Member Advice on Gallstones

After noticing that this category was on Ciao, I thought that I would come on and share my experience of Gallstones with you and how it affected me.

About two months ago, I was in my house with my boyfriend. It was night time and I started to have really severe pain in my upper abdomen. My back was also really sore and it was a very intense stabbing pain that I sat crying about while he asked me if I wanted a doctor. I didnt want to make a fuss and within about three quarters of an hour and a few cocodamol later, the pain was completely gone.

This was my first painful Gallstones attack and to be honest it scared me as I had no idea what had caused it. I put it down to eating something dodgy. A few weeks later, I was on holiday in America with my boyfriend and I got the same pain in my upper abdomen about as painful as before and I lay on the hotel room bed and cried my eyes out feeling sorry for myself. My boyfriend was going to get a doctor but the pain eventually disappeared and I put it down to eating too much fast food that day as I am not the healthiest of eaters! The pain came and went all throughout the night waking me up several times but had gone by morning.

Two nights later my boyfriend and I were out for a walk and I started to feel the agonising pain starting in my upper abdomen again near where my ribs were. The pain was at the front and was so bad that I shouted at him to hurry up so we could go back to the hotel room and I could lie down.

I dont think he realised how bad the pain was until I went until the bathroom and started screaming the place down! This was the worst pain I had ever felt in my life and I ended up throwing up into the sink and toilet quite violently several times. I stumbled out of the bathroom and sat on the bed. The pain in my upper abdomen was unbearable and I sat on the floor rocking back and forth on my heels vomiting into a bin.

I was terrified as this was the most excrutiating pain I had ever felt and I am usually quite tough and have a high pain threshold. I dont have any children yet but my boyfriend thought I was in labour or something similar as I was in such a state. When he saw the state of me, he phoned 911 for an ambulance and it took around 10 minutes to arrive. To me, it felt like hours as I was in so much pain and passed out from the pain. When I came around, the paramedics arrived and took me in a stretcher in the ambulance. I was sweating really badly, my hair was stuck to my forehead. My face was red and I stunk of vomit (not very nice!)

The paramedic asked me several questions and said that he had suspicions that I had gallstones but couldnt be sure. He asked if I was pregnant and I said no. I was terrified and just wanted the pain to stop. Getting to the hospital, they carried out blood and urine tests. My boyfriend and I were there for hours and I went to get a sonogram by a very nice lady. This took around twenty minutes and was slightly painful as she poked the scanner quite hard into my ribs and stomach to get a good picture.

We were in the hospital for seven hours when a doctor came into my room and told me I had multiple Gallstones. He said my Gallbladder wasnt inflamed so it didnt need taking out but said that I would probably need it taken out at some point in the future. I was so relieved to find out what was cauding the pain and glad it wasnt all in my head!

I was told to avoid all fatty and fried food or this would cause the pain again. I did not want to be in that pain ever again so have stayed away from my favourite food Pizza ( I am still gutted about this!) I cant eat any of my favourite foods like burgers, frys or buffalo wings. The rest of the holiday consisted of me eating salads! (boring!)

I have spoken to my own GP since getting home and since I have cut out all the fatty & greasy food, I havent had any more painful gallstones attacks whatsoever which I am delighted about!

He explained that the Gallbladder was an organ that produced bile in the body to aid with digesting fats. He said I had so many gallstones in my Gallbladder that when it tried to produce bile to digest the fat from my pizzas and fatty foods, that this would make the Gallstones bounce around my Gallbladder out of control. This was what caused the pain!

I have started drinking Peppermint tea to try and dissolve my Gallstones (this is a popular method in Germany) I have read about various cleanses I can undertake on the internet involving drinking lots of apple juice (the malic acid in it softens the stones) and taking spoonfulls of epsom salts and olive oil among other things.

I am a bit dubious and worried about doing this as I would then "pass" the Gallstones while going to the toilet and have heard this is agony to do. The stones may also get stuck in a duct in the body which is quite serious and would involve surgery to remove! Gallstones can range from the size of a grain of sand to that of a golf ball so I would be a little worried about passing a golf ball Gallstone!

My experience with Gallstones was not pleasant and I now am a bit scared anytime I eat something which looks like it has some fat in it incase I end up in agony again! Im glad I know what was causing the pain though and if you have similar pain, I urge you to go to the doctor.

Thanks for reading. Hope I have helped someone
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