Possibly joining the gall bladder sx ranks...

I've been having intermittent pain in my upper right abdomen under my
ribs since Ben was about a month old. It would happen after a
particularly fatty meal and I figured it was my gall bladder. It
wasn't the rolling around on the floor, vomiting, kill me now pain I
hear about. Just sharp and enough to get my notice and would subside
after a few minutes and ache for an hour or more. Well, this weekend I
ended up in the ER because the pain would just NOT go away and had
started to travel to my back and even a little to my left side. My
labs were normal (except for a slightly low lymphocyte count) and the
ER doc tossed some T3 at me and told me to see my GP this week and
that it's biliary colic-I'm the poster child for gall bladder disease
anyway-fat, fertile, fair, female.... I've cut fat way down and still
after I eat I get pain. An almost completely fat free and very small
dinner last night prompted me to take a T3 about an hour later. The
nurses in the ER were stellar about my breastfeeding. Dh stayed in the
waiting room with Ben due to the hacking pneumonia patients all over
the place. When he needed to nurse the nurses came and got me then set
me up in the conference room near the exit and far from the ill
people. The security guards found me amusing walking around in the
hospital gown with jeans and shoes to get and return my baby. Ben
managed two and half hours without mommy or nursing which is the
longest he has ever been away from me.
I see my GP on Thursday, I expect an order for an U/S or CT scan then
probably referral to the surgeon if the tests show what I expect. I'll
see the guy who operated on dh.
I've been reading the posts about anesthesia, breastfeeding etc.....If
it comes down to removal I'll be asking for more advice I'm sure. My
first instinct is to postpone it (if that is the recommendation) until
Ben is older but I'm afraid that may lead to the rolling on the floor,
kill me now pain of an attack of acute cholecystitis instead of this
pretty minor pain I'm having now.
Anyone who has $.02 to give, I'll take it.

Karen
Mom to six and nursing Ben 3 1/2 months

Well I hope the find out for sure its your gallbladder!! I dont know why you
would need a CT scan done though, maybe I am just not understanding your
post.
See I have the same thing you do, but its not bought on by fat, if i eat
cheese, milk, oranges, fish or anything citrus I get my pan. I have blood
work and u/s galour done and they found nothing! They told me the only thing
they can say is that the gall bladder is having spasms when I eat these
items and its giving me the pain. They will not remove my gallbladder
because of that they told me.
If you are going to need it removed I would get it removed now, why wait and
go through more pain. I know I cant deal with my pain when it happens 1
time let alone postponing something!!
Get it out right away and probably about 8 or so hours after you should be
able to breastfeed, I dont see why not.

--
Laura, TTC #2
Mommy to Izabella **Feb 10th, 2003**
And 2 felines *Ashes(3) & George (5)*
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/i/izabellawelburn/


"Karen" wrote in message
m...
I've been having intermittent pain in my upper right abdomen under my
ribs since Ben was about a month old. It would happen after a
particularly fatty meal and I figured it was my gall bladder. It
wasn't the rolling around on the floor, vomiting, kill me now pain I
hear about. Just sharp and enough to get my notice and would subside
after a few minutes and ache for an hour or more. Well, this weekend I
ended up in the ER because the pain would just NOT go away and had
started to travel to my back and even a little to my left side. My
labs were normal (except for a slightly low lymphocyte count) and the
ER doc tossed some T3 at me and told me to see my GP this week and
that it's biliary colic-I'm the poster child for gall bladder disease
anyway-fat, fertile, fair, female.... I've cut fat way down and still
after I eat I get pain. An almost completely fat free and very small
dinner last night prompted me to take a T3 about an hour later. The
nurses in the ER were stellar about my breastfeeding. Dh stayed in the
waiting room with Ben due to the hacking pneumonia patients all over
the place. When he needed to nurse the nurses came and got me then set
me up in the conference room near the exit and far from the ill
people. The security guards found me amusing walking around in the
hospital gown with jeans and shoes to get and return my baby. Ben
managed two and half hours without mommy or nursing which is the
longest he has ever been away from me.
I see my GP on Thursday, I expect an order for an U/S or CT scan then
probably referral to the surgeon if the tests show what I expect. I'll
see the guy who operated on dh.
I've been reading the posts about anesthesia, breastfeeding etc.....If
it comes down to removal I'll be asking for more advice I'm sure. My
first instinct is to postpone it (if that is the recommendation) until
Ben is older but I'm afraid that may lead to the rolling on the floor,
kill me now pain of an attack of acute cholecystitis instead of this
pretty minor pain I'm having now.
Anyone who has $.02 to give, I'll take it.

Karen
Mom to six and nursing Ben 3 1/2 months

doulamom wrote:

My
first instinct is to postpone it (if that is the recommendation) until
Ben is older but I'm afraid that may lead to the rolling on the floor,
kill me now pain of an attack of acute cholecystitis instead of this.

Please don't wait, I did....I ended up in the ER on Dec 26th with a 104 fever
and pain so bad I had to crawl across the floor. Way worse that any labor
pains I ever had. I ended up with a stone stuck in my bile duct and a
gangrenous (sp) gallbladder. I had a major infection and the whites of my eyes
turned yellow. Major long recovery because I kept putting it off. I was fat,
fertile, fair, female and a former birth control pill user ( which supposedly
contributes). Take care don't wait if you can.


Karen Ann
Mommy to:
Ashley 11-13-90
Meghan 3-10-97
Hayley "Chunky Monkey" 3-27-03

Hi Karen!

I experienced a gall bladder problem with my first pregancy and ended
up with surgery about the same time as you (child age wise). I was
exclusively breastfeeding my daughter and was concerned about that. I
ended up pumping furiously for two weeks prior to surgery to find out
that I could nurse her as soon as I felt good enough to hold her. I
only missed maybe 2 feedings.

The recovery from the surgery wasn't that bad from what I remember.
If your having laprascopic (Sorry for the spelling!) surgery you'll
only have 4 small incisions. It was not as bad as I had expected at
all, especially compared to the attack pain--ugh!!!

Good luck!

Megan
Mommy to Julia, 2
Boy/Girl Twins, EDD 2/11/04

Karen wrote:
I've cut fat way down and still
after I eat I get pain.

I found that increasing fiber in conjunction with decreasing fat helped
tremendously.

I see my GP on Thursday, I expect an order for an U/S or CT scan

Ultrasound is a $300 scan. CT is more like $1,000, and doesn't give better
results.

My first instinct is to postpone it

No no no. Have it out ASAP. You will not regret it, not one single moment.
If you can't eat without needing codeine, you are *not* going to get better
with improved diet.

It'll probably take a month to get in to the surgeon and schedule the
surgery. By then, your DS will be as old as Caterpillar was when I had mine
out. She was most happy to see me when I got home, and much annoyed to get
a bottle while I waited for the first T3 to kick in, and the first 3-4 days
were challenging, as she wanted to kick my staples. But other than that, it
was fine.

Phoebe
--
yahoo address is unread; substitute mailbolt

"Phoebe & Allyson" wrote in message ...
Karen wrote:
I've cut fat way down and still
after I eat I get pain.

I found that increasing fiber in conjunction with decreasing fat helped
tremendously.

Thanks for the tip.

I see my GP on Thursday, I expect an order for an U/S or CT scan

Ultrasound is a $300 scan. CT is more like $1,000, and doesn't give better
results.

I know a few people around here who have had CT scans for suspected
gall bladder issues but from my reading u/s is perfectly adequate and
the only thing it can't visualize is the common bile duct and if I had
a stone in there I'd be a heck of a lot sicker than I am. My new GP is
a pretty conservative guy and now I will be surprised if he wants more
than an u/s.

My first instinct is to postpone it

No no no. Have it out ASAP. You will not regret it, not one single moment.
If you can't eat without needing codeine, you are *not* going to get better
with improved diet.

It'll probably take a month to get in to the surgeon and schedule the
surgery. By then, your DS will be as old as Caterpillar was when I had mine
out. She was most happy to see me when I got home, and much annoyed to get
a bottle while I waited for the first T3 to kick in, and the first 3-4 days
were challenging, as she wanted to kick my staples. But other than that, it
was fine.


I've had lap surgery before so I'm not totally in the dark. Just not
with a slew of kids and a nursling. ACK!

K-