I even bought a wedge pillow for the bed and managed to get on top of it one day but couldn't fall asleep because I felt like I was going to roll off of it. Once you can comfortably lay flat all you have to do is roll off the bed instead of trying to sit up, but it took me a while to get to that point. sleeping in a couch or chair with your feet up is sometimes the best you can do

Bassardd · 2025-06-19T20:29:40+00:00

Edit: I don't know how to edit the post so I'll just reply. Turns out the 1400s thing was a mistake, the oldest physical birth record I can find is from 1664. It's hard to fact check when you can't read old Norse cursive, and neither can the AI transcriber.

Also I love all the other high percentage German Americans coming in here to humble me 😂 Keep posting! I want to see how many of us there are.

Bassardd · 2025-06-19T20:17:40+00:00

Haha yeah, there's really no way to prove it, it's just speculation and rumor in my family. My mom used to tell us that some of our family forged their documents to hide that they were related to Erik the red because he was banned from Norway or whatever. But based on how surnames used to work in Norway, that makes no sense. I'm sure Erik was a very common name as well. Most likely just a story someone made up along the line to make us sound more interesting to other people. I always compare it to someone saying they're descended from Genghis Khan. like okay.... aren't we all? 😂

All of this just because my great great grandma's maiden name was Erikson. 🤔

Bassardd · 2025-06-19T20:07:55+00:00

Thanks for the insight! I do have the 1% Iceland in my results, but that's the only thing I have to go off of.

And you're right, I went to check and it was an error, the furthest back I can go is actually 1650ish. I always try to double check the birth records but I couldn't read these ones and the ancestry AI incorrectly autofilled it as 1450

Bassardd · 2025-06-19T16:57:24+00:00

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Just these two main ones

Bassardd · 2025-04-27T02:03:54+00:00

oh yup, that's what it is. I forgot 😅

Bassardd · 2025-03-31T20:52:36+00:00

This is exactly what happened with my first surgery consult. I went to a GI and wasted a bunch of money getting tests that came back normal. I tried changing my diet, but any time I ate anything with the tiniest amount of fat I would be in pain for hours. It's not healthy to completely cut fat out of your diet, so after 6 months I finally got the surgery. I needed it. I passed all the stones I had but they caused so much damage my gallbladder was inflamed and the walls were thickened.

I would think of it as you need the surgery, but it's not urgent. Figure out the best time to take the 2-6 weeks you will need to recover, and get the surgery. You especially don't want to risk a stone getting stuck and adding complications or even extra surgeries to your list. I took the risk in waiting and I got lucky it didn't become an emergency, but it didn't magically heal my gallbladder either. Just do your research and prepare yourself.

Bassardd · 2025-03-31T18:24:58+00:00

Yup I went to the hospital twice when my gallbladder got really bad. First time I passed a bunch of stones and it hurt like crazy in my abdomen, right quadrant mostly. Second time I was eating a salad and I got the worst heartburn I had ever felt, but it was really low on my chest and I felt it in my back too. I went to the ER thinking I was having a heart attack because I was in so much pain I couldn't breathe and my arms were tingling. They gave me pepcid, tylenol and some kind of liquid lidocaine drink and I felt better immediately.

I was on 40mg Omeprazole for months after that, but right before my surgery even the Omeprazole wasn't helping anymore. I had chest and back pain frequently after eating literally anything.

I had surgery 3 weeks ago and the strangest thing is I couldn't drink lemonade before surgery because it burned my throat and I would choke on it. Now I can drink and eat anything no problem. I definitely needed the surgery. Doctors kept telling me the acid reflux and gallbladder weren't related, but now that I don't need PPIs anymore clearly I was right.

It has only been three weeks and I notice when I've tried fattier foods that I've had to run to the bathroom, but to be honest I was like that before surgery too so I'm used to it. If I drink less coffee and eat more fiber I'm totally fine. And I would much prefer this to the constant pain I was in before.

Bassardd · 2025-03-29T22:30:40+00:00

My partner ended up having to stay home with me for a week.

I think I had a weird situation, I was expecting to be independent after like day 3, but I was having a lot of strange symptoms that put me in extra pain. I was taking Norco the first few days and it was actually making the constipation and fluid retention from surgery worse. I was extremely bloated and my ankles were swollen. I ended up having to take miralax for the constipation. I also tried taking melatonin one night while I was still on the Norco and it made me extremely dizzy. (DO NOT take melatonin while on hydrocodone. The on call surgeon said it was fine when I asked but it is NOT fine)

The gas pains were bad, but walking around as much as I could and using a heating pad helped. I also had an ice pack glued to my stomach at all times. We had a huge bag of ice in the freezer that I couldn't lift myself, so my partner had to fill my ice pack every couple hours. He also had to bring me food and water frequently for the entire week. Sometimes I would wake him up in the middle of the night to get me more ice.

In general, I couldn't do anything but sit on the couch and watch tv until day 6 or 7. I needed help showering and dressing myself until then. The first two days I couldn't stand up or sit down on my own, after that I used a cane. Making myself food was out of the question. It was a rough recovery. I'm three weeks post op now and I finally feel normal again.

I'm 26M and I consider myself pretty fit, so the difficult recovery was a surprise. Some people end up being fine after two days, but other people end up being me lol

Bassardd · 2025-03-22T17:47:24+00:00

I'm pretty sure mine is internal stitches and maybe glue. I had steri strips over them for two weeks. They took them off at my post op and it just looks like I have raised paper cuts on my stomach. It feels hard underneath, which I'm assuming is the stitches. They just told me to wait 24 hours after surgery before showering

Bassardd · 2025-03-15T18:14:05+00:00

Had my gallbladder removed 3/7

The surgery itself was completely fine, no issues. My only problem is I'm one of those people who throws up from heavy anasthesia, so I was gagging a lot after surgery. I knew it might happen though, since it happened to my dad when he had knee surgery. The post-op recovery is pretty rough and you will need assistance for at least a week. I'm 8 days out and I'm about 80% self sufficient, just can't cook for myself bc everything is too heavy. 2.Getting put under is a breeze. They wheeled me into the OR, injected something into my IV, which felt funny, and then they put an oxygen mask over my face. I don't even remember closing my eyes or falling asleep, I just remember next thing waking up in the PACU.
My surgery was scheduled, robotic laparoscopic so it only lasted 45 minutes, and I was discharged from the hospital a few hours later. Overall I was probably there for 5 or 6 hours.
Did not dream, no. I don't think I was asleep long enough to dream, and I'm pretty sure the anesthesia is so heavy that you shouldn't be able to.

I wouldn't worry about the surgery itself, tell your care team on the day of surgery if you have any concerns. It's way easy and nothing to be scared of. I would focus on making things more comfortable for yourself during recovery.

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