Gall stones

[Racylady]

Having just spent a night in hospital with the worst pain you could ever imagine, the docs have said they think I have gallstones.

So, any one else had/got these and is there anything I can do to get rid of them without having to resort to surgery? I've been doing some research and it seems to suggest drinking olive oil (and no doubt being very close to the bathroom shortly thereafter! :hehe: )

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.:)

[titiany]

Poor thing. Absolutely no advice to give you (dunno about these things) but I hope you feel better soon.

[xm5er]

I thought they could break them up ultrasonically these days?

You need to cut down on fat and very acidic foodstuffs ('swhat the doc told my Dad some years ago).

[SiH]

Gall stones (or cholelithiasis to be fancy) are essentially the precipitated form of bile. Bile is a 'detergent' in that it breaks down fat into smaller, more digestible, units. It is continuously produced in the liver and stored in the gall bladder which is a small sack like structure found just under the liver. When fat is detected in the stomach the gall bladder forcibly contracts to push the bile out into the small intestines where it can mix with the stomach contents and so 'do it's thing'.
For one reason or another the salts in the bile can precipitate out and form gall stones. Occasionally these are pretty small and pass through without too much discomfort but they can also be pretty big and so not be able to pass down the tubes into the bowel. When this happens the pain can be pretty severe, particularly after eating a fatty meal, as the gall bladder is trying to squeeze away at this large stone that cannot be passed. The only real course of action is surgery to remove the gall bladder.
I'm not too sure about the olive oil thing though. If you have gall stones I would have thought that eating oil would be pretty low down on the list of things that would be recommended as when it's eaten/drunk the gall bladder would be called into action and start contracting away, making the pain worse!
The highest risk group for gall stones is the 5 Fs:
Female
Fat
Forties
Fertile
Fair (in terms of complexion and hair colour)

[Le TVR]

Racylady said:

the worst pain you could ever imagine,

And then some! My sympathies.

If they are not too big they can administer an injection that dilates the various vessels and allows the particles to 'pass' naturally.

Beyond that they can disintegrate the stone with ultrasonics + same injection.

Been there

[Bat21]

Got the t shirt video and 4 small scars

If its chronic, surgery, which is not as bad as it used to be although don't underestimate the recovery time.

Practical advice to avoid or relieve the pain which is caused by a stone in the bile duct or hartman pouch.

Low fat diet, drink Ginger Beer, yes I do mean Ginger beer. If you feel the pain, stand on your head, this can help the stone drop out of the duct or pouch.

[maxrider]

My brother has had these twice and agree with the above, think he had out-patient treatment privately to break them down but no surgery.
Was told to avoid white bread and full-fat milk!

[BSA 500]

My wife had these big time.She was pregnant at the time and the doctors said it was just indigestion and to drink milk to help-made it worse of course due to the fat content!!!.After our daughter was born the syptoms(sp)got worse and she ended up in hospital with a kidney infection,liver infection extreme pain and the infection about to take out her pancreous(sp),turned out a stone had blocked the duct.After getting the infection under control(1 week in hosp)she had the op to remove her gallbadder by keyhole in and out in two days and about two weeks to recover not too bad as ops go.

Andy