does anyone have gallstones? what do/did you do about it?

DinoThePhotoGuy · Mar 2, 2015

I have been having them since I was 14 and I had one attack a week while on highschool. Now I only have like a few a year. But nothing major. Only some pain and sometimes intense. But nothing close to what I had back then. What do you do about that? Besides looking it up with a doctor which I did. I mean what do you do to keep the attacks at a minimum?

table1349 · Mar 2, 2015

Surgery. No gall bladder no gall stones. Simple really.

480sparky · Mar 2, 2015

Get your gall bladder removed.
There's no diet, or exercise, or magic-bullet pill that will cure it.
Surgery is it. Period. Chances are, you can have it done laparoscopically and go home that afternoon.

kathyt · Mar 2, 2015

Beside surgery, you can make changes in your diet that can keep them at bay. Skip the soda, and drink plenty of water daily. There are many websites on things to avoid for persistent gall stones.

mmaria · Mar 3, 2015

well... actually... I'm taking some "things" (black walnut tincture, clove, wormwood and later some other things) these days which will help the gallstones leave my gall.

That's a completely natural process I'm doing. No medicine at all. It lasts for 41 days and results are quite amazing from what I heard.

If you want I'll let you know how it went when it's over

Overread · Mar 3, 2015

See if you can get your doctor to refer to you a specialist. Medicine is highly complex these days (ok it was never simple but today its vast) and sometimes if you've got something more extreme or serious or just different then its best to go see a specialist who really knows that specific field of medicine better than the average doctor. They might have solutions or methods which might be superior to what your regular doctor is aware of.

Try to find out as much as you can, certainly options like surgery can remove the problem; but come with their own risks and downsides both short and long term. Diets and such might help, do some proper research into the matter and see what you find.

sm4him · Mar 3, 2015

Never had gallstones, even before I had my gall bladder removed--which was about 8 or 9 years ago now!

But oddly, even though I no longer have my gall bladder--I'm still often told I have a lot of gall. :biglaugh:

480sparky · Mar 3, 2015

Having been through at least 8 attacks, I would much rather have it removed than to rely on diet and supplements. Those 'might' help, but it's no fun finding out they don't.

DinoThePhotoGuy · Mar 3, 2015

mmaria said:
If you want I'll let you know how it went when it's over

sure. Thanks

table1349 · Mar 3, 2015

All the diet, natural treatments etc may or may not help. Frankly they are all a bit of a pain to deal with if you have an active life. I only had one attack, went to my FP and he ran a couple of tests. Simple enough, the gall bladder was going bad. I could have tried diet etc., but as he said it will help but not eliminate the issue. I said fine, who do you recommend to eliminate the problem? He sent me to a good surgeon, we discussed it and scheduled a date. At 5:30 a.m. I checked in. At 6:30 a.m. I was on the table and the operation was done laparoscopically. At about 10:00 a.m. I woke up. Hung around the hospital until 6:00 p.m. and the wife took me home. Two days later I was back to work with minimal discomfort and two weeks later I was doing everything I always did before. Four small little scars that healed in no time. First couple of months I had to lay off the fatty foods till my system got used to not having the gall bladder. Since then I have no dietary restrictions. Hell, if I knew how easy this was going to be I would have had it done before the first attack.

mmaria · Mar 16, 2015

@DinoThePhotoGuy soo....

I've had the first "cleansing" and I was shocked how many stones showed up.

There are 2-3 (depends on classification) types of gallstones. Mine were all out of cholesterol.

Here are just three of them and there were at least 70 of them! Some were much bigger, some were a bit smaller, but here they are.