Goodbye Gallbladder :( Sigh

Well yesterday I said goodbye to my gallbladder.  Ended up in the ER last Monday night with severe abdominal pain and horrible vomiting...I tasted bile which is something I know we're never supposed to taste after gastric bypass.  I'm currently 5 months out and down about 107lbs...well I was before surgery yesterday, but gained 12lbs from that.  UGH.  So my surgeon was a little aloof about the whole gallbladder thing....I know he tested it before my Gastric Bypass in December but found no gallstones so my insurance wouldn't allow him to take it out he then told me I would probably end up with it out eventually.  But what causes the gallstones/sludge and issues after bypass?  Is it the rapid weight loss?  He was also very vague about whether I would need to make additional diet changes now.  So I guess I'm just looking to see if anyone else has been through this and what changes now?  The other thing is, that my boss would only give me 1 day off after surgery (today) so I have to go back to work tomorrow and I'm still in alot of pain, so I'm not excited about that either....sigh.  So has anyone else been through this?  Can someone give me some ideas of when I may start to feel "normal" again?  Thanks in advance for any advice :)

The rapid weight loss causes an imbalance of bile salts to cholesterol, which causes stones to form.  There is a medication called Actigall that greatly reduces the risk of gall stones during rapid weight loss and I don't know why some docs don't prescribe it to patients.

The only dietary issue you may have due to not having a gall bladder is not tolerating large amounts of fat well, but since you had RNY you should not be eating large amounts of fat anyway.

I recovered really easily from my gall bladder surgery, so I hope you are feeling better soon.

Thanks Kelly.  I appreciate the info.  I think I'm just so miserable still because my stomach i so bloated that it hurts to move around.  I did walk today, since they told me as far as working out that is all I can do for a few weeks.  I normally walk about 4 miles a day, just did a mile today and that did help with the gas issues... so hopefully it will get better from here....

Also, side note, I'm trying to change my avitar and I can't get a picture to resize small enough to fit, any ideas?

Google "resize photo" and you'll get some website where you can resize it.  I remember having a horrible time doing mine, too, last time I changed it.  Which is why I'm currently using an old pic.

Ummm, you need more than one day off! For goodness sake the anestesia will barely be out of your system tomorrow! I had mine out 1 month ago tomorrow and mine was very infected so I think my healing time was longer than most but I was not back to "normal" for 3 weeks. I could have gone back to work after 2 but because I didn't have to I didn't. One day post op, I was in so much pain that I was on 10mg of oxycontin every 3 hours. I haven't had any issues with food so I haven't changed my diet at all. The only fat I eat is from cheese, avacado, nuts and stuff like that.

Unfortunately I have a fairly unsympathetic boss...the good news is that I work tomorrow, then my normal day off is Thursday, then work Friday and have Saturday and Sunday off....SO, it's a slow week at least, but I sure could use at least another day off...  UGH...

Same with me though, the only fat I get is mostlly from nuts, cheese....occasionally a very small amount of red meat, but for the most part I shy away from fats....so I figured I would be ok, just looking for opinions :)

I stayed away from fat for about 2 weeks and slowly added back in. I had been really sick so I needed to go back to foods like yogurt and cottage cheese for a bit. I had been throwing up for weeks before I got it out so my pouch needed to rest too.

I started throwing up about 5 days before I finally decided to go to the ER....I couldn't keep the normal thing that I eat down anymore, just figured I had a grumpy pouch, obviously it was more than that.

It seems like we've had a run on gallbladders lately.

I had mine out in November, right before Thanksgiving, just barely two months out from RNY. I thought it was a worse recovery by far. It hurt to move or walk or do anything but sleep.

I only scheduled a couple of days off work. The reality was that when I tried to go back I ended up going home after a couple of hours, and I have a desk job. It took me a full two weeks to feel back to normal.

I haven't had to make any special dietary changes. As Kelly said, fats are mostly what we should avoid and we already do that.

Feel better soon. It does get better.

Thanks, I appreciate that :)  I have a desk job as well, so hopefully I can handle my 1 day of work tomorrow and then thankfully another day off...