I just had emergency gallbladder removal surgery three days ago and the only dietary advice I was given upon discharge was to avoid foods that are high in fat until I'm feeling better. I was told that otherwise I might have diarrhea, which made me laugh for obvious reasons. They said every patient's different and you'll learn by trial and error if there are foods you should now avoid.

Something I was unprepared for was how difficult it was to have bowel movements for the first 1.5 to 2 days. It's getting easier now but is still unpleasant. Part of this is that I was on intravenous antibiotics, followed by oral antibiotics. Those meds completely eliminate gas for me, and without gas it's hard to empty my pouch. Part of it's the abdominal pain every time I tried to push. The pain's particularly bad in the area where they cut through old scar tissue.

I am in a similar boat. I have had large gallstones for a few years now, but I have had 10+ surgeries and a pouch redo 5 years ago. My GI Dr Shen stated a lot of my aches were most likely adhesion related and to not rush to get the gallbladder out as it can cause more GI issues. But recently the stones have gotten larger and I am getting wall thickening of the gallbladder which means inflammation. My bile ducts are getting mildly dilated as well. My new GI at CLEVELAND CLINIC stated today that it may be time to have it removed before it becomes an emergency type surgery. So my plan is to have it out by the end of the year. I asked her about PSC with the bile ducts becoming dilated but she does not feel I have that at this time. My fear is not the surgery itself but afterwards with diet and more toilet issues. I already have minor leakage and I am afraid it will get worse after its out. But my thinking now is that the gallbladder is completely full of stones and its not really functioning at this point anyways so when its out my function shouldn't change much....hope I am right about that.

and diet change will be hard for me, I eat everything and not very healthy choices

I'm a month post-surgery now and have fortunately (knock wood) had no lingering pouch issues relating to the emergency gallbladder removal. The first 7 to 10 days weren't always great, mostly due to pouch-emptying difficulties, but once the abdominal pain was better and the antibiotics completely wore off things returned to normal. 

Diet-wise, not much has changed. I ate gingerly the first few days but allowed my intake to normalize pretty quickly. This will be a very individual phenomenon, but my absorption was poor to begin with so I worked under the assumption it couldn't get much worse!

Does having a J pouch make Gallbladder surgery more difficult?  Meaning them hitting our pouch with an instrument.

@Pals posted:

Does having a J pouch make Gallbladder surgery more difficult?  Meaning them hitting our pouch with an instrument.

This is another "your mileage may vary" thing, but I'll tell you what my surgeon shared. First, he said he's done the procedure on several j-pouch patients. He could not tell me ahead of time whether it would be open surgery. His preference is to try it laparoscopically (for faster recovery time) and if the scar tissue is too much of a problem he'll switch to open. He wasn't concerned about the actual pouch sustaining an injury.

The first question I asked when I woke up was "Was it open?" The nurse said no, he'd managed to do it laparoscopically. But it took longer than usual and was billed at a higher level of complexity because "there was a lot to blast through." That was in reference to the scar that goes down the middle of my stomach, not the ileostomy scar (which was untouched).

That gallbladder scar that goes through the colectomy scar was more painful and took longer to heal than the ones in other locations and still looks kind of strange.

@bowelsofhell The “scar tissue” that took the surgeon time to “blast through” was internal scar tissue (adhesions), not the midline scar. A scalpel goes through scarred skin about as easily as pristine skin, but they have to take time with each adhesion once the laparoscope is making its way to the target.

@Scott F posted:

@bowelsofhell The “scar tissue” that took the surgeon time to “blast through” was internal scar tissue (adhesions), not the midline scar. A scalpel goes through scarred skin about as easily as pristine skin, but they have to take time with each adhesion once the laparoscope is making its way to the target.

Correct. Sorry if that wasn't clear, I figured it was obvious the internal scar tissue was the problem.

Thanks for the input. Hopefully i am jumping the gun need to get some procedure called HIDA first. This is just not something i really care to deal with.

Hi..I had mine out last July and I had a rough time..but I already have continence issues with my pouch..and unfortunately there was a stone left in the pancreatic duct and THAT caused some real issues so better to take it out sooner and not risk that..

I had my gall bladder (large stones) out last summer.  I have had ZERO changes to the functionality of my pouch (which-because of a previous fistula surgery/damaged rectum I essentially had functional incontinence, altho with the various things I have/do to manage that, I am functionally pretty continent most of the time/live a full life).  All that to say, I have not changed my diet at all since the gall bladder surgery and have noticed no ill effects on my already precarious continence, so I think that should be reassuring!

If I have a jpouch already & now no gallbladder what can I take to be more stable with having bowel movements with me being on MMT Methadone Maintenance Treatment for pain . What can I take for this please someone help something that will keep my bowels moving easy & consistently. Also anything I can take so I can digest fats bc they constipate me but I’m trying to gain weight back too . Please help 🙏🏼😔😞

@Nikki Nicole  —  If the MMT is slowing things down too much, it might be worth trying psyllium to normalize the stool consistency. Make sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day. If you can’t get that to work then a *modest* dose of MiraLax might help.

I had emergency gallbladder surgery about 8yrs ago...not because I hadn't had signs but because no one wanted to touch it and especially during other surgeries due to cross-contamination.

Nothing showed on the scans but during laparoscopic surgery, they discovered 1 huge stone and about a quart of black pus...it took hours to get rid of it.

After the first week of discomfort due to the obvious distress my body was in, things settled down.

I eat normally and have normal pouch function (k pouch) but do get a sort of a phantom pain if I overdo it (like on vacation).

No change in pouch output...

Sharon